(Radio Iowa) – Iowans are being warned about the elevated risk of severe weather this (Thursday) afternoon and tomorrow. Meteorologist Alexis Jimenez, at the National Weather Service, says in today’s first round, multiple powerful storms are possible, essentially between 1 and 6 P-M. While much of the state has at least some risk of rough weather, she says the threat is greatest to the southeast.
“There’s a chance for some thunderstorms, some severe,” Jimenez says, “that includes the risk of some large hail, damaging winds, and maybe even a couple tornadoes possible as we get to places like Osceola and Ottumwa and portions of southern and southeast Iowa.” On a zero-to-five scale where a zero is no chance for storms and a five is storms are a very high risk, a large section of Iowa now rates a three.
“Portions of eastern and southeast Iowa, so Ottumwa, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, and on into Illinois,” Jimenez says. “That’s where our highest risk is going to be. That’ll be on the latter half of this afternoon, mainly after 3 p.m. for that area.” Mother Nature is expected to bring a one-two punch to end the week, with the second punch coming after noon on Friday.
“Tomorrow, it’s much more central and southern Iowa and it’ll be in Iowa much longer compared to today,” Jimenez says. “So, it’s looking like most of Friday afternoon and evening, and it looks like the threats are a little bit higher, especially when we’re talking about winds and hail. The tornado risk, at least for now, isn’t as high, but we still have a chance for tornadoes mainly south and along Interstate 80.”
To top it all off, temperatures are forecast to fall into the 20s the next few nights, with snow possible in parts of northwest Iowa on Saturday.
