It has been an active week of severe weather from the Central states to the Northeast as you can see in the animation of storm reports from Monday – Wednesday below:
There has been 43 tornado reports, 301 wind reports, and 441 hail reports. The rainfall with these storms has been heavy, especially across the Upper Midwest in states like Wisconsin. Below is the 5 day rainfall from Sunday AM April 12 to Thursday AM April 16:
This active severe weather will continue and perhaps peak on Friday with a level 3 out of 5 risk from the Upper Midwest down to the Southern Plains:
All modes of severe weather are possible including significant tornadoes in Eastern Iowa and Southwest Wisconsin:
Storms will develop early afternoon and continue into the overnight hours. The below future radar is from 1 pm CT on Friday to 1 am CT on Saturday:
Additional rain amounts of up to 2-3″ will fall across the region, which could lead to additional flooding with the rain-soaked ground:
On Saturday, the system will shift to the east and bring the threat for severe weather to Ohio and Western Pennsylvania:
While significant rain will fall across the Northeast as the system moves through, unfortunately very little will make it to the drought-stricken southeast:
Record Heat and Drought Across Southeast
This week, the Southeast has remained hot and dry, with several record highs set. Records are possible again on Friday and Saturday before a cold front brings temperatures back to normal:
Friday’s Record Highs (locations with squares):
Saturday’s record highs (locations with squares):
The warm temperatures and lack of rain have worsened the drought over the region with nearly 40% of the Southeast in extreme drought:
While temperatures will cool down next week, precipitation will be hard to come by with little rain expected over the next 7 days:
There are however signs that the last week of April will bring above average rain to the region:
It will take a lot of rain to erase the drought, however, but hopefully this verifies.
Florida Wildfires
Florida’s drought is especially notable. The good news is that there was some improvement along the east coast this week but 20% of the state remains in exceptional drought, the worst category:
A couple of new fires broke out this week and were captured on camera from some of our weather stations. First up was the Newman Drive fire in Collier County. Watch the smoke billow across the bay:
Then, the SR 26 fire in Alachua County just East of Gainesville, FL exploded on Thursday afternoon, sending dark smoke billowing into the sky:
Unfortunately, wildfire season across Florida will continue to be active for the next couple of months until we can get deeper into the rainy season. This will make hyper-local weather monitoring more important than ever. In fact, with the passage of this weekend’s cold front, early next week will bring elevated fire conditions across the Southeast again. Low dewpoints and gusty winds will lead to a high fire risk:
