Multiday severe weather threat looms over central US starting on Palm Sunday
Large hail, torrential downpours, damaging wind gusts and tornadoes are possible from parts of the Great Plains to a large portion of the Mississippi Valley from late Sunday into Monday.
Severe storms slammed towns throughout Texas, especially in and around Houston, with intense hail on March 21.
Severe weather will ramp up over the middle of the United States beginning on Palm Sunday and move east during part of the last week of March, AccuWeather meteorologists warn. The severe weather threat includes the potential for nighttime tornadoes.
A multiday risk of severe thunderstorms will target at least a dozen states from the Great Plains to the Mississippi Valley from Sunday to Monday as a powerful storm marches from southeastern Colorado to central Wisconsin, Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said.
All modes of severe weather, including large hail, torrential downpours, damaging wind gusts and tornadoes, are expected.
"Toward Sunday evening, the first round of thunderstorm activity will erupt across the central and southern Plains," Buckingham said.
The severe thunderstorms may hit full stride shortly after dark, which will add to the danger.
Along with the risk of high wind gusts and large hail, the threat of tornadoes will continue after dark. This nocturnal tornado threat will extend from west-central Texas to north-central Kansas and south-central Nebraska. As the storms progress farther to the east before daybreak on Monday, they may organize into a line with a continued high wind gust and flash flood threat.
On Monday and Monday night, the risk of severe thunderstorms is expected to move along a cold front from eastern Texas to Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and western Tennessee.
"During Monday to Monday night, the strongest storms may still spawn a few tornadoes, but the main threats will range from powerful wind gusts and large hail to flash flooding," Senior Director of AccuWeather Forecast Briefing and Warning Services Guy Pearson said.
A separate zone of hail-producing, gusty thunderstorms may occur over Iowa and surrounding states Monday and Monday night, not too far away from where heavy snow is expected to fall in the northern Plains.
On Tuesday, the main storm system responsible for igniting the severe weather will track from central Wisconsin to central Ontario and weaken. Typically, this would mean a reduction in the intensity of thunderstorms. However, a disturbance is expected to move in from northern Mexico and continue to trigger thunderstorms.
Another day of heavy to severe thunderstorms is possible on Tuesday, spanning from the central Gulf coast to the Tennessee Valley, Buckingham said.
The same powerful storm will produce a swath of heavy snow and gusty winds on its colder, northwestern flank from parts of Colorado to portions of Montana, the Dakotas and Minnesota early this week.
More severe weather possible right after Easter Sunday
This will not be the last major storm to affect the Central states.
AccuWeather meteorologists are closely monitoring a storm thousands of miles away in northeastern Asia at the end of this week. As that storm works its way eastward, it has the potential to trigger a severe weather outbreak during the first few days of April from the southern Plains to the lower Mississippi Valley and the southern and central Appalachians.
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