AccuWeather, the parent company of Wichita-based WeatherData, has just issued a statement with some ominous language.
“The stage is set for a major outbreak of potentially life-threatening and destructive thunderstorms over Texas and the southern Plains this afternoon through Friday,” the statement reads.
The situation now through Saturday “represents the greatest severe thunderstorm and tornado threat for 2010 thus far.”
Energy moving eastward should gather moisture, generating “powerful thunderstorms, capable of spawning tornadoes” in Texas and the southern Plains.
WeatherData president Mike Smith said the sector of Kansas facing the highest threat of tornadoes today stretches from Coldwater to Dodge City to Liberal.
“I think there will be a number of tornadoes today” in a narrow band that stretches from the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles into southwest Kansas, said Smith, author of the recently published book “Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather.”
AccuWeather’s concerns aren’t limited to tornadoes.
“A significant number of the thunderstorms will bring enough heavy rain to blind motorists and cause flash flooding, winds strong enough to down trees and remove roofs and hail large enough to break windows and dent vehicles,” the company’s statement reads.
“If this were any other year, we would most certainly have an event rivaling some of the most destructive outbreaks in past years.”
But marginal humidity levels, which have inhibited severe storm formation so far this year, will continue to discourage storm development.
“That being said, humidity levels are rising from south to north from Texas to southern Kansas enough to support a number of severe thunderstorms and potential tornadoes,” AccuWeather’s statement says.
“Where this more humid air collides with dry air from the deserts is where the greatest risk of tornadoes exists, namely from western Texas to southwest Kansas and southeastern Colorado through tonight.
The high-risk area will shift farther east Friday, along and ahead of the push of dry air.”
AccuWeather calls this “a very dangerous weather situation,” and urges people from the southern Plains through the lower and middle Mississippi Valley “to treat the weather the next few days with great respect, despite a lack of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes so far this year.”
