Veterans Day Severe Weather Targets Dallas, St. Louis, Chicago

By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist

November 8,2015; 10:48PM,EST

 

 

Severe weather, including tornadoes, will endanger a large swath of the central United States on Veterans Day.
Residents from Iowa and Illinois to northern Mississippi and eastern Texas will remain on alert for potentially damaging thunderstorms to erupt Wednesday.

Severe Weather Brings Hail to Oklahoma

Cities in the threat zone include Des Moines and Davenport, Iowa; St. Louis, Kansas City and Springfield, Missouri; Springfield, Illinois; Little Rock, Arkansas; Memphis, Tennessee; Shreveport, Louisiana; and Dallas.
Early in the evening, thunderstorms with damaging winds will also threaten Chicago. The threat for these gusty thunderstorms should spread to Detroit overnight.
"All the ingredients are coming together for a potent round of severe weather in the Plains and Mississippi Valley," stated AccuWeather Meteorologist Becky Elliott.
This system will first spread snow across parts of the West early in the new week, including Salt Lake City and Denver.
Wednesday's severe weather will erupt as the system emerges from the Rockies, strengthening in the process, and clashes with the warm and moist air that will be pouring into the Central U.S.

"Some strong storms could start out the day on Wednesday and produce damaging winds across eastern portions of Kansas, eastern Oklahoma and Texas," stated Elliott.
"The main threat will develop in the afternoon with severe storms firing along and west of the Mississippi River," Elliott continued. "Isolated tornadoes, large hail, damaging winds and flash flooding are all threats."
AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions Meteorologist Alex Avalos has pinpointed "Northern and central Missouri, including St. Louis, as the area of greatest concern [for isolated tornadoes] at this point."
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"The fast nature of this system should prevent sufficient destabilization which should preclude a more sufficient tornado threat," Avalos added. However, it only takes one tornado to devastate a community.
Residents should take the time now amid the current dry and calm spell to review severe weather safety tips.
Adverse weather accompanying the strengthening storm will not just be confined to the Mississippi Valley on Veterans Day. Potentially damaging non-thunderstorm winds threaten to whip across the central Plains, including in Wichita and Dodge City, Kansas.
A soaking rain will also spread from around Nebraska to Minnesota, leading to travel disruptions and ruining outdoor plans. Accumulating snow on the storm's far western edge, which will start the day around Denver, will gradually diminish across Nebraska without sufficient cold air in place to the east.

The drenching rain and strong non-thunderstorm winds will spread to the Great Lakes Wednesday night into Thursday. Tree damage, sporadic power outages and travel delays will result from the winds, potentially including in Chicago.
Where severe weather leads to damage in the mid-Mississippi Valley during Wednesday, the strong winds that follow at night and into Thursday could lead to more damage and problems for cleanup crews.
Otherwise, the severe weather threat, in terms of thunderstorms, should lessen on Thursday as the storm system reaches the East Coast.