Siege of Severe Thunderstorms, Tornadoes and Flash Flooding to Continue Into Next Week
The current siege of severe thunderstorms and flooding rain will continue in parts of the storm-weary Plains and Midwest through at least early next week, including the Memorial Day holiday weekend. The Ohio Valley and Northeast may join the severe weather threat this weekend. A few showers and thunderstorms stretch from the Texas Panhandle into parts of the Midwest as of midday Friday.
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has issued the following severe weather watches:
A tornado watch valid until 6 p.m. CDT for parts of central Illinois. This watch area includes Peoria and Champaign.
A tornado watch valid until 9 p.m. CDT for much of the Texas panhandle and for western Texas. This watch area includes Lubbock and Childress, Texas.
A tornado watch valid until 10 p.m. CDT for northern and western Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas. This watch area includes Wichita, Kansas and Woodward, Oklahoma.
Another round of scattered severe thunderstorms is expected Friday in a broad swath from West Texas to the Great Lakes with damaging winds, hail and a few tornadoes possible anywhere along this swath. The greatest risk of severe thunderstorms will be in West Texas in the Lubbock area. Thunderstorms will continue through the morning with additional storm development in the afternoon. On Saturday after morning thunderstorm clusters die off in parts of the Midwest and Missouri Valley, scattered severe thunderstorms will again flare up in the afternoon in the southern and central Plains, probably congealing into one or more late-night or overnight thunderstorm clusters. NOAA's Weather Prediction Center highlighted much of the same area Saturday as Friday from the Texas Panhandle to Missouri, southern Iowa and west-central Illinois, for more heavy rain and life-threatening flash flooding, not to mention worsening river flooding. Flooding will remain a very serious concern into the holiday weekend, as clusters of storms over saturated areas will prompt flooding.
We recognize the severe impact that current conditions are having on our customers and we are committed to restoring service levels as quickly as possible. As a result of these weather issues, the ALG Client Service Team will send daily updates as we monitor the storm’s progress and track job level impact.