Strong Storms Aim For Western Texas and Oklahoma

By Matt Alto, Meteorologist

Mar 16, 2012; 6:20 AM ET

With record-challenging warmth sprawled across much of the eastern half of the nation, moisture in combination with an upper-air disturbance moving northeast across the southern Plains will bring the risk for strong thunderstorms to portions of the region today.

Although the day will start out looking non-threatening as periods of clouds and sunshine fill the skies across the region, conditions will quickly turn stormy heading into the late afternoon and evening hours.

Widely scattered and isolated storms will develop in the warm and moist air mass over the region as temperatures across the region rise to the upper 70s to lower 80s due to the daytime heating from the sun. It is this heating that will act as the fuel for these storms as they develop during the late afternoon hours.

The widely scattered nature of the storms may allow many locations to remain dry throughout the course of the day and not experience any thunderstorm activity.

AccuWeather.com meteorologists expect many of these storms to become severe late this afternoon and evening and have pinpointed an area from extreme southwestern Kansas through western Oklahoma and western Texas that will be under the gun.

Cities within this area included Amarillo, Lubbock and Abilene, Texas, as well as Lawton and locations to the west of Oklahoma City, Okla.

The main threats expected from these storms will be large hail, damaging winds greater than 50 mph and frequent cloud to ground lightning.

These storms may also produce periods of heavy rain that could reduce visibility for motorists.

Although the atmospheric conditions are not favorable for tornadoes, it is not completely out of the realm of possibility that a few could develop.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms will continue into the night, but these strong storms will lose their punch and quickly weaken as they track to the east into central Texas and Oklahoma.

After a brief break from the strong storms on Saturday, many of the same locations could see another round of severe weather heading toward the end of the weekend and into early next week.

More Strong Storms on the Way Early Next Week

The Wild Wild West St. Patrick's Day Storm will become the next player in the severe weather sweepstakes across the central Plains early next week.

According to Expert Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski, "the storm system will bring the risk of severe weather, high winds, and wildfire danger to western and northern Texas and the southern Plains."

As the storm system moves out of the Rockies and into the High Plains, thunderstorms will fire during the afternoon and will quickly organize and become severe as they track eastward through the overnight hours.

Again, large hail and damaging winds will be the main threats from these storms. Areas that will likely be threatened include an area that spreads from western Texas through central Kansas and Nebraska.

The focus of the severe weather Monday looks to be over the eastern half of the southern Plains.

Keep checking back with AccuWeather.com over the come days as we detail this severe weather potential across the Plains early next week.

Strong Storms Aim For Western Texas and Oklahoma