Forecasters warn Oklahoma may see tornadoes; Texas could bake in triple-digit temperatures
OKLAHOMA CITY — Forecasters warned Saturday of another day of increased risk of dangerous tornadoes in the Midwest, telling people in South Texas they could experience triple-digit temperatures — and that’s with four weeks to go before summer begins.
The Oklahoma weather service likened the day to “a gasoline-soaked pile of brush.” Forecasters are not confident that storms will form, but any that do could explode with large hail, dangerous winds and tornadoes.
“There is a small chance that most matches will be blind and we will only see a few storms today. Still, that’s not a game I would want to play in. It only takes one storm to have an impact,” the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma, wrote on Facebook.
Excessive heat, especially in May, is the danger in South Texas, where the heat index is expected to approach 49 degrees Celsius this weekend. The region is at the northern end of a heat dome that stretches from Mexico to South America, National Weather Service meteorologist Zack Taylor said.
Sunday looks like the warmest day with record highs forecast for late May for Austin, Brownsville, Dallas and San Antonio, Taylor said.
The temperature was near 32 degrees and the heat index was approaching 40 degrees Celsius in Brownsville on the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the National Weather Service.
Red Flag fire warnings are also in effect in western Texas, all of New Mexico and parts of Oklahoma, Arizona and Colorado, where very low humidity of less than 10% and wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour combine with the high temperatures. .
“We have very dry air, warm temperatures and high winds, creating a high fire danger over a large area… which could lead to rapidly spreading or out-of-control fires,” Taylor said.
Meanwhile, several inches of snow fell Friday into early Saturday in Rolla, North Dakota, about 10 miles from the Canadian border.
April and May were a busy month for tornadoes, especially in the Midwest. Climate change is increasing the severity of storms around the world.
April had the second-highest number of tornadoes in the country on record. And by 2024, the U.S. is already 25% ahead of the average number of twisters, according to the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
Iowa has been hit the hardest so far this week. A deadly tornado devastated Greenfield. And other storms brought flooding and wind damage elsewhere in the state.
The storm system causing the severe weather is expected to move east as the Memorial Day weekend continues, bringing rain that could delay Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 auto race in Indiana and more severe storms in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Kentucky.
The risk of severe weather will move to North Carolina and Virginia on Monday, forecasters said.