Key message 1:
Scattered showers and thunderstorms return to the
area Sunday afternoon and evening, some of which could be severe.
The synoptic pattern becomes highly amplified tomorrow as an intense
Pacific
jet diving through the Rockies carves out a vigorous
trough
over the Great Plains.
Lee cyclogenesis will be underway across the
high plains of Colorado tonight with a rapidly
deepening surface low
lifting into the Midwest as pressures fall below 990mb. Resulting
low-level mass response will foster the development of robust wind
fields with a 50-60kt low-level
jet transporting
moisture north from
the Gulf and Atlantic. Across the Carolinas, this will be further
aided by southeast
flow advecting additional
moisture off the
Atlantic. The 12z suite of CAMs is in generally good agreement that
at least
scattered showers will develop across the area and lift
north tomorrow afternoon within this leading plume of
moisture
return as dewpoints
surge back into the upper 50s to low 60s.
The uptick in
moisture will also support an increasingly unstable
airmass with surface-based
CAPE in the 500-1000
J/kg range. As such,
varying CAM members depict several embedded thunderstorms within the
broader batch of showers. Any storms will reside in an environment
characteristic of 40-50kts of deep-layer 0-6km vertical wind
shear
with 25-30kts of 0-1km
shear and 200-250
m2/s2 of 0-1km
SRH.
Forecast soundings within the near-storm environment reveal strongly
curved hodographs owing to impressively backed southeast winds at
the surface. As such, transient
supercell structures will be
possible along with the potential for locally damaging winds and a
couple brief tornadoes should any more robust supercells be able to
take advantage of a favorable environment.
Key message 2: A strong cold
front will bring the potential for
severe weather late Sunday night through Monday morning with the
main hazards being damaging winds and
isolated tornadoes. We are
only one day out, so start preparing now. Make sure you have
multiple ways to receive warnings and think about where you would
seek safe shelter if a
warning was issued for your location.
A highly anomalous and amplified
trough will take on a negative
tilt
as it lifts from the Lower Mississippi Valley and into the
Appalachians late Sunday night through Monday morning. A very deep
sub 980mb surface low will also shift northeast across the Great
Lakes region with a strong cold
front racing east. A well
established line of deep
convection will reside within a prefrontal
surface
trough with the line of storms rapidly approaching the
mountains very early Monday morning. The line is expected to quickly
push across the area through the morning hours before pushing east
by early afternoon. The main focus will be the potential for a
widespread damaging wind event. A 50kt low-level
jet translating
across the region in conjunction with extreme wind fields will
support more than enough wind
shear for organized
convection. While
thermodynamic parameters won`t be as eye popping overnight, at least
300-500
J/kg of
MLCAPE will
likely be realized with values
increasing closer to 1000
J/kg east of I-26 through mid to late
morning. This will be more than sufficient for maintenance of a
severe convective line, especially in light of intense forcing and
dynamics. In these cases, strong synoptic forcing from such a
powerful
trough can offset poor thermodynamic fields. The main
threat will be for damaging winds along with a few tornadoes,
especially with any northeast bowing line segments or line breaks.
Now is the time to make your severe weather preparations. Make sure
you have multiple ways to receive warnings such as
NOAA Weather
Radio, Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), social media, or local TV
and radio. If you live in a mobile or manufactured home make plans
ahead of time to stay with friends or family who live in a sturdy
building as mobile/manufactured homes are not safe when it comes to
tornadoes.
Latest from GSP for tomorrow and Monday. Fairly strong wording there and this would only be worse if the line slows down. Then again, it may not matter. An event like this one on 2-10-1990 came through before 9 am and brought major severe weather from Pickens to Cherokee counties in SC. Atlanta had a 60+ gust from this event even earlier that morning, a little before 6 am I think.