Severe thunderstorms, flooding downpours to stretch across the Plains into Monday
Devastating hail slammed into Strasburg and Byers, Colorado, that reached sizes larger than golf balls. Reed Timmer witnessed the storm, which occurred on Aug. 23, and explained how these massive hailstones form.
The threat for severe weather is expected to span across all of the Plains into the start of the week, bringing along the threat for damaging wind gusts, large hail and flooding downpours.
Severe weather concentrated across the Dakotas on Sunday with several reports of hail and damaging winds.
At 4 p.m. CDT on Sunday, McClusky, North Dakota, received golf ball, and in some instances baseball, sized hail, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center reports.
Outside of the main severe area, a separate thunderstorm dropped a tornado northwest of St. Louis, Missouri, early Monday morning.
Thunderstorms will become sub-severe by early Monday morning as they sweep eastward into Minnesota. However, they can lead to a damp and slow morning commute and perhaps airline delays.
The threat for severe weather on Monday will shift into the Midwest and portions of the southern Plains. Cities at risk for severe weather will extend from Madison, Wisconsin, southwestward to Oklahoma City.
The severe weather threats into Monday follow a violent and deadly start to the weekend.
As a reminder, when thunder roars, go indoors. Aside from large hail and damaging wind, these thunderstorms will be capable of producing deadly lightning strikes.
On Saturday morning, a flood-related fatality was reported in Fort Smith, Arkansas, according to local emergency management. Later in the day, 15 homes and a dormitory on the University of Arkansas Fort Smith campus were flooded. The city received a little over 4 inches of rain on Saturday, on top of 1.29 inches on Aug. 23 and 3.74 inches on Aug. 22.
Later in the day, a brief tornado was reported in Barton County, Kansas. Damaging winds, flooding downpours and large hail were also reported across the state.
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