Gusty and Drenching Thunderstorms Persist for Plains, Tennessee Valley

By Courtney Spamer, Meteorologist

July 2,2015; 10:33PM,EDT

 

The same front that brought gusty thunderstorms and tornado reports across Missouri Wednesday will once again spark severe weather from the Plains to the Tennessee Valley into Thursday night and beyond.

Breaking: Thunderstorms Continue Thursday

Moisture remains in the air across Tennessee and Kentucky with several rounds of showers and thunderstorms likely to occur throughout the day. For the most part, the threat with these storms will be the risk of flooding following all the rain this region has received over the last month. However, there could be some strong wind gusts along the frontal boundary in Tennessee.

Thunderstorms will be potent as the front sinks southward from western Kansas to central Tennessee, bringing heavy rain and damaging wind gusts to 60 mph. Showers and thunderstorms will repeat several times in some locations, elevating the flooding threat. The rain will fall on some areas that have already received more than 10 inches of rain in the month of June, as well as drenching thunderstorms on Wednesday.

Across the central Plains, including cities such as Wichita, Kansas; Oklahoma City; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Springfield, Missouri, thunderstorms will be strongest in the afternoon and continue to be gusty and heavy into Thursday night. The main threats with these storms will continue to be flooding downpours, which could cause travel delays and damaging wind gusts. However, some isolated hail is also possible.
Motorists who travel highways such as Interstate 44 and I-35 across Oklahoma and Kansas, as well as I-40 from Oklahoma through Tennessee could be dealing with strong storms for the evening commute.
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The thunderstorms will tend to weaken after midnight. However, this will not be the end of wet weather for the week.

As the front continues to hold over the mid-Atlantic and extend into Oklahoma and northern Texas for Friday, more episodes of flash flooding and gusty winds and lightning strikes will occur.
Wet weather is expected to continue into the holiday weekend across Virginia back to Oklahoma, where thunderstorms will continue to aggravate any flooding issues.