Strong Plains storm warming up the east

A strong storm system has developed over the southern Plains. This system will have a major impact on the weather for much of the eastern US.

Warm air is surging north between this system and high pressure over New England. Temperatures that were in the low 30s yesterday morning are in the mid 50s today. This warming trend will continue into the afternoon as temperatures push into the upper 60s and low 70s.

As this warm air pushes in, there may be a couple of showers to dodge, particularly this afternoon. However, many areas will stay dry and the showers that do move in will be light and short lived.

Also worth noting is the severe weather outbreak expected today across the lower Mississippi Valley. This outbreak is a classic autumn event in what is known as the ‘second severe weather season’. As cold air from Canada clashes more intensely with warm air from the Gulf of Mexico, severe weather increases in autumn before tapering down for the winter. Occasionally, we even see severe events in the Finger Lakes in the autumn- just last year, the area was under a tornado watch on October 7th. No severe weather from this system is expected in our area though.

This system will track northeast into the Great Lakes, where it will stall out and weaken. This, combined with the fact that there is not a huge pool of cold air behind the storm, will keep our temperatures from crashing back down this week. Our best chance for rain looks to be Wednesday night.

There are also two tropical storms in the Atlantic- Fay and Gonzalo. While Fay has already curved away from the United States and is impacting Bermuda, Gonzalo is also expected to curve away from the U.S. Mainland.