AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter explains the recent growth of thunderstorms in the south-central United States.
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00:00I want to bring in our Chief Meteorologist, Jonathan Porter, from our Severe Weather Center
00:06in Wichita, Kansas.
00:07And I'll tell you what, John, this morning when I first came in, certainly we were talking
00:11to the experts in the Wichita office here.
00:14We're really worried that that line would start dropping tornadoes.
00:18It did early around 3, 4, 5, but it's almost as if that line has outrun the support.
00:25You can see that on the water vapor loop.
00:28Yeah, that's exactly what's happened.
00:32Good morning, Bernie.
00:33The line of storms has outrun the best instability and upper-level support.
00:39And so that's why we've got a narrow rain band here across portions of Oklahoma that's
00:46producing gusty thunderstorms.
00:48But our team, we've been noticing here as we head further south down toward north Texas
00:52there's hardly any lightning.
00:54And so what we've got here is a narrow area where the thunderstorms were possible across
00:59Oklahoma and the best lift and the best forcing in the atmosphere is outrunning where that
01:04line is.
01:05And so that's why a weakening trend with the line over the next couple of hours.
01:09But don't let your guard down here.
01:10Later this afternoon, southeast Texas, Louisiana, and also back to portions of Kansas, we could
01:15have some locally severe thunderstorms.
01:16Yeah, let's watch that line, John, on our future radar here.
01:20That area from north of, right there, right around 2.30, that's the time frame, north
01:26of Oklahoma City toward Wichita, Kansas, closer to the spin that you could see near about
01:31Gage, Oklahoma.
01:34Exactly.
01:36There's a lot of spin in the atmosphere today, and those are the types, when you have such
01:39a high-level atmospheric spin, that can result in the development of severe thunderstorms
01:45and also these widely separated tornadoes.
01:48And that's going to be the case here, again, in that corridor, perhaps even across parts
01:52of central and eastern Kansas, but also especially down toward southeast Texas and western Louisiana.
01:59Look at it.
02:00Lines out, and even along those lines of thunderstorms, you could get those quick tornado spin-ups.
02:05And Bernie, the deeper moisture is going to be across southeast Texas and Louisiana.
02:09That's why we're most concerned about those areas.
02:12You know, the other big story, John, on the southern part of that upper-level feature,
02:16as it comes across Oklahoma, the wind comes out, there's going to be sufficient mixing.
02:21That is, we're going to be able to mix all of that wind energy across.
02:25First of all, here's our severe weather threat as we, today, John, you could see that within
02:30that line.
02:31We still have that moderate risk north and west of Oklahoma City and Dallas later today.
02:35Yeah, we'll have to continue to monitor that area.
02:40And again, watch that further south and east, southeast Texas and Louisiana, out toward
02:45Little Rock as well.
02:46Not widespread, but there can be, be prepared with the AccuWeather app.
02:50Download the AccuWeather app, turn on push notifications, important data, stay weather
02:54aware in those areas.
02:56There's the wind that I was talking about, John.
02:58Again, we're going to be able to mix, take all that air down in the middle part of the
03:02atmosphere right to the surface.
03:03This is going to cause major problems today along I-44, I-35.
03:11Many travel delays, and at the airports, Wichita, Oklahoma City, even toward Dallas.
03:16This is going to be a big deal, slowing down air travel here and making for some bumpy
03:21rides across the central part of the United States.
03:24You know, already this morning, my umbrella blew inside out on the way into the office
03:28here this morning in Wichita, Kansas, and the wind is just going to increase from here.
03:33So the wind, a big story too.
03:35All right.
03:36That's the AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter at our Severe Weather Studio
03:41in Wichita, Kansas.
03:43All right.
03:44Thanks, John.