SEVERE WX 4-23-03

[WXBUFFJIM]

Good morning. Severe weather threat is looking pretty good form the NW/N central Texas area and southwestern Oklahoma later this afternoon and this evening. A warm front will move north this afternoon into southwestern Oklahoma while an upper level disturbance will eject east into the south central Plains. A cold front will combine with a sharpening dryline across northwest Texas into western Oklahoma. There will also be strong diffuence aloft. In other words jet stream winds aloft will be split apart. One jet going from south to north ahead of the upper low into the southern high plains of northwest Texas while the other jet moves from west to east across southeast Texas. In between that is where the diffuence is taking place, and thus more rising air motions. In addition with west and southwest winds aloft and south to southeast winds at the surface, that's a perfect shearing environment or turning of the winds with height for tornadic supercell storms. The main threat with these storms later today is very large hail. Although wind gusts to 80 mph and possibly strong tornadoes may occur across north central Texas and into southwest Oklahoma later today into this evening.

Tomorrow severe threat shifts east and focuses along the cold front across the Arklatex region including Fort Smith and Little Rock. Main threat will be very damaging winds tomorrow. But large hail and an isolated strong tornado cannot be discounted either. A major severe weather situation evolving. Definitely worth watching as we're nearing the peak of tornado season in the south central plains, an area otherwise knwon as tornado alley.

Jim

[Guest]

How does Houston Texas look in all this Jim? Or Southeast Texas?

Thanks for the heads up!

Patricia

[WXBUFFJIM]

Any severe wx that affects Houston will likely do so later tonight. Primary threat will be hail and strong gusty winds in the Houston area. But heavy rain is also possible given that moisture is increasing closer to the TX coast. So a golly washer type situation down there also.

Jim

[Guest]

Ok - so we are looking at this happening later this evening. We really don't need a gully washer - just hope it has less bite.

Thanks Jim.

[Guest]

Here is the weather watches and warnings for you guys. This covers the whole nation.......This way you can come back here to check in and see whats happening in your area.

[wx247]

The blue dots are svr. t-storm warnings and the red dots are tornado warning in case you were wondering. I have no clue about the green funky dots. :o

[Guest]

I was wondering about them green dots myself wx247? :o ...........Maybe someone will shed some light on it.

[wx247]

Maybe each green dot represents a house in the prarie. I dunno!

[tomboudreau]

If I understand the legend on the Storm Prediction center website correctly...those green dots represent a flash flood/flood warning. And if you look really carefully, they have a whole in the middle of them...which means they are test warnings. It might be a test day for the state of South Dakota. Just my two cents worth.

[wx247]

Thanks for sharing that. That is probably a better answer than mine.

[ColdFront77]

There were indeed Flash Flood Warnings Test issued out of the National Weather Service office in Rapid City, South Dakota for all western South Dakota counties.