Severe storms to elevate flood risk in Oklahoma, Texas late this week

By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist

April 28,2016; 11:20AM,EDT

 

 

Following an outbreak of severe thunderstorms at midweek, more storms will ignite over the southern Plains into the weekend. The additional storms will elevate the risk of flash flooding.
The storms will impact a portion of the Interstate-35 corridor that was hit by violent weather on Tuesday.
The next round of storms will first ignite in parts of northern Texas and southern Oklahoma during Thursday night.

During late Thursday night, some communities will be hit with storms packing large hail, damaging wind gusts and flash flooding.
"There could be an isolated tornado across the Texas Panhandle shortly after storms fire during the late-afternoon and evening hours on Thursday," AccuWeather Meteorologist Brett Rathbun said.
The severe weather threat will broaden over the southern Plains on Friday into Friday night.
During this time, the potential for dangerous and damaging storms will extend from southern Kansas to central and northeastern Texas and eastward into parts of western Arkansas and Louisiana.

Cities at risk for severe weather on Friday include Dallas and Austin, Texas, and Oklahoma City.
The storms will bring the potential for damaging wind gusts, large hail, frequent lightning strikes and isolated tornadoes.
"The slow-moving nature of the storm system will also bring an elevated risk of flash flooding," according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Edward Vallee.

"The greatest threat for flash flooding will be north of areas hit hard by flash flooding last week," Vallee said.
However, localized flooding could develop in the Houston area, which tends to flood often during heavy rain events.
There is the potential for 3-6 inches of rain to fall on parts of western Louisiana and northeastern Texas. Of that rainfall, a couple of inches could fall in as many hours on some communities.
The risk of severe thunderstorms and potential flash flooding will shift slowly eastward as the weekend progresses.
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By Sunday, the threat of flooding downpours will push across the middle Mississippi Valley and delta region.
Locally gusty storms may extend as far north as the upper reaches of the Ohio Valley and part of the central Appalachians by Sunday.