Good morning, folks... Maybe for the last time?? By now, I'm sure many of you have heard that a small Christian sect proclaimed as early as a few months ago that the Rapture will come upon us today around 6 PM in each time zone as an earthquake. I have not done a lot of research on this supposed rapture, but from what I have heard and seen, the same people who are saying that we'll see the beginning of the rapture tonight have also said that the world would end... back in 1994. Given the numerous times people have said the world would end throughout human history, the most memorable for me would be the Y2K scare before the year 2000 came, I remember what I was taught in Church and what Matthew 24:36 says. "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." In layman's terms, WE DON'T KNOW WHEN THE WORLD WILL END!
With that out of the way, we have an interesting setup for today across the state of Missouri.
Why the slight risk for severe weather across such a broad area?
Here's the surface map for tomorrow evening at 7 PM. A warm front will lift well off to our northeast into Illinois and Indiana with a cold front that will be coming in from the northwest. With warm and moist air coming in from the Gulf of Mexico thanks to the high pressure in the Gulf and the low pressure center in Oklahoma, these ingredients will come together to spark showers and thunderstorms late in the afternoon and into the overnight hours. When can we see storms start to fire up?
Between 5 and 6 PM, look for thunderstorms to start developing in southeastern Kansas, northeastern Oklahoma and western MO around Joplin, Stockton, Nevada and Pittsburg.
Between 6 and 7 PM, the thunderstorms will form into a solid squall line as it skirts just to the north of Springfield around Buffalo and Bolivar. Any travel on U.S. 71 between Joplin and Nevada and on U.S. 65 between Springfield and Sedalia will be a bit rough with these storms capable of large hail and damaging winds.
Around 9 PM, look for the activity to temporarily shift to the Columbia-Jefferson City area with the threat still of large hail and damaging winds. Here, it looks like most of the I-44 corridor may escape the storms unscathed. However...
Additional development is possible south of the main cluster around Columbia and Jefferson City. This model run at 10:30 PM wants to bring thunderstorms close to Lebanon, Waynesville, Fort Leonard Wood, St. Robert and Rolla as the entire complex rolls closer to the St. Louis area.
The St. Louis area will see these thunderstorms roll to the north side of the metro area while the southern storms appear to want to weaken as they continue east along I-44. That's how the severe threat is shaping up for this evening. I'm not expecting any tornadoes, but the big threats will be large hail and damaging winds.
Here's something that I want to do at the end of every blog post. Whenever I tell people the type of music and artists that I like to listen to, they often say that I was born in the wrong time period and that I should have been born in the 50s or the 60s. I say to them that my parents loved the music and wanted to pass them down to us. So, at the end of each post, I'll put up a music video or a song that I really like and I think people should listen to. To start it off, it's one of my favorite songs that got me hooked on The Doobie Brothers. Please enjoy "Listen To the Music." Have a good day, everyone!
