Southern Plains, Ohio Valley at Risk for Strong Storms

A thunderstorm on an early spring day. Photo courtesy of Photos.com.

By Matt Alto, Meteorologist

Apr 3, 2012; 6:20 AM ET

One day after strong and damaging storms erupted across the portions of the lower Mississippi Valley as well as western Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, more severe weather is expected today.
A slow-moving, cut-off low centered over northern New Mexico will once again be the culprit for the severe storms. This low will be slow to inch its way towards the southern Plains by Wednesday morning.
In a setup more typical of late spring or early summer, unusually warm and moist air will continue to surge northward across the southern Plains, the Tennessee and Ohio valleys today and act as the fuel for these storms.
AccuWeather.com meteorologists are concerned about two separate areas of severe weather today.
Southern Plains
With the peak of the severe weather season across the southern Plains occurring during the month of April, it comes as no surprise that the region is under the risk for severe storms today.
Similar to Monday evening's storms that crawled through the Texas Panhandle as well as western Oklahoma and Kansas, the primary threat with these storms will be hail.
Some of the hail will be very large, in some instances greater than 1 inch in diameter. Hail of this magnitude can cause damage to automobiles, rooftops and even vegetation.

Strong and potentially damaging winds will also be associated with these storms today. Gusts with the strongest storms are likely to exceed 60 mph, which is strong enough the knock down tree limbs.
A few isolated tornadoes will be possible as well with the strongest storms.
The severe storms across the southern Plains are most likely during the afternoon and evening hours as a line of nasty storms slowly progress towards the east.
Cities that will be at risk include Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Okla., as well as Dallas, San Antonio and Tyler, Texas.
The severe threat is expected to continue into early Wednesday morning as the line of storms pushes eastward into Houston, Texas, Shreveport, La., and Fort Smith, Ark., as well as southern Missouri.
Ohio Valley
The vast majority of the day will turn out very warm and dry across the Ohio Valley as a warm front lifts north of the region.
The heating of the ground throughout the day along with a surge of moisture behind the warm front will enable showers and thunderstorms to develop late this evening and into tonight.

It is likely that a strong line of storms will ride along the warm front, developing across southern Illinois late this evening before tracking towards to the southeast tonight.
While the threat for severe storms will not be as high in the southern Plains, these storms will be more than capable of producing damaging winds and hail.

Southern Plains, Ohio Valley at Risk for Strong Storms