Severe thunderstorms are possible Wednesday in parts of the southern Plains and mid-Mississippi Valley on the warm side of a massive cross-country winter storm that continues to unleash its wrath over at least 25 states.
The FOX Forecast Center said damaging wind gusts are the main threat through the afternoon from central Oklahoma to northwestern Arkansas, Missouri and western Illinois. Brief, isolated tornadoes are also possible.
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“The entire timeframe between now and about 5 p.m. is go time,” FOX Weather meteorologist Britta Merwin said. “At any point, these thunderstorms could produce severe weather. Once we go into the overnight, we start to kind of relax that threat, but we’ll continue to watch those thunderstorms as they progress off to the east.”
As the line of thunderstorms lifts to the north, it will produce heavy rain capable of flash flooding. The highest threat of flash flooding will stretch from northeastern Missouri to central and northern Illinois, northern Indiana and southwestern Michigan.
“All these thunderstorms that could produce severe weather across the central Plains,” Merwin said. “Although the severe component goes away, they still are laced with deep tropical moisture and that’s what leads to the flooding threat up north.”