Severe storms to spawn tornado outbreak across Plains Tuesday

By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist

April 25,2016; 1:41PM,EDT

 

 

Areas from Austin, Texas, to Omaha, Nebraska, are on alert for a severe weather outbreak that is likely to feature multiple tornadoes during Tuesday afternoon and night.
The storms will threaten lives and property and are likely to produce the biggest outbreak of the year so far.
Families and individuals should finish their review of severe weather safety plans and be prepared to take action.

"All modes of severe weather are likely, including tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds," according to AccuWeather Assistant Director of Storm Warning Services Andrew Gagnon.
"The storms on Tuesday have the greatest potential to produce numerous tornadoes, including some strong [wedge] tornadoes that could be on the ground for an extended period of time," Gagnon said.
The area at risk for violent storms will extend from central Texas to southeastern Nebraska and southern Iowa and include the cities of Dallas; Fort Smith, Arkansas; and Kansas City, Missouri.
Areas from central Oklahoma to central Kansas are at greatest risk for large and strong tornadoes. Cities that could end up smack in the middle of a very dangerous situation include Oklahoma City and Wichita and Salina, Kansas.
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The threat for violent storms will continue after dark on Tuesday, which will add to the danger.
Locally heavy, gusty thunderstorms will develop in parts of the Ohio Valley and extend eastward to portions of Virginia late Tuesday into Wednesday.
The main severe weather outbreak will migrate eastward on Wednesday.

"The worst storms on Wednesday will focus over the middle and lower parts of the Mississippi Valley," Gagnon said. "The event on Wednesday is likely to transition from isolated tornadoes at first to more of a strong wind gust event."
Storms on Wednesday will also extend into northeastern Texas.
As with any severe thunderstorm, frequent cloud-to-ground lightning strikes can occur, along with flash flooding. The risk of flash flooding will be greatest, but not limited to areas that have been hit with heavy rainfall in the past week or so.
Later in the week, locally severe storms may extend from parts of the central Appalachians to the lower Mississippi Valley.
By the end of the week, a new storm will begin to move out of the Rockies. The next storm system could initialize another round of severe weather over parts of the southern Plains on Friday into Saturday, which may then expand across the Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee valleys during Sunday.