Midwest severe weather threat expands

The severe weather threat encompasses the Gulf states to the Ohio Valley as a storm strengthens on March 18.

Transcript

00:00We could be talking about blizzard conditions anywhere from southern parts

00:03of Minnesota all the way down into Kansas. And then by Thursday we have a

00:06calmer weather pattern to be dealing with tracking our storm strengthening

00:10as we head into tonight. That's why we'll start to see kind of the

00:13ingredients coming together for severe weather. You can see where

00:16thunderstorms have been outlined and farther north. It's going to be the

00:18snow coming on down. We've highlighted an area across most of Iowa, but also

00:25stretches into Omaha, Nebraska, where some risk leading severe thunderstorms

00:29in parts of the area localized damaging wind gusts 55 to 65 MPH storms

00:33that bring hail and some heavier downpours at times will follow future

00:37radar through the afternoon where snow spreading a bit further to the east as

00:41things make their way out of Colorado across Nebraska and into Kansas and

00:46we'll be watching for some thunderstorms late tonight into early

00:48tomorrow morning in Iowa through the day on Wednesday. Lots of warmth out

00:53ahead of this storm. Not a whole lot of moisture, but enough for some areas of

00:57thunderstorms developing and some severe weather. And then farther north,

01:00it's going to be the snow with the wind wind. One of the factors of the severe

01:04criteria for tomorrow with winds 50 to 70 MPH isolated tornadoes, not a zero

01:10risk. It's a lower risk south of Chicago, Indianapolis over into I 55.

01:15That's the more moderate risk for numerous severe thunderstorms will

01:19follow the future radar and then starting tomorrow morning where the

01:22snow is still coming down in Sioux Falls on into Omaha. We watch the snow

01:27moving through the day. Des Moines will see a transition over to some snow on

01:32the back end here in Chicago. Let's watch these gusty thunderstorms through

01:35the evening commute. That's a look at five o'clock with the current timing as

01:39the storms pushed to the east. By the time we head into, say, 11 or so to

01:43Detroit back across Ohio, several inches, if not feet of snow, especially

01:48up through the U. P. Of Michigan. But a stripe of 6 to 12 from northeastern

01:53Nebraska all the way into northern Wisconsin, Des Moines Garden City,

01:57Scottsbluff, Minneapolis, maybe just a few inches of snow, but it comes with

02:00at least 40 MPH wind gusts around Omaha winds could gust as high 70 MPH behind

02:06the storms on Wednesday. So that is the reason the National Weather Service has

02:10issued blizzard warnings. That's the darkest blue for counties in southern

02:13Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and down through Kansas.