Severe Storms Track East Overnight

2 May 2022, 9:15 pm

A tornado watch (in yellow) is in effect now through 11 PM CT for portions of Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas. In addition to several strong tornadoes, hail up to apple size and damaging winds up to 80 mph will be possible too. A severe thunderstorm watch (in pink) has been issued until 2 AM CDT.

Severe Reports

There have already been tornado warnings for Kansas and Oklahoma this afternoon and evening that have brought funnel cloud and possible tornado sightings. Some of the hail reports have already been up to ping pong ball in size.

Outlook

The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has issued a MODERATE risk for Monday across Oklahoma. This is a level 4 out of 5 threat, meaning numerous severe storms will be possible, and those storms that do develop will be damaging with large tornadoes, damaging hail (2″+ diameter) and wind gusts at Hurricane Force strength.

There is a large coverage area for wind, hail, and tornadoes. The tornado threat significantly increases as you get into the 10% risk region below.

Damaging winds may be significant through the overnight hours. We could see wind gusts greater than 74 mph for those highlighted in blue.

Forecast Timing

Things happen quickly with individual cells developing into a line shortly after sundown. This line of thunderstorms will contain the threat for damaging outflow winds, which is why the significant wind threat is centered across eastern Oklahoma.

Imbedded within the line of thunderstorms will be areas of rotation and tornadic activity. Please have way to get alerts before you go to bed, or try and stay up until the storms pass through so you don’t miss weather alerts.

Storm activity does diminish late Monday night and Tuesday morning with just a few thunderstorms (non-severe) into Arkansas and western Tennessee.

Rain Accumulation

Heavy and intense rain is expected within the storms on Monday. This could lead to extremely low visibility and flash flooding threats on the roadways. A flood watch is in place for Arkansas and southern Missouri where heavy rain late tonight and into early Tuesday morning could create the flash flood concern.

The Weather Prediction Center (WPC) has highlighted this area for the risk of excessive rainfall.

The ground and soils are already saturated so it won’t take more than one or two strong storms to lead to the flooding risks.

Stay with WeatherNation as we bring you the latest on the severe weather risks in the coming days. We are always streaming 24/7.

About the author

Taban Sharifi

Taban Sharifi grew up in Southern California between Los Angeles and San Diego. She is a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM) with the American Meteorological Society (AMS). She has a B.S. in Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Environmental Sciences with a minor in Environmental Systems and Society from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Go Bruins! While in school, Taban was a meteorology... Load More intern with NBC LA. There she helped forecast daily weather for the greater Los Angeles region and created a playbook to deploy weather sensors for NBC owned-and-operated stations across the country. Her first on-air job took her to San Angelo, Texas, where she was a morning meteorologist and co-anchor. Working in West Texas gave her knowledge and experience covering severe storms. From there, she moved to Palm Springs, California. People think forecasting in California is sunshine all the time, but with temperatures in the 120’s, wildfires, damaging winds, floodings, and earthquakes, the forecasting kept her very busy! She also worked there as a general assignment reporter and told community stories. Taban is excited for the challenge and opportunity to forecast nationally with WeatherNation. She also looks forward to exploring all that Colorado has to offer!