Pay Attention Time 3-8 PM South Shore, Better Sunday Coming

Parts of our North Shore have already been hammered by tornadoes with extensive damage reported around Kentwood.  Even stronger tornadoes have touched down in Mississippi as the SPC Levels 4-5 severe risk area is proving reality.  Let's recall what they put out yesterday.

 

They rarely issue a level 5 (High) unless they are extremely confident that conditions will be perfect for strong storms.  Here's the set up.  The first upper storm lifted across Kansas into Iowa and then Wisconsin, triggering 20+ tornadoes.  Today's upper system is way farther south, closer to us with moisture (lime green arrows) surging out of the Gulf colliding with cooler & drier air (brown arrows) to our west.   

Clearly, the bulk of the storms are concentrated right where the SPC level 5 risk covers.  The North Shore is seeing the southern end of those storms.

So the question is...will the South Shore get into any severe weather?  The North Shore still has many hours left to endure before the threat ends.  IF you can find any hope from SPC, look at their new tornado watch.  The top is the Watch that covers the North Shore until 6 PM .

The bottom is valid through 8 PM.  Note, SPC did NOT extend the Watch area southward, but moved it farther to the east.  Does that mean the South Shore & MS Gulf coast are out of the woods?  No way.  Remember the definition of a Watch area is "in or around the box outline".   That's why some counties are outside the box.  I'm hopeful SPC believes the main threat will stay farther north & east, but radar certainly has lots of strong storms to our west.

Let's just Pay Attention for the next 2-4 hours and be ready to go to your safe room if warnings are required.  FOX 8 is in continuous coverage the rest of this afternoon.

 

The cold front/dry line will sweep on through before dark, ending the severe threat.  Look at how much lower the dew points are back in Texas!  That's a great feel for Sunday's parades.

Remember, most of us will not see severe weather.  Those that do are seeing significant damage.  Let's pray that we see no deaths.  Stay tuned!