Storm outlook: Parts of the US face their most significant tornado and severe thunderstorm threat in months

CNN
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Parts of the central United States face their most significant thunderstorm threat in months Wednesday as the second severe storm season gets underway.

A cold front from the west will collide with extreme fall heat over the central and eastern US and will likely spawn severe thunderstorms and potentially strong tornadoes.

A level 3 out of 5 threat for severe thunderstorms has been issued by the Storm Prediction Center as a result. Over 4 million people, including those in Kansas City and Tulsa, Oklahoma, are in this area of ​​greatest threat.

This is the first level 3 or higher threat for Kansas City and other areas in the region since mid-July.

The storm will begin in the early afternoon Wednesday, but will become stronger and more widespread in the late afternoon and early evening. Potential threats include damaging wind gusts, large hail and a few tornadoes, some of which may be EF2 or stronger.

A less significant but more widespread level 2 of 5 the threat of severe thunderstorms extends from northern Texas to southern Iowa and includes Dallas and Oklahoma City. The tornado threat is less significant here, but isolated tornadoes can still form, and damaging winds and large hail remain serious threats to more than 12 million people.

There is heightened concern about the tornado threat given how productive a year it has been for twisters in the United States. The number of tornadoes reported so far this year is the second most on record, trailing only 2011’s 2,156.

Wednesday’s serious setup is typical for autumn. Violent thunderstorms are most common in the spring and summer, but a second wave of dangerous storms and tornadoes occurs during the fall and winter, when cold air from the north often collides with warmer, moist air flowing out of the Gulf of Mexico.

But the tornado threat so far this fall has been anything but typical. The bulk of the tornadoes came from Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Milton produced dozens of tornadoes in Florida — an unusual amount for a tropical system and the state — including the state’s strongest tornado in more than half a century and an EF3 tornado that killed several people in Polk County.