We continue to watch an increasing severe threat heading into the weekend across the Plains states. We’re also continuing to track heavy rains and the potential of some snow in the western United States!
Severe Storm Threat Increases
Today we’re watching the threat of some severe storms across portions of western Texas and parts of the interior west around the Utah/Colorado border. The main threats today will be large hail and damaging winds.
The severe weather starts to increase as we head into Friday as an upper level trough slowly moves eastward. We’ll be watching for large hail and damaging winds across the entire area, with a few tornadoes possible over the Enhanced Area in parts of southern South Dakota and central Nebraska.
We’ll be watching a large area for severe weather heading into the day Saturday, from central Texas all the way to the Canadian border. Large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes will be possible.
The severe threat will continue moving east on Sunday, centered in the Upper Mississippi Valley. Large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes will again be possible.
Heavy Rain Helping The Drought
The south has seen a drenching rain over the past month, with radar estimates over a good chunk of the area over a half a foot of rain.
While the heavy rain is causing some flooding conditions, it’s also helping the drought. Here’s what the drought monitor looked like over the south one month ago – April 14, 2015. There was a large area of extreme and exceptional drought over parts of Oklahoma and Texas.
Here’s how the drought looks this week – a drastic improvement over the past month! This week, Texas had NO exceptional drought across Texas. This is the first time there has been no exceptional drought in the state for the first time since July 17, 2012!
More heavy rain is expected on top of the rain already seen over the past month or so in parts of the south. We’re also expecting some heavy rain over the next five days across portions of the northern Plains and over towards Billings, MT. Heavy rain is also possible in parts of southern California, where some areas may see up to twice the amount of rain they normally see in the summer months over the next day or two.
The 6-10 day precipitation outlook continues to show wet weather across portions of the south and southeast, and some much needed rain coming for parts of the west.
Snow Out West
With that upper level system moving in, parts of the higher elevations in the west will see a few inches of snow over the next day or so. Parts of the Sierra Nevada range could receive up to 9″ of snow by Friday morning.
(CHECK OUT YOUR FORECAST: wx.aerisweather.com)
Remember you can always find me on Twitter (@dkayserwx) or on Facebook (Meteorologist D.J. Kayser).
– Meteorologist D.J. Kayser
