Severe weather update: Damaging winds, tornadoes, hail could hit North Texas by 1 p.m.
Dallas-Fort Worth woke up to a muggy morning even as cold air from winter storms moving across the central Plains and Upper MidWest is being pushed south by the jetstream.
Thunderstorms will hit North Texas by 1 p.m. Monday, according to an AccuWeather report.
“A dip in the jet stream will bring the strongest upper-level winds into the southern U.S. When combined with moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and substantially above-average temperatures, the setup will be in place for severe thunderstorms to form,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Alex DaSilva explained.
Warm air blown by a steady wind from the south will bring moisture from the Gulf of Mexico to North Texas — a key ingredient for thunderstorm development.
“The chance of severe storms will start with a bang on Monday,” AccuWeather reports. “Thunderstorms are likely to fire across eastern Texas and southeastern Oklahoma, quickly strengthening as they move eastward.”
A separate storm is forming east of the Mississippi River, which means there will be places in the South that will be contending with multiple severe weather conditions.
On top of lightning and heavy rain, damaging winds are expected to hit North Texas. With plenty of cold air being pushed south, hail is also a very real concern, according to AccuWeather forecasters. Ample wind shear in the atmosphere has the potential to spawn a few tornadoes.
“The extent of the tornado threat will depend on whether storms can remain separated, which would allow for a few intense, large tornadoes to form. If this does not occur, and storms form into a line, damaging winds would become the primary hazard,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Haley Taylor explained.
Early warning for impending storms
Expect thunderstorms to intensify across much of North Texas Monday, with some severe storms in the afternoon “capable of producing damaging winds, tornadoes and some hail,” according to the National Weather Service.
Dallas-Fort Worth will see a few storms with scattered showers in the morning, and the storms intensifying later in the day particularly east of I-35, according to the NWS.
“The main weather story to start the new year continues to be with the impacts related to a storm system currently moving through the Rockies and forecast to intensify after it reaches the Plains, with a winter storm, flash flooding, and severe weather all expected,” the NWS reported Sunday.
The severe weather will continue east by nightfall, and North Texas can expect nice weather for the remainder of the week.
Pinpointing exactly where the worst of the storms will hit is the challenge, according to the NWS.
“Severe potential is highest in our eastern counties, but those along the I-35 corridor should remain weather aware,” the weather service tweeted Sunday.
“A second push of cool air Tuesday night will return temperatures to more seasonable values for the middle and latter part of the week,” according to the NWS..
These storms will have broken a temperate beginning to the new year. Warmer temperatures on New Year’s Day was a welcome respite from a frigid Christmas weekend that forced Texans to dust off heavy winter coats and bracing for frozen pipes.
But if historical data bears out, more snow and is yet to come to North Texas.
Get an alert: Be aware of severe weather
With severe weather in the forecast, be in the know. Get alerts and warnings from these sources:
NOAA Weather Radio
Local media reports
Wireless Emergency Alerts & weather apps
Outdoor sirens
Internet sites such as weather.gov
The NWS website states that not every method is perfect, so be sure to have multiple ways of getting the warnings.
This story was originally published January 1, 2023 at 4:41 PM.