South-central US to face severe storms on Monday

By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist

April 11,2016; 11:53AM,EDT

 

 

The south-central United States will remain at risk for severe weather, including a few tornadoes, into Monday night.
Before Sunday night, most places from Oklahoma and eastern Texas to the lower Mississippi River have not had to deal with violent thunderstorms so far this month.
That streak is coming to an end as a storm system from the Rockies and colder air plunging down from the north clashes with the warmth surging back into the south-central U.S.

Numerous severe thunderstorms ignited across the central Plains on Sunday night. Wind gusts up to 75-mph were reported from storms that moved through Kay County, Oklahoma.
Another round of severe weather will unfold across eastern Oklahoma, eastern Texas, northwestern Louisiana, Arkansas and far-western Tennessee on Monday. The danger will expand into Mississippi and more of northern Louisiana at night.
The danger will arise mostly in the afternoon and early evening, according to AccuWeather Assistant Director of Storm Warning Services Andrew Gagnon.
Damaging winds, hail and downpours will once again be produced by this round of severe thunderstorms.
"In the late afternoon and evening, there could be a few tornadoes with the best chance from Little Rock to Shreveport to northeastern Texas and far-southeastern Oklahoma," Gagnon said.
Some communities could be hit with two rounds of severe weather on Monday into Monday evening before the system's cold front sweeps through and ends the danger.
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Overnight on Monday, the thunderstorms from earlier in the day will congeal into a more solid line and the threat for damaging winds, hail and tornadoes will gradually wane.
"The severe weather danger will exist eastward to the Mississippi/Alabama state line," AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions Storm Warning Meteorologist Alex Avalos said.
Avalos also said, "This storm does not seem to have that dynamical punch that would sustain it farther east in producing numerous damaging wind gusts, thus the threat would bring more dominant flash flooding in Alabama and points east into the morning hours of Tuesday."
Motorists planning to travel along I-65 from Nashville, Tennessee, to Birmingham, Alabama, are among the people who will have to encounter the drenching rain and thunderstorms.
Any downpours from Monday into Monday night will raise the risk of flash flooding and pose hazards to motorists by reducing visibility and heightening the risk of vehicles hydroplaning at highway speeds.
The potential exists for locally up to 4 inches of rain, especially along the corridor from the southern half of Arkansas and northern Louisiana to northern Alabama. Parts of these areas were hit hard with flooding earlier in the year.

Motorists are reminded to never drive through a flooded road to avoid a potentially deadly situation. Only 12 inches of fast-moving flood waters can sweep away a small car.
The rain will be beneficial to wet the topsoil of barren fields to diminish the threat of blowing dust, which developed on Sunday in the lower Mississippi Valley and created dangerous driving conditions.
Despite the extremely wet March, rainfall has been limited in the lower Mississippi Valley so far this April.

Gusty winds kicked up blowing dust in Arkansas on Sunday, April 10, 2016. (Twitter photo/@JasonBHampton)
The thunderstorms will shift out of the South Central states and focus on the Southeast on Tuesday. Downpours will remain a hazard and threaten to make for a slow morning commute around Atlanta.
However, the risk of anything other than an isolated severe thunderstorm is not expected to materialize.
Quick-hitting flooding downpours will return to the western Gulf Coast, including Houston, on Wednesday. A more large-scale risk of flooding and severe storms targets the southern and central Plains toward and during this weekend.