Numerous areas of severe weather are popping up across the country this afternoon, bringing a mixed bag of threats depending on where you are. The three areas we're looking at today are in the Upper Midwest, the southeast, and in parts of Texas.
The first area is up in the Upper Midwest, where we have a mesoscale convective system (a line of thunderstorms) producing damaging winds and large hail. There are embedded supercells within the line of storms, which accounts for the unusual amount of large hail reports coming from the area. It will continue to move east through the afternoon as it impacts areas of southern Minnesota and northern Iowa.
 |
| Radar image from 1:49PM CDT |
Aside from the current line in the Upper Midwest, more are expected to fire up later this afternoon. The threat for very large hail, damaging winds, and some strong tornadoes are possible across northeastern Iowa when the next round of convection occurs.
The second area of severe storms is expected to fire up across the southeast later this afternoon. The storms will form in groups and lines, bringing the threat of 70+ MPH winds and hail up to golf ball size in the strongest storms. The SPC has already issued a severe thunderstorm watch for this afternoon and evening across parts of the eastern Carolinas, with a slight risk for severe weather extending west from the Atlantic coast through central Alabama.
 |
| Counties under a severe t'storm watch until 10PM EDT Saturday May 5 2012 |
A third area of severe weather is possible across Texas this afternoon, and will also come with a risk for damaging winds and large hail. It shouldn't be a blockbuster severe weather event -- just your run-of-the-mill springtime severe storms. There aren't any watches (or even storms) in this area yet, so here's the latest convective outlook from the SPC.
 |
| Latest radar loop and severe weather outlook from the SPC. This image will update as the SPC updates it on their site. |
= Tornado Warning
= Severe T'storm Warning
= Flash Flood Warning
