Series of spring storms to unleash bevy of weather risks

A series of country-crossing storm systems will increasingly torment the contiguous United States the rest of the work week and into the weekend. As spring storms tend to do, there will be offerings of just about every weather type imaginable.

Weather Watch

Wet weather ahead. A series of storms is crashing into California and the West Coast before churning eastward. Parched areas like Southern California are slated to see a good deal of rain. The heaviest is forecast to focus on northern California into the Pacific Northwest, then again over parts of the Mid-South — a common theme of late. Nasty thunderstorms, including tornadoes, will likely spin up in a big way starting Friday.

And yet, critical fire threat. One region on the map above without much rain is the south-central portion of the country. With the next big ole low (technical term) on tap later this week, it’ll be a windy and dry handful of days ahead. This run of fire threat starts off with red flag warnings from the central high Plains to the Mexico border amid an extremely critical risk Wednesday for west-central Texas.

Lightning links

Can a helmet keep you safe in a tornado? What an ER doc says.

Wedge Wednesday

As we move deeper into climatological spring (March-May), thoughts of tornadoes dance in the heads of weather wonks.

Well-founded rumors of last year’s twister dominance were recently confirmed. There have thus far — it’s a slow process — been 1,796 tornadoes documented compared to a high of 1,817 in 2004. The modern tornado record for the United States dates to 1950.

It was a season that wasted no time in getting going, then traced average through mid-spring or so. Above average stretches were the rule through the heart of peak season, and numbers reached the annual norm by July. A sizable influence from tropical cyclones added to the tallies. Finally, there was a small bump to end the year — perhaps proper.

According to the Weather Service, six states witnessed records for twister totals: Illinois (142), Iowa (125), New York (32), Ohio (74), Oklahoma (152) and West Virginia (20).

While unquestionably an impressive year for wedges (what storm chasers call every tornado type), it was another in a long string with below average violent tornadoes (EF4-5). An unusually large number of killer tornadoes occurred, with 27 of them taking 53 lives.

Check out the 2024 year-in-review from SPC.

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Weekday morning newsletter by a journalist/forecaster that connects weather and climate change dots while occasionally stirring the pot.

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