RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) – Another powerful storm system will affect our neighbors to the west of Virginia today and tonight, with the potential for more tornadoes, damaging winds and hail. A rare High Risk for severe weather has been issued by the Storm Prediction Center for much of Kentucky, north-central Tennessee and far southern Indiana. A low pressure system currently in Missouri this Friday morning will track into the Upper Midwest today, pulling in rich moisture from the Gulf as far north as the Great Lakes. This system is also creating wind shear supportive of supercell thunderstorm development and tornadoes, as well as damaging winds in excess of 58 mph and large hail. The Storm Prediction Center issued the following statement Friday morning:
“SIGNIFICANT SEVERE WEATHER OUTBREAK EXPECTED THIS AFTERNOON INTO TONIGHT ACROSS MUCH OF THE OH/TN VALLEY REGION…INCLUDING THE POTENTIAL FOR LONG-TRACK/STRONG TORNADOES.”
You can monitor severe weather reports through the day and night by clicking here.
This storm system is only a couple days after another strong system this week produced widespread severe weather from the Plains into the Midwest. You can click on the links to see the severe reports from this previous destructive storm system for Tuesday and Wednesday.
By the time the cold front approaches Virginia from the west in the early Saturday morning hours, this system will not be as potent for the Commonwealth. Thunderstorms are likely from pre-dawn through lunchtime as the surface cold front marches eastward through Virginia the first half of Saturday, but our conditions will not be as supportive of significant severe weather as locations to our west. We will not have significant CAPE (Convective Available Potential Energy) and moisture will be marginal, but wind shear will be present and the cold front will provide a forcing mechanism for thunderstorm development and enhancement. Our risks will include frequent lightning, strong wind gusts, and some hail. The greatest severe threat, though, will be in western and southwest Virginia:
Stay with CBS 6, we’ll keep you ahead of the storm.
Meteorologist Carrie Rose
