Severe weather returns Monday with hail and tornadoes possible

KTRK TV Houston ^ | 3/20/2005 | David Tilman

[texaspirate]

We'll see a break from heavy storms today and It'll be warm as well. Severe weather returns Monday with hail and tornadoes possible. After that we'll have a lot of sun and no rain for a few days.

[texaspirate]

I was born in the south and lived most of my life in the south. I have even witnessed tornadoes (and hurricanes in some places) in Illinois, Louisiana, Florida, and Texas. But, I do not remember ever hearing a weather report that warned of hail and tornados this far ahead of time. Has the weather service started to get a good enough handle on tornado conditions to warn people more than 24 hours ahead of time?

[Spktyr]

No, they're still just guessing. Probably just "conditions highly favorable for a tornado and hail" but no certainties.

K-TRucK moving the "truth" around again...

[Strategerist]

Actually, yes, things have advanced that much. The NWS Storm Prediction Center now does severe weather outlooks to 3 days. Their next-day outlooks are fairly accurate.

Cannot predict tornadoes in specific towns, of course. And the precise outline of the area may be off. And it's still possible for there to be a bust for tornadoes for a variety of reasons 1) Storms form a squall line instead of discrete cells 2) You get low cloud cover in the morning that destroys heating 3) The "Cap" never breaks.

[gov_bean_ counter]

For North Alabama weather folks are saying t-storms in the morning with clearing in the middle of the day (not good) followed by t-storms in the evening. Tomorrow I'll be checking the batteries in the little TV/radio we keep in the basement.

[sigSEGV]

Go here:

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/index.html

I find this to be more useful than normal weather forecasts when deciding whether or not to drive my "nice" car to work. Seems to be very accurate.