TORNADOES TAKE THE AREA BY STORM

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STORMS COME AND STORMS GO...

The long advertised severe weather threat came to an impressive conclusion Friday with numerous reports of tornadoes, hail, and damaging winds. At last check, 61 tornadoes had touched down with 286 reports of large hail. Add in the 255 areas of high wind and you end the day with an unofficial tally of 602 severe weather reports. That a bid day no matter what time of year.

Here's some images I personally snapped as as a twister formed near Malcom, Iowa. The first one shows the funnel descending. The second shows it kicking up a cloud of debris as it reached the ground. It was a sight to behold.

SPC issued a rare high risk outlook for long lived tornadoes Friday morning. As far as I can remember, that was the first high risk issued for my area in the month of March. It was also the first high risk issued for any part of Iowa since 2014! There was a 30 percent chance of a significant tornado within 25 miles of any point within the high risk zone.

Due to the potential, a PDS (particularly dangerous situation) tornado watch was issued for my entire area early Friday afternoon.

BYE BYE THUNDERSTORMS...

Now that the core of the storms energy has passed, strong NW winds are blowing much colder air into the region. Gusts of 40-50 mph are expected and a wind advisory will be in effect until 1:00pm Saturday.

The strong winds are pulling in sharply colder air and snow showers. They are expected to be scattered around into early Saturday morning. Some areas could see a dusting, especially over the NW half of my area. The hi-res 3K NAM shows this for total accumulations. The upper Midwest gets plastered with an April fools joke that includes a foot or more of snow.

Saturday's temperatures start well into the 30s before rising to the low to mid 40s in the afternoon. Those temperatures will be as much as 33 degrees colder than 24 hours earlier.

Wind chills in the morning will be in the upper teens north to the mid to upper 20s south. It will be a frisky day!

Following a cold night, Sunday see's major improvement with dry air and southerly winds sending temperatures into the range of 60 north to 65 south.

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ANOTHER STORM ON THE HORIZON...

Sunday night another front dips into the region and delivers slightly cooler temperatures with highs in the mid 50s north to near 60 south. The front does turn stationary just to the south and by Monday warm air advection from our next storm should spark some late day showers that could linger into Monday night when a thunderstorm is possible.

Tuesday is setting up to be another stormy day with the potential for more severe weather, especially in the area near and south of I-80. A strong warm front will set up somewhere in the vicinity providing the focus for the storms.

Already SPC has a significant risk outlook in place for severe weather from southern Iowa into Missouri.

The position of the warm front and warm sector will be critical to where severe storms eventually form. The front will also create a large temperature gradient. The GFS shows highs near 80 in far southern Iowa Tuesday while my northern counties shiver in readings only in the upper 40s.

After this system, the pattern looks to dry out for awhile but unfortunately temperatures will be well below normal. These are the daily temperature departures for the 7 day period April 5-12th. No thanks

DYNAMIC DUO. Nick Stewart of KGAN TV and T.Swails capture a twister near Malcom, Iowa...that's what I call doing weather right.

Well, this concludes a busy but rewarding day for me. To witness something as mysterious and fascinating as a tornado is beyond words. It's a breath taking experience that defies words. More important, despite all the storms, damage was limited and nobody was killed. Good luck and plenty of advance warning had a lot to do with that. Have a great weekend and roll weather...TS