I want to begin by sending out a big congratulation to all of the interns and various personnel that assist our weather team throughout the year. Last night we had our annual awards banquet and several people were honored from our weather department. Outstanding service awards went out to Ashley Williamson, Steven Ray, Chase Higginbothom, & Meteorologist Ryan Stinnett. These folks do a lot behind the scenes and they help to make our weather team one of the largest by helping to bring you the best local weather coverage possible!
As expected, the winds have been on the gusty side today and the breeze will continue tonight. The latest satellite image reveals lots of clouds moving our way so we should have a partly to mostly cloudy sky overnight and into tomorrow. As these clouds move towards Alabama, a whopper of a storm is impacting the Dakotas. Temperatures over the high plains are dropping into the 30s, with blowing snow. Some of the wind gusts were reaching the 60 mph range over the western Dakotas. This low pressure system and associated front will be responsible for our next big rain chance.
You can expect the sky to grow cloudy tomorrow, with scattered afternoon thunderstorms. A moderate risk for severe weather extends east to Greenwood, MS tomorrow and a slight risk extends to the Alabama/Mississippi state line. We could see a few thunderstorms popup with daytime heating late tomorrow and tomorrow night. A more organized band of rain and thunderstorms will slowly drop through the area on Saturday. Unfortunately, I don’t think this activity will clear by the afternoon Saturday. However, during Saturday afternoon the rain will begin to taper off from west to east. SPC now has us under a slight risk and we will continue to highlight the chance for a strong or severe storm, with gusty straight-line winds and large hail.
Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday will be mostly sunny days thanks to high pressure returning. This will be a sprawling ridge keeping much of the nation dry for the start of the week. This feature will also bring lots of cold air with it and we will probably deal with some morning lows in the 40s on Monday. The good thing is that this should keep our temperatures from getting too hot and the days will be very pleasant. It seems like the late week trend will continue as now the data is pushing next week’s rain Chance towards the May 9th and 10th timeframe.
Have a great evening!
WVUA-TV Chief Meteorologist
Golf ball sized hail was reported on the campus of the University of Kansas in Lawrence, and hail stones 3 inches in diameter were reported near Midwest City, Oklahoma.