Hail and isolated tornadoes are possible with repetitive thunderstorms across much of the central U.S. on every day of the Easter weekend.
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00:00The rounds of storms that we're facing right now are a bit more robust up into Michigan and to some extent northeastern Wisconsin.
00:06I'm going to turn the lightning off briefly just because it overwhelms the view.
00:09And at the beginning of the loop you can see a couple of these severe warnings that were in effect into the Milwaukee metro.
00:15These thunderstorms now are not quite as intense.
00:19They are producing some lightning and a lot of lightning at that into western parts of lower Michigan.
00:24But these storms have crossed some cooler water from Lake Michigan so they're a little weaker now than they were when they were in parts of Wisconsin.
00:33Back over to the lightning map there you can see north of Green Bay we have a couple of rumbles of thunder there and some lightning here and there.
00:39And then in the other zone where we're going to be watching for storms with a bit of a future will be into the southern plains.
00:44Now the storms so far have not had enough traction to really hold themselves together well.
00:50You can see a couple of episodes of a couple of storms.
00:52One has already cycled through from birth to death pretty much pulling north of Floydata and that's not even going to produce more than a sprinkle west of Childress.
01:00Another storm trying to get going a little farther south near the end of the loop there near Rawls.
01:04But even there dry air aloft is combating that and there is some stronger wind.
01:08So overall the wind is kind of getting in the way of these storms from forming and organizing too much.
01:14Temps are pretty well contrasting there.
01:15We're at 88 down in Jackson, Mississippi.
01:18Very, very warm there.
01:19But we're only at 33 in Denver, Colorado with snow falling currently there in a mile-high city.
01:25And the wind is active.
01:26We're gusting to 49 miles per hour in El Paso where there is some fire danger to the west.
01:31So this evening and tonight we'll be watching as eventually some storms will gain more traction east of where those current ones are struggling near the Cap Rock of Texas.
01:40But into areas of Oklahoma and northwest Texas, severe weather will be more likely late tonight with some hailers getting going later this evening, 8, 9, 10 p.m. Central Time.
01:51Hail is the main risk there.
01:52Let's go now live to Nashville, Tennessee.
01:55And this area is going to be facing, again, some more active weather at the end of the weekend.
02:00But for now you're doing pretty well and most of Saturday looks pretty good as well.
02:04So we are facing, again, many areas here with ongoing flood watches.
02:08Take a look at these big zones here from northwest Texas through Oklahoma City, most of Missouri, western Illinois, northwest Arkansas, southeast Kansas, all under flood watches.
02:18This is where we're going to have the most repetitive rain and thunderstorm activity through the course of the weekend.
02:25And the current, again, issues are going to be a little farther north this evening and tonight up into Michigan and into Texas and in between.
02:32Tomorrow, the northern part of this really gets shunted south.
02:36So the Saturday severe weather risk area, at first glance, it may look kind of similar to tonight's in that we have, you know, the orange zone here into parts of northwest Texas and southern Oklahoma.
02:46Hail, a big concern there.
02:47But we also are going to be dealing with storms pushed a little farther south because of our front stalling near I-70 and then closer to Interstate 44.
02:55So tomorrow, there's a damaging wind potential, flooding, and hail potential for the southern plains on Saturday and Saturday night.
03:03That's what we're most concerned about, kind of a triple-pronged threat there with the hail, flooding, and the damaging wind risk.
03:11And there will be some threat for isolated tornadoes, too.
03:14Saturday, you can see the problem here.
03:16The repetitive thunderstorms over the same area here, round after round after round.
03:20There's Saturday evening, still more rain coming in from Oklahoma, moving through that same area.
03:26We just can't get out of it.
03:27And then Sunday, that's also where we find our moderate risk area for large hail, damaging wind, isolated tornadoes, and a lot of different hazards on the map here.
03:37I think by the end of this, the combination of the wind, hail, and flooding will all be big stories.
03:42But the risk of a tornado can also change the landscape in just a short moment.
03:46So Sunday afternoon, evening, and night, we're looking at Springfield, Missouri, all the way east to St. Louis.
03:53Places like Fayetteville, Springdale, Bentonville into Little Rock, Arkansas, and Texarkana facing some of those weather hazards.
04:01And there you can see the big stripe with the most frequent of the downpours.
04:04And in the heart of that area, here we have our 4-8-inch rainfall forecast between now and Sunday evening.