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Heat and Fire Weather Concerns for the Center of the Nation; Coastal Impacts Across the East

Excessive heat returns for portions of the Plains today where heat indices will likely climb above the century mark. Furthermore, warm temperatures, strong winds and dry fuels may result in rapid spread of wild fires across the western High Plains today. For the east coast, lingering storm with onshore flow will bring high surf, dangerous rip currents and coastal flooding, especially at high tide. Read More >

Overview

On the second anniversary of the bomb cyclone (https://www.weather.gov/ama/March13_2019_HighWinds), we were dealt another very potent upper level system which produced widespread hazards from heavy snow across the front range/Rockies to severe weather across the Southern High Plains. For us here in the Panhandles, we issued 13 tornado warnings and 10 severe thunderstorm warnings. This was the first tornado day of the 2021 convective season in our area, with eight confirmed tornadoes. We also saw three separate instances in which two tornadoes were in progress from the same parent thunderstorm at the same time.

A vigorous closed upper low was approaching the Four Corners region from the west. A warm front lifted north and northwest across all but the Oklahoma Panhandle and the northwest Texas Panhandle while a sharpening dryline was located over eastern New Mexico. The dryline preceded a Pacific cold front which was also located in eastern New Mexico and swept eastward later in the evening. A broken line of thunderstorms developed ahead of the dryline in eastern New Mexico and tracked north and east into the western and southwestern Texas Panhandle before continuing to move east across the remainder of the eastern Panhandles during the evening hours, growing upscale as the Pacific cold front swept eastward and overtook the dryline.

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