US Easter Sunday Weather: Plains Face Most Disruptions

By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist

April 18,2014; 9:19PM,EDT

 

 

Throughout the United States, the greatest potential for the weather to disrupt outdoor plans and festivities on Easter Sunday exists across the Plains.
The nation will get a breather from extreme weather Easter Sunday with no major winter storm or severe weather outbreak in the works.
However, the central and southern Plains may still face disruptions to Easter egg hunts, sunrise services and other outdoor activities on Sunday with showers and thunderstorms set to erupt.
The afternoon hours will likely prove to be the most active time of the day.
The storminess will rattle Des Moines, Iowa; Omaha and Grand Island, Neb.; Dodge City and Wichita, Kan.; Oklahoma City and Amarillo, Abilene and San Antonio, Texas.

Showers will also stretch northeastward to central Wisconsin and the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan.
Showers and thunderstorms will be most numerous west of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. However, a stray shower or thunderstorm will still cross the Metroplex on Sunday afternoon and could interfere with the baseball game between the Texas Rangers and Chicago White Sox at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas.
While a major outbreak of severe weather will not unfold, there is concern for some of the strongest thunderstorms from southern Kansas to western Texas to turn severe with damaging winds, hail and flooding downpours.

The danger of lightning strikes will be much greater. Residents and visitors should seek shelter immediately once thunder is heard; you are then close enough to be struck by lightning.
Isolated thunderstorms will also dot the mountains of the Four Corners region (minus Arizona) and eastern Nevada Sunday afternoon. Rainfall may be limited with these thunderstorms; the same cannot be said for lightning.
Where snow is not covering the ground and tinder dry vegetation exists, the lightning may touch off a few wildfires.
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Aside from a couple of showers in northern Montana and a bit of rain in western Washington (west of Seattle), dry weather will dominate the rest of the West.
A cool morning across the Northwest will give way to comfortable afternoon temperatures. Away from the California coast, the air will be quite warm for Easter Sunday in the Southwest. Highs in the lower 90s will sizzle Phoenix, Ariz.
A dry Easter Sunday is also shaping up for most of the eastern third of the nation, allowing Easter festivities to go as scheduled.
The Southeast coast will be the exception as some rain, clouds and brisk winds from a stubborn storm linger.
Places farther inland in the Southeast--such as Atlanta, Ga., and Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C.--will see the return of some sunshine and a rebound in temperatures.
Temperatures will also exceed Saturday's highs throughout most of the Midwest and Northeast. Subfreezing temperatures to start the day, however, will have many from northern Pennsylvania to northern New England reaching for heavier jackets before heading to sunrise services.
Sunday's rise in temperatures does not apply to the Northeast's I-95 corridor. The return of air flowing in from the cold ocean will put a halt on the warming experienced on Saturday.