March won’t be going out like a lamb this year as a potential severe weather outbreak looms for the Plains, Midwest and South to close out the month, less than a week after a deadly tornado outbreak tore across Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia last Friday night and into the weekend.
The setup for severe weather can be traced back to a bomb cyclone that has brought another round of rain, snow and wind to California over the last few days. The upper-level jet stream disturbance responsible for this West Coast storm will sweep into the central U.S. late this week.
As that jet stream disturbance moves into the Plains, it will cause low pressure at the surface to intensify, which will pull warm and humid air northward from the Gulf of Mexico.
The combination of instability from that warm, humid air and plenty of wind shear – the change in wind speed and direction with height – will prime the atmosphere for another episode of severe weather beginning as soon as Thursday and continuing through at least Friday.
Severe weather threat could begin Thursday in Plains
Isolated strong to storms could produce hail from parts of northern Nebraska into southeastern South Dakota Thursday evening.
A separate area of severe thunderstorms is possible from late Thursday afternoon into early Friday morning across parts of western North Texas, Oklahoma and eastern Kansas. Large hail, damaging wind gusts and a few tornadoes will all be possible in this region.
Widespread severe weather outbreak likely Friday across central US
Potentially intense and widespread severe thunderstorms are likely Friday afternoon into the overnight hours across portions of the mid-Mississippi Valley and mid-South, eastward to the lower Ohio and Tennessee valleys. The highest severe weather threat is predicted to stretch from Iowa and Illinois southward into Arkansas, northern Mississippi and West and Middle Tennessee.
Tornadoes, damaging wind gusts and large hail will all be dangerous threats, especially in the areas shaded in the darkest red on the map below.
“I think the wind is really going to be a big component for many of you,” FOX Weather meteorologist Jason Frazer said. “I mean, we could see a number of power outages as well as a result of this.”
Friday’s severe weather threat includes areas recently devastated by tornadoes
Some of the same locations in the South that were impacted by the deadly tornado outbreak less than a week ago will, unfortunately, face the risk of severe weather once again on Friday.
“When you look close enough, I mean, you can basically see that it is going to be impacting, unfortunately, some of the same areas that we saw this time last week on Friday,” Frazer said. “I mean, including those of you in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, as well as those of you in Winona.”
Even if these areas were to avoid the worst of the severe weather, any thunderstorms would still get in the way of ongoing recovery efforts.
“(That’s) a large concern here with areas that are very weary when it comes to storm preparation and really just getting through the worst of the worst,” FOX Weather meteorologist Britta Merwin said.
Lingering severe storms possible Saturday in East
A few severe storms could linger Saturday from the Southeast to the mid-Atlantic, but the exact areas that face the most significant risk remain uncertain since we’re still a few days away.
Damaging wind gusts would likely be the main threat in these areas. However, high winds are also possible in places that don’t see severe weather in the Midwest and East as a powerful low-pressure system charges across the eastern U.S.
Now is the time to prepare for upcoming severe weather threat
Make sure that you have multiple ways to receive weather alerts reliably. The FOX Weather app can send you alerts based on your location and also has great information about how to create a severe weather safety plan.
