Severe Weather Outbreak This Weekend in Central US

By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist

October 10,2012; 6:00PM,.EDT

 

 

 

A storm tracking from the Four Corners to the Great Lakes is shaping up to bring a severe weather outbreak, including a few tornadoes.
The same storm system aiming to bring spotty downpours to California, drenching rain to parts of the Plains and snow to the high country in the Southwest will also have a nasty, dangerous side.
The storm will be in the developing and strengthening phase as it swings inland from the Pacific Ocean, crossing Southern California.
Thunderstorms will affect some of the Arizona and New Mexico deserts and the southern Plains as early as Thursday afternoon and evening.
According to Expert Senior Meteorologist Ken Clark, "Hail, flash flooding and locally gusty winds will accompany some of the storms over the Arizona Rim Country, southern Nevada and New Mexico Thursday evening into Friday."
Farther east from western Texas and the eastern Plains of Colorado to western of Oklahoma and western and southern Kansas, severe storms will ignite Friday.
Gusty, drenching storms will also erupt farther to the northeast, spreading as far east as western Kentucky Friday and as far north as southern Minnesota Friday night.

The risk of damaging, life-threatening thunderstorms will reach a peak Saturday afternoon and evening from Iowa, southern Minnesota and southwestern Wisconsin to eastern Kansas, central and eastern Oklahoma and western and northern Missouri.

According to Severe Weather Expert Henry Margusity, "The potential from the storms spans the complete arsenal of violent weather ranging from large hail and flash flooding to damaging straight-line wind gusts and tornadoes."
Cities that could be hit by violent thunderstorms include Omaha, Des Moines and Kansas City in the I-35 zone.
College and high school football games are only a handful of the activities that could be impacted by the severe weather threat.
The risk of potentially damaging and life-threatening weather conditions will continue into Sunday.
Over portions of the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes, strong wind gusts, with and without thunder, are a possibility as a cool front rolls eastward.
Farther south, slow-moving and potentially repeating downpours and locally severe thunderstorms may affect portions of central and northern Texas to part of the lower Mississippi Valley.
The pattern shaping up into this weekend is a classic example of the secondary severe weather season: autumn.