AccuWeather Global Weather Center – May 12, 2021
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Severe thunderstorms expected next week
AccuWeather meteorologists are monitoring the potential for rounds of flooding rainfall and severe weather that are expected to erupt across portions of the Plains this weekend into early next week. After a below-average number of tornadoes in the month of April 2021, conditions are coming together for an active severe weather pattern in mid-May.
There were just 73 tornadoes reported across the United States in April, well short of the three-year average for the month of 224, according to the Storm Prediction Center. May has already produced more than 100 tornado reports.
Violent thunderstorms ravaged portions of southern Louisiana late Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning, bringing down trees and power lines across much of the Uptown portion of New Orleans. Farther west, flooding downpours and high winds wreaked havoc on eastern Texas where a wind gust of 48 mph was recorded in Huntsville, Texas, located about 70 miles north of Houston.
Experts say more rounds of flooding downpours and severe weather are expected this weekend and into early next week. However, the area being targeted will be centered over portions of the southern Plains rather than the Southeast.
This will come as a relief to residents in waterlogged portions of the Southeast as a broad area of high pressure centered over the Great Lakes will allow portions of the region to start the process of drying out.
As high pressure builds in the East Friday, a southeasterly flow will begin to set up across much of the southern Plains. Moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will be allowed to move north into portions of Kansas, Missouri, central Illinois and portions of central Indiana, which will set the stage for thunderstorms and heavy rainfall to spread across the region.
"A series of weak disturbances are expected to track eastward from the Rockies and into the Plains Friday through the weekend," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson said.
https://www.accuweather.com/en/severe-weather/severe-thunderstorm-threat-for-dallas-san-antonio-oklahoma-city/945682