Hello everyone!

Today’s weather will be dominated by the same system that brought severe weather to Oklahoma on Saturday, and showers to the Mississippi valley yesterday. The storm will continue to move NE today, with active weather now shifting towards the East Coast.

Morning water vapor satellite imagery (what’s that?) shows two strong upper level disturbances located across North Dakota and Tennessee. The TN disturbance will bring severe weather to the Carolinas today as it moves NE. The ND disturbance will drop SE until it merges with the TN disturbance, forming a strong low pressure system over the Great Lakes by tomorrow.

For today, we’ll focus on the TN disturbance and its impacts on the Carolinas.

This Swiss Super HD model forecast depicts severe thunderstorms across parts of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Storm intensity will diminish farther to the north across parts of West Virginia. Storms are oriented in a line along a cold front, so damaging winds will be the biggest threat today. However, some of those cells out ahead of the line could produce some large hail or potentially a weak tornado if they can find enough room to develop.

Outside of the severe weather threat, there’s little going on in the world of US weather today. The Pacific NW storm train is taking a break, with quiet weather expected to return to the Seattle area. Steady rain will expand into the Great Lakes this evening as the ND disturbance interacts with the TN disturbance. 

The only impact that the aforementioned ND disturbance will bring today is strong winds. Wind gusts near 50 mph are possible across much of the Northern Plains region from Nebraska up into North Dakota. These winds could be enough to cause some minor power disruptions and could certainly blow around light, unsecured outdoor items. Winds will die down as the disturbance moves east.

For more information about your local forecast: https://weather.us/

For more information about the local forecast for Maine and New Hampshire: https://forecasterjack.com/2017/10/23/warm-and-cloudy-but-still-dry-today/

-Jack