WeatherFanatics: Weekend Isolated Severe Storms to Target Texas to Iowa

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Weekend Isolated Severe Storms to Target Texas to Iowa

By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist

April 11,2015; 9:52AM,EDT

Residents of the southern and central Plains will have to remain on alert for isolated, yet still violent severe thunderstorms this weekend.
The severe weather this weekend will pale in comparison to the outbreak from this past Wednesday into Thursday and will remain south of tornado-ravaged northern Illinois.
However, it only takes one severe thunderstorm striking at an inopportune time or location to cause damage or bodily harm.
Through Saturday evening, strong thunderstorms will target some communities from the Texas panhandle to southwestern Kansas and neighboring extreme southeastern Colorado.
This includes Amarillo, Texas; Guymon, Oklahoma; Garden City and Dodge City, Kansas.
The strongest thunderstorms will produce damaging winds, hail, downpours and frequent lightning. An isolated tornado cannot be ruled out.

Any violent thunderstorm will weaken overnight Saturday with the loss of daytime heating, but will once again threaten the Plains to end the weekend.
Thunderstorms on Sunday will rattle the corridor from West Texas to northwestern Missouri and southern Iowa.
"Most of the storms will be below severe limits, but a few isolated storms may become severe with damaging wind gusts and large hail the main threats," stated AccuWeather Assistant Director of Weather Warning Services Andrew Gagnon.
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The danger of such locally severe thunderstorms will be highest in the afternoon and evening.
Residents of Del Rio and San Angelo, Texas; Enid, Oklahoma; Wichita and Topeka, Kansas; Kansas City, Missouri; and Des Moines, Iowa, should be prepared to seek shelter from any violent thunderstorm as Sunday comes to a close.
Even if no severe thunderstorm warning is issued, be sure to move indoors as soon as thunder is heard. You are then close enough to be struck by lightning.
The first U.S. lightning death of 2015 occurred Thursday night. "A 28-year-old man in Cary, North Carolina, was struck and killed in a parking lot while reportedly waiting for a friend," stated John Jensenius, NWS Lightning Safety Specialist.
The threat for severe weather will be replaced by a steadier welcome rain across the southern Plains on Monday.

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