Severe and dangerous storms will hit the eastern half of the U.S. this Memorial Day weekend, affecting several major cities from Saturday through Monday.
The storms will begin on Saturday, with 18 million people from Texas to Iowa under high threat of severe storms, the strongest of which will hit Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, including Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma; Joplin, Missouri; and Wichita, Kansas.
In the middle of the night Saturday, federal forecasters issued tornado watches and warnings for parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas, with the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth, Texas, urging residents in the path of unstable cells storm surge north of Dallas-Fort Worth to “SEEK SHELTER NOW!!!”
Experts say the Plains and parts of the South and Midwest have been subjected to a long and deadly tornado season during an epic and long-lasting clash between cold and warm influences.
Chief meteorologist Bill Berardelli of NBC affiliate WFLA in Tampa, Florida, explained the recipe for choppy weather in a post on social media platform
“Large ridge of heat parked over Mexico/Gulf, and cold pool over NW Pacific [is] a perfect setup as disturbances travel along a semi-stalled frontal boundary, concentrating storms over #Tornado Alley,” he said.
Storms over Oklahoma and Texas are expected to move east toward Missouri and Iowa overnight. Some long-lived supercells are also expected. These storms are capable of producing intense tornadoes, giant hail, and destructive wind gusts.
Clusters of these supercells will merge, creating larger storm systems in northern Oklahoma and central and eastern Kansas overnight, the National Weather Service said. said on Xadding that “a few isolated or widely scattered instances of flash flooding” will be possible until midnight.
The storms will continue to move east on Sunday, moving into the Midwest and Ohio Valley. They are expected to affect 42 million people in cities including Chicago, Indianapolis, Nashville, St. Louis and Cincinnati.
Damaging wind gusts are most expected across the Midwest, but tornadoes and large hail are also possible.
The storms will end on the East Coast on Monday, with a slight risk of severe weather in the mid-Atlantic. In this region, including Baltimore; Washington DC; and Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina, 27 million are at risk of strong to severe storms.
The main danger to watch out for is strong wind, but a thunderstorm or two could produce large hail or a tornado.
With this active storm pattern comes the risk of flash flooding, especially throughout the Mississippi Valley. In total, 3 million are under flood warnings, including cities like Memphis, Tennessee; and Tupelo, Mississippi.
Precipitation totals generally range from 1 to 2.5 inches during the weekend, with localized amounts greater than 3 inches possible where training storms develop.
Southern heat
The South will also face extreme heat on Memorial Day weekend.
Summer-like temperatures will affect the southern Plains and Gulf Coast as maximum temperatures rise to 10-20 degrees above average.
Heat warnings are in effect for 7 million people in South Texas on Saturday, including Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and Brownsville, as temperatures will rise to 100-115 degrees.
Nearly two dozen record highs will be threatened Saturday afternoon when temperatures reach 90-100 in Brownsville and Houston, Texas; Key West, Florida; and New Orleans.
Both Brownsville and Harlingen, Texas, set new daily records on Saturday, with Brownsville reaching 99 degrees and Harlingen at 100 degrees, according to the NWS, both 2 degrees above their previous records.
On Sunday, more heat will cover the South, with more than 20 records threatened in Corpus Christi; Miami and Orlando, Florida; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.
Extreme fire conditions
Four million are under alert for critical fire weather conditions in the High and Southern Plains from Colorado to Texas, including Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico; and El Paso, Texas.
Newly formed fires are at risk of spreading quickly due to the dangerous combination of dry vegetation, 30-45 mph winds and low relative humidity.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
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