37 million from Plains to Southeast face dangerous severe weather threat with tornadoes likely

Yahoo

02-03-2025

Tens of millions of people across the U.s. from the Plains to the Southeast are preparing for a potential multiday severe weather outbreak this week, with forecasters warning of threats of large hail, damaging wind gusts and even some strong tornadoes.
Strong to severe thunderstorms will be possible across portions of Oklahoma and Texas as we end the weekend on Sunday, but the FOX Forecast Center said the more significant severe weather threat will start on Monday and last through at least Wednesday.
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"We actually do have a little bit of a chance for some severe storms later on this afternoon and evening up in parts of the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma," FOX Weather Meteorologist Ari Sarsalari said. "But, that's not going to be a big deal compared to this."
The FOX Forecast Center said computer forecast models are showing high confidence that ingredients will come together to produce a widespread severe weather event.
This includes a strong area of low pressure developing in the Plains, which will then pull in warm and humid air from the Gulf. That will provide the atmospheric energy needed for storms to develop and strengthen.
In addition, forecasters are concerned that strong winds aloft moving over the air mass will provide ample wind shear – the change in wind speed and direction with height – to allow for those storms to rotate.
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According to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center (SPC), a rapidly developing line of thunderstorms could produce severe hail, damaging wind gusts and maybe a tornado or two across portions of the southern Plains by Monday night.
Forecasters say some supercell thunderstorms could develop before the storms combine into an organized line, and strong to severe thunderstorms could develop south-southeastward into and across the Interstate 35 corridor from south of the Wichita, Kansas, area, through Oklahoma City and into North Texas.
As we head into Tuesday, the severe weather threat will explode in population and coverage, with the SPC placing more than 37 million people from eastern portions of Texas and Oklahoma into western Georgia and the Florida Panhandle at risk of severe weather.
However, more than 3.6 million people in southern Arkansas, northern and central Louisiana and central and southern Mississippi have been placed in a level 3 out of 5 risk on the SPC's 5-point severe thunderstorm risk scale.
Cities in the threat zone include Shreveport and Bossier City in Louisiana, Little Rock in Arkansas and Jackson in Mississippi.
"Expect severe weather," Sarsalari said. "How bad is it going to be? It's a little bit early to be super specific about that, but I think we're going to have at least some tornadoes. We'll have straight-line damaging winds. Is this going to be some kind of big tornado outbreak? I know that's still a little bit uncertain."
The severe weather threat will continue to barrel across the U.S. by Wednesday, putting more than 23 million people along the East Coast from the Southeast to the mid-Atlantic at risk of some powerful storms.
The FOX Forecast Center said the line of storms on Wednesday may reenergize with the heating of the day, and that has forecasters concerned about the renewed severe weather risk.
The SPC placed that region in a level 2 out of 5 threat, including cities like Baltimore, Washington, Virginia Beach and Norfolk in Virginia, Wilmington and Raleigh in North Carolina, Myrtle Beach in South Carolina and Savannah in Georgia.Original article source: 37 million from Plains to Southeast face dangerous severe weather threat with tornadoes likely