A guide to preparing your home for winter storms 2:17 (CNN) — Two separate weather systems will bring severe storms to more than a dozen states this weekend, some of the same ones that were hit Friday night. The system that brought more than 150 reports of severe storms to the Central Plains on Friday will now move east this Saturday. All severe weather hazards will be possible, including damaging winds, hail, and tornadoes. “Severe thunderstorms associated with an isolated large hail and wind damage threat are possible on Saturday from the mid-Mississippi Valley north to the western Great Lakes,” the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) said. A level 2 of 5 “slight” risk of severe storms has been issued and includes more than 15 million people from Wisconsin to Arkansas, including Chicago and Indianapolis. The best chance for severe storms in this region will be in the afternoon and evening hours, when daytime heating has peaked. While flooding may not be the main concern with these storms, it is still something to monitor. “The system as a whole should be weakening by now, so most of the heavy rain ingredients should also be on the wane,” the Weather Prediction Center (WPC) said. “That said, we should have pretty good rainfall coverage and enough instability to support some locally intense rainfall rates.” Widespread rain totals of 1 to 2 inches are forecast, but some localized areas could see 3 to 4 inches of rain over the weekend. “So while no major/widespread flooding is currently expected to evolve, localized issues are a possibility,” the WPC said. By Sunday, this early system will continue to move east toward the mid-Atlantic region. Risk Outlook from Saturday, April 30 at 8:00 a.m. ET through Sunday, May 1 at 8:00 a.m. ET. Updated on Saturday April 30, 2022 at 1:36 am ET.
Source: National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center
Graphic: John Keefe, CNN Severe storms will be possible from western Pennsylvania to the Virginia-Tennessee border in the second half of the weekend. The main threat will be damaging winds. Double trouble for Texas There will also be a new system moving through areas of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma on Sunday, but before that system arrives, wind gusts will have already picked up and triggered a major risk of fire. “Elevated fire weather conditions are expected for Saturday with moisture-driven conditions with relative humidity lows as low as 10 percent,” the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Amarillo, Texas said. Wind gusts will continue to prevail Saturday across the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, increasing the fire threat before the rain arrives on Sunday. The area needs rain. Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico have areas suffering from level 4 ‘exceptional drought’, the highest possible category. While rain would be welcome, lightning, hail, and tornadoes are a different story.
“If we get some lightning in that area, they can actually start fires where the grass is already dry and there may not be much rain as the storms move east,” said Aaron Ward, director of science and operations. “So that’s another thing we’re going to be looking out for, possible fires due to lightning on Sunday.” A Level 2 of 5 “Slight” risk for severe storms exists for portions of the High Plains on Sunday and includes the Texas cities of Lubbock, Amarillo and Abilene. These storms are likely to bring all kinds of severe weather, including very large hail.
“The main concerns right now, what we’re seeing, are going to be large to very large hail and damaging winds,” Ward said. “The hail could easily be the size of a golf ball or a baseball if all goes well.” The timing of the storms will be primarily in the afternoon and early evening, although some storms will linger overnight. On Monday, some of the same areas that cleaned up damage from Friday night’s storm will get a second round of severe thunderstorms. From Abilene, Texas to St Louis to Memphis, damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes can be expected. Caitlin Kaiser and CNN’s Haley Brink contributed to this report.