Multi-Day Severe Weather on Plains Commences

By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist

April 7,2013; 4:07PM,EDT

The severe weather closing out this weekend is just the first of three rounds of violent thunderstorms that will threaten lives and property across the central and southern Plains through Tuesday.
The strongest thunderstorms each day will be capable of unleashing damaging winds, large hail, frequent lightning, downpours and some tornadoes.

The round of severe weather in store for Tuesday will likely be the worst and most far-reaching of the three, but residents should still not take the rounds for this afternoon/evening and later Monday lightly.

The first episode of severe weather has already commenced with golf ball-sized hail slamming southeastern Kansas earlier this afternoon.
Additional powerful thunderstorms will fire through this evening from the far eastern Texas Panhandle to northeastern Kansas and central Missouri.

Cities in this zone include Gage, Hobart and Oklahoma City, Okla., Wichita, Chanute and Topeka, Kan., and Springfield, Mo. Not all of these cities will be impacted as this round of severe weather will not be widespread.
The severe weather danger will wane later tonight as the violent thunderstorms weaken, organize into a cluster and head northeastward toward Chicago.
Instead of cooler and drier air replacing the severe weather, the stage will then be set for a more widespread round of potentially damaging thunderstorms to erupt Monday afternoon.

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AccuWeather.com meteorologists are especially concerned for numerous severe thunderstorms, including a few tornadoes, to target places in and around northwestern Kansas -- home to the communities of Goodland and Colby.
A few violent thunderstorms are also expected to erupt eastward to Omaha, Neb., and just north of Kansas City, Mo., and southward across Altus, Okla., and Junction, Texas.
The severe thunderstorms that erupt Monday afternoon should shift to northern Missouri, southern Iowa and central Kansas at night, but will diminish after Monday evening across western Oklahoma and north-central Texas.

The caboose of this multi-day severe weather danger for the central and southern Plains will come on Tuesday, and could lead to one of the worst severe weather outbreaks so far this season.

Tuesday's outbreak will commence from far southeastern Nebraska and central Kansas to north-central Texas in the afternoon.
Severe thunderstorms will then increase in coverage through Tuesday night as the danger zone expands across more of central Texas, eastern Oklahoma, eastern Kansas, western Arkansas and western Missouri.

"Cities that could be hit by dangerous and damaging weather conditions during Tuesday [also spanning the overnight hours] include Dallas/Fort Worth, Oklahoma City and Wichita, Kan.," stated AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski when he warned of the danger last week.

Springfield and Joplin, Mo., and Tulsa, Okla., are among the other cities in harm's way.

On Wednesday, the severe weather danger will focus on places from St. Louis and Cape Girardeau, Mo., to Tyler and Houston, Texas.
Residents throughout the central and southern Plains should continue to check back with AccuWeather.com for the latest updates on the impending violent and dangerous weather.

Those living in places where the severe weather, including the danger of tornadoes, will occur at night should figure out a plan of how to avoid sleeping through potentially life-saving warnings.