More severe weather to strike south-central US Sunday into Monday

By Kristina Pydynowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist

March 25,2017, 11:02:34AM,EDT

 

 The severe weather danger, including tornadoes, will quickly ramp back up across the south-central United States late on Sunday into Monday.

On the heels of the severe weather that spanned Thursday to Saturday, lives and property will once again be threatened from the southern Plains to the western Tennessee Valley as a storm emerges from the Rockies.
“What is concerning about this storm is that it is following so close to the recent storm,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Maggie Samuhel said. “People may have let their guard down since the first storm has passed.”
The nation escaped without a tornado touching down on Thursday and Friday, but that is likely not to be the case as the weekend comes to an end.

A surge of May-like warmth on Sunday will help set the stage for the severe weather to erupt starting in the late afternoon and early evening of Sunday in central Oklahoma and north-central Texas.
“The severe thunderstorms will produce blinding downpours, straight-line wind damage and hail,” Samuhel said, “and there can be tornadoes.”
Residents enjoying late-weekend plans along and just west of I-35 should monitor cell phones and weather radios and be prepared to quickly seek shelter when the severe weather threatens.
This includes in Oklahoma City and Dallas-Fort Worth.
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The severe weather will push into eastern Oklahoma, northeastern Texas and western Arkansas at night.
“I’m especially worried for areas from east of Oklahoma City, including Tulsa and McAlester, to Fayetteville, Arkansas, as those severe thunderstorms and tornadoes will arrive at night,” Samuhel said, “so people might sleep through important warnings.”
The dangers from the violent thunderstorms should transition to mostly damaging wind/downpours as the thunderstorms press toward Little Rock, Arkansas, later at night.
North of the severe weather, soaking rain will elevate the risk of localized flash flooding from Wichita, Kansas, to Springfield and Columbia, Missouri, on Sunday night.
The risk for violent thunderstorms will not come to an end with the weekend.
“The area from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Memphis, Tennessee, is under the gun on Monday, mainly in the afternoon,” Samuhel said.
Other cities at risk include Paducah, Kentucky, and Tupelo, Mississippi.
While there can be a few heavy and gusty thunderstorms to start the day, the majority of the strongest thunderstorms will occur in the afternoon.
If morning clouds and thunderstorms linger long enough, it would work to safeguard some communities in the above area from facing the violent thunderstorms with blinding downpours, hail and damaging winds.
The severe thunderstorms will wane on Monday evening as attention turns back to the southern Plains for yet another round of severe weather to erupt on Tuesday into Wednesday.
This event will threaten more of Texas than what is expected on Sunday. Lubbock, San Antonio and Houston, are among the communities that will once again be facing the potentially damaging thunderstorms and tornadoes.