Big Weekend Changes Bring Rain, Storms, Snow To Northern Tier | WeatherBug
Main Menu
Responsive menu icon

Big Weekend Changes Bring Rain, Storms, Snow To Northern Tier

May 9, 2021
By WeatherBug Sr. Meteorologist, James West
Mother’s Day weekend is getting a bit unsettled across a large stretch of the nation’s midsection, with heavy rainfall and dangerous thunderstorms developing across the central Plains.

A new spring storm system making its way across the Intermountain West and northern Rockies will move across the Plains today and Sunday. As this occurs, it will be able to tap moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific while cold air dives south out of central Canada.

A Severe Thunderstorm Watch has been issued through 5 a.m. CDT from  part of east-central Kansas to central Missouri Nebraska.

The greatest risk of severe thunderstorms will be across portions of Kansas and western Missouri, including metro Kansas City, where the best chance for large hail to the size of baseballs and wind gusts of 60 to 70 mph exists. The threat is significant enough that the National Storm Prediction Center considers it an Enhanced Risk for severe weather. These storms will start to bubble as the evening progresses, reaching their pinnacle closer to Midnight and into early Sunday. Other locations from central Kansas to central Missouri are also at risk for golf ball sized hail and 55 to 60 mph winds.

This spring system will move into the Midwest and Great Lakes on Sunday, bringing heavy rain from the central Mississippi Valley into the Midwest, eastern Plains, Great Lakes and northern Appalachians. Several inches of rain are possible and localized flash flooding will be possible.

Later Sunday into early Monday, rain will head into the eastern Great Lakes, northern Appalachians and the Northeast while thunderstorms roll across the Lower Mississippi Valley and the South. The thunderstorms could produce a fresh round of damaging winds and hail. An isolated tornado cannot be ruled out.

This spring system will depart the Northeast on Monday, but a few storms will be possible across the South and Texas early next week as the front lingers there.