Often the atmosphere gets into a groove and the weather keeps repeating itself.That was the case for many weeks this past winter when snowstorm aftersnowstorm clobbered the Northeast.
Now severe weather has found a niche across a broad area from the southernGreat Plains to the Midwest. During the next 5 to 7 days and possibly longer,air masses will battle for supremacy in this part of the country causingoutbreaks of severe thunderstorms.
One such confrontation is occurring now with more severe thunderstorms expectedto march from the Mississippi Valley to the Appalachians Tuesday night andWednesday. The storms will produce damaging winds and large hail, but muchfewer tornadoes than what happened last week.
In the three day period from April 14th through April 16th (last Thursday toSaturday) no fewer than 250 tornadoes were reported, some with devastatingconsequences. Unfortunately, the existing volatile pattern will continue toclose in on the record number of destructive thunderstorms that occurred duringMay 2003. During a seven day period from May 4-10, 2003 there were 401 tornadoreports, over 1,500 occurrences of large hail and 740 reports of wind damage.
Story by AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist John Kocet.
