Weather forecasters are warning that the season’s first significant severe weather outbreak could impact America’s central regions, placing millions of residents from Texas through Iowa in the path of dangerous tornado activity.
The National Weather Service reported that isolated severe thunderstorms are forecast to develop Thursday evening across the Texas Panhandle, western Oklahoma, and portions of Kansas. Forecasters anticipate these storms will produce large hail, destructive winds, and potentially several tornadoes.
However, Friday is when the most dangerous weather conditions are anticipated across a broad region encompassing much of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri, while extending into adjacent states, weather service forecasts indicate.
The Storm Prediction Center reports that over 6 million Americans face the greatest severe weather threat on Friday, including residents of the Kansas City and Tulsa, Oklahoma metropolitan regions. An additional 22 million people are under a moderate risk level in areas that encompass Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Omaha, Nebraska, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
This same weather system driving the severe storm potential will also deliver exceptionally high temperatures for the season by weekend.
“Temperatures will be 20-30 degrees above average, with 80s reaching as far north as parts of the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic,” federal forecasters wrote in their long-range forecast discussion. “Daily records could become widespread.”
