DALLAS – Spring’s severe weather season is kicking into high gear, and multiple rounds of dangerous storms are expected in the days ahead. These storms will impact millions of travelers who hope to see a total solar eclipse on Monday.
FOX WEATHER’S TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE 2024 COVERAGE
The FOX Forecast Center says this is a classic April setup: Storms will pop each afternoon and evening, and the ingredients are in place for those storms to reach severe criteria.
Parts of the central and southern Plains will likely experience thunderstorms with isolated large hail and severe gusts Saturday afternoon and evening.
According to the FOX Forecast Center, the storm system will move through the central Rockies on Saturday morning before advancing into the central and southern Plains in the late afternoon and early evening.
NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center has issued a Level 2 out of 5 severe weather risk. The risk area includes larger population centers like Salina, Manhattan, and Emporia in Kansas, as well as Grand Island and Kearney in Nebraska.
A High Wind Watch has been issued for parts of Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado, with gusts up to 60 mph.
Strong thunderstorms with marginally severe wind gusts will be possible on Sunday from the lower to mid-Mississippi Valley eastward and into western parts of the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys. Large hail could also occur in parts of the mid-Mississippi Valley.
More than 15 million people have been placed under a Level 1 severe weather risk, according to the SPC. The risk area encompasses populous cities such as Indianapolis, Indiana, Memphis and Nashville in Tennessee, St. Louis in Missouri, and Louisville in Kentucky.
Another round of severe thunderstorms are expected to occur across the southern Plains and lower Mississippi Valley from late Monday afternoon to Tuesday night.
Storms should develop across the Desert Southwest on Monday, moving eastward across the southwestern states on Tuesday and into the southern Plains on Wednesday, the FOX Forecast Center said.
The untimely severe weather event may threaten the skies over North and East Texas just as millions hope to take in the spectacle of the last total solar eclipse in the U.S. for more than a decade.
The SPC has maintained an early severe weather risk Monday for North and East Texas, southeastern Oklahoma and slivers of southwestern Arkansas and northwestern Louisiana – a slight shift back to the west and south with Friday’s updated forecast compared to Thursday’s forecast.
DALLAS AREA IN EARLY SEVERE WEATHER THREAT WARNING FOR MONDAY’S TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE
The SPC will issue more detailed severe weather threat forecasts once the event is within three days. Meanwhile, FOX Weather is keeping you updated on the forecast along the entire path of totality as Monday’s big event approaches.