Indiana is spared from severe storms again today, as the worst weather holds to the west. Storms pounded the Plains last night. The well-advertised outbreak lived up to its advanced billing. Five people died early this morning after a tornado hit the northwest Oklahoma town of Woodward. A tornado in Wichita Kansas caused damage at McConnel Air Force Base. A mobile home park was heavily damaged in the city, although no injuries were reported.
The preliminary count from the Storm Prediction Center is just under 100 tornado reports Saturday.
A powerful upper trough of low pressure moves out of the Plains and into the Mississippi Valley today, with jet stream winds of over 100 mph from east Kansas into southern Wisconsin by tonight. There is a “moderate” risk of severe weather today in extreme northwest Illinois, southern Wisconsin, eastern Iowa and southeast Minnesota.
A deep surface low pressure system will be moving into southern Minnesota, and a cold front will go to war on the border between MN & WI.
The cold front will move into Indiana overnight and into Monday morning. There is a slight risk of severe in Illinois this evening, but by the time storms get here, no severe weather is expected. The storms should be moving off to the east of Indianapolis by Monday afternoon.
I wrote yesterday morning of potential precipitation approaching one inch. Indianapolis actually ended up with 1.20 inches, enough to put us a little above the month-to-date and year-to-date normals once more.
