More rounds of life-threatening severe weather are likely across the Southern Plains after tornadoes ripped through the heart of the country on Friday. Additionally, flash flooding confidence is increasing in parts of east-central Oklahoma, where 5 to 10 inches of rain may fall through Sunday. More than 50 million people are under threat of severe weather as the atmosphere recharges, stretching more than 1,500 miles from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes.
The greatest tornado threat on Saturday extended from Oklahoma to the upper Mississippi Valley, but is expected to slide eastward on Sunday.
Because of the risk, the NWS office in Norman, Oklahoma, launched a special weather balloon Saturday afternoon to help study the atmosphere and determine whether storms could emerge overnight.
The Storm Prediction Center received more than 100 severe weather reports Saturday, most of them large hail, but several tornadoes were detected in Kansas and Oklahoma.
TORNADO CRUSHES OMAHA
Fallen trees and tornado debris after a tornado ripped through Elkhorn, Nebraska, on Friday, April 26. (Thomas Hinterdorfer @hinto62 in X)
The severe weather threat is expected to diminish through Sunday, but still presents a widespread risk of additional storms across the Mississippi Valley. A Level 2 severe weather threat covers more than 20 million people from Austin and Dallas in Texas to southeastern Iowa and western Illinois.
Once again, there are tornadoes, large hail and damaging wind gusts, but the storms are not expected to be as intense as Friday.
Flash flooding likely in severe weather outbreak area
If tornadoes, hail and wind weren’t enough, much of the Southern Plains is also at significant risk of flash flooding through Sunday.
Thunderstorms can move slowly or stop, causing several inches of rain to fall in the same areas and causing significant flooding.
WATCH: TORNADOES ACROSS THE HEART OF THE UNITED STATES, LEAVING CATASTROPHIC DESTRUCTION IN MULTIPLE STATES
Debris is seen from a destroyed home northwest of Omaha, Nebraska, after a storm hit the area on Friday, April 26, 2024. (AP)
The NOAA Weather Prediction Center has placed parts of Oklahoma along the Interstate 40 corridor east of Oklahoma City at a Level 4 of 4 flash flood risk through Sunday morning.
24-hour rainfall totals in the Level 4 flash flood hazard area may approach or exceed 10 inches, forecasters said. But flash flooding of even 3 to 6 inches or more is expected from the Red River Valley to much of Oklahoma, including Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
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“High” flash flood risks only occur about 4% of days (including tropical and non-tropical events), but this risk category accounts for 39% of flood-related deaths and 83% of flood-related damage. with floods on the continent. United States, according to research by WPC meteorologists. What’s more, 46% of high-risk flood days have at least one death or injury, and 62% of those days have at least $1 million in damage, Greg Carbin, head of the Florida Department of Flood Protection, said in the investigation. WPC forecasting operations.
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