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| A dust storm in rural North Dakota caused vehicle crashes. The dust storms spread across wide areas of the northern Plains and southern Canada. Photo from North Dakota Highway Patrol |
Sure, there were some severe storms, high winds, hail and a few tornadoes over the past couple weeks.
But not the frightening, powerhouse tornado outbreaks that often terrorize the Plains, Midwest and South this time of year.
That's about to change. That shouldn't be surprising, as this is the peak of severe storm season.
ALREADY STARTED
We had the first hint of that on Wednesday and Thursday. A strong storm system in southwestern Canada swept high winds through the northern Rockies, northern Plains and into Manitoba, Canada.
The dust storms with this weather system actually started on Wednesday in Utah and Idaho. The dust storm there caused an eight-car pileup in Utah. The storm created a blast furnace in Montana, where record highs were set in Havre, Great Falls, Bozeman and Billings, where it was 95 degrees.
The heat was accompanied by intense winds. Big Sandy and Livingston, Montana gusted to 85 mph, Toston, Montana reached 78 mph and Havre reached 74 mph. A line of severe thunderstorms amid this chaos created a rare for Montana haboob.
The blowing dust continued in Montana Thursday, and spread into the Dakotas and Manitoba Thursday. In some parts of Manitoba, rain showers collided with dust clouds, making it basically rain mud in a few places.
IT WILL GET WORSE
Weather patterns are setting up in such a way to encourage more severe weather and tornadoes. Today, people from Texas to Wisconsin are under the gun, but Iowa seems like the main target. Although tornadoes are a possibility, the real threat late this afternoon and tonight is giant hail and winds to 75 mph.
It's been a tough year for huge hailstones, and this could add to the destructive drama.
Saturday
The "fun" is forecast to keep going in Iowa tomorrow, and spread into Nebraska and northern Kansas, where the best chance of bad storms arises.
The risks look similar to today's. A couple tornadoes could spin up, but the biggest threat is huge hailstones and strong straight line winds. Remember, hail storms can easily be more damaging than tornadoes. Hail usually covers a much wider area in a storm than a tornado path would.
Sunday
This looks like it might be the more dangerous day of the string of severe weather days. The early thinking is some supercells will develop in Nebraska and southern South Dakota and move east. That raises the risk for a tornado outbreak.
The supercells will then congeal into a line of powerful storms moving into Iowa. Those wild storms could well include embedded tornadoes, and some of them could be strong, says NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.
Monday
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| Monday will probably be the most dangerous day out of the next several for severe storms in tornadoes The darker orange area has the highest risk. |
That means Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, much of Missouri, Oklahoma and eastern South Dakota need to be on their toes.
The Storm Prediction Center says that some of the tornadoes expected to touch down might be strong to intense, which is never a happy prediction.
Most tornadoes are relatively week EF-0s and EF-1s.
Stronger tornadoes, EF-2s and EF-3s, with winds of between 111 and 165 mph, represent about 15 percent of all U.S. tornadoes and account for about 25 percent of U.S. tornado deaths, give or tak
Less than one percent of all U.S. tornadoes are EF-4s or EF-5s, with winds of 166 mph and up. But those powerful twisters cause roughly 70 percent of all U.S. tornado deaths.
The bottom line: Pray for weak tornadoes because the strong ones create the worst tragedies.
Tuesday and Beyond
Severe storms are expected to continue in the Midwest Tuesday, then move more toward the south and southeast Wednesday and beyond. Exactly where the worst storms might fire up later in the week is till TBA
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