A Weather Alert Day has been issued for Today, Friday, April 1 for the potential for severe thunderstorms. A strong cold front will be stalling west of the Carolinas today before finally moving through early Saturday morning. This brings the possibility of three rounds of thunderstorms Friday into early Saturday morning, each of which could contain strong or severe storms. Throughout the day, our primary hazard will be gusty straight line winds of 60+ mph. Secondary, but nonzero, threats are 1″+ hail as well as isolated tornadoes.
Early this morning was the first round of potential severe weather. A line of thunderstorms moved into the area just before daybreak and should move offshore by noon. 60+ mph winds are the greatest threat with this round of storms, followed by 1″+ hail.
The second round of potentially severe storms is the most conditional–it can only happen under a certain set of circumstances. The window of time to look at would be from 3-8 PM for individual storms to form in the eastern Carolinas. A lot of this depends on sunshine–if it is sunny, storms will have more available energy to tap in to. If it is overcast, there won’t be as much energy. If it’s sunny and storms form, the main threat will still be 60+ mph winds, but the tornado threat would increase. If storms are able to form on their own away from any other storms, they will have the potential to rotate. Energy will decrease significantly after the sun goes down, taking most of the strong storm threat with it. Again, this round of storms is contingent upon certain things happening in the atmosphere. We may get no storms during this time frame, if the conditions aren’t right.
The final round of storms will come in the late evening into overnight hours on Saturday. This is when the cold front will actually pass through the area. When it finally pushes offshore by 10 AM Saturday, the rain and storm threat will be over. As with the first round, these storms will likely be in the form of a squall line with winds of 60+ mph and/or 1″+ hail.
This graphic shows overall for tomorrow the type of threat and its level.
