Severe storm threat returning to the Plains

AccuWeather

Storm chaser Tony Laubach reported from Nebraska on July 15 as the threat of storms ramped up across the region.

Transcript

00:00We're joined now by AccuWeather meteorologist and storm chaser Tony Laubach.

00:03Tony, it looks pretty nice behind you, but I know you're watching for some of these storms.

00:11Yeah, and I think the scene is going to start to change pretty quickly here.

00:14You mentioned those threats, the damaging winds, going to be the primary factor,

00:17but there's going to be an early window, I think,

00:19as we see a couple of isolated storms develop on the front here to the north of North Platte, Nebraska,

00:24where we could see some large hail and, yes, even a tornado or two.

00:29But right now, the main threat is going to be those damaging winds,

00:32especially as we get later into the evening.

00:33How late are you talking? We're talking 11 o'clock at least.

00:37We'll show you the severe thunderstorm watch.

00:38This has just gone up.

00:40You notice we've got two watches on the board, one way up north in Minnesota,

00:43and then the one here in Nebraska, that one is the one that I'm going to be covering here this evening,

00:47that going until 11 o'clock.

00:49Again, the primary risks with that are going to be damaging winds.

00:52We could see wind gusts up to 80 miles per hour and maybe some hail with those storms as well.

00:57Again, that early threat for hail and that isolated tornado threat,

01:00that's going to be a short window, maybe an hour or two,

01:03before that complex of storms really gets going and starts pushing to the southeast.

01:08This will affect areas along Interstate 80,

01:12basically from North Platte east over toward Grand Island,

01:16New York, maybe as far east as the Lincoln, Nebraska area.

01:20So a lot of major population centers along Interstate 80 going to be on the threat for those damaging winds

01:25later on this evening.

01:27We're going to see those storms fire about an hour or so north of I-80.

01:31They're going to be slow moving at first, but then as that front starts to work its way south,

01:34we'll see that complex of storms really get together.

01:37Might see a bowing segment.

01:39Typically, that means you get that bow echo, that push of strong winds.

01:42That would be the threat, the primary threat this evening.

01:45Again, could be looking at wind gusts between 60 and 80 miles per hour.

01:48So folks, along the I-80 corridor, again, between North Platte, Nebraska, east toward Lincoln,

01:53certainly be weather aware tonight.

01:54It could be very, very stormy until later this evening.

01:58Meteorologist and storm chaser Tony Lawback, thanks for the update.

02:02All right, so let's go and see what else is going on across parts of the Northern Plains,

02:05including our first tornado warning storm that we are tracking for the region.

02:08You can see here for Cherry County, Nebraska,

02:10we have our very first severe thunderstorm warning that we're going to be watching out for.

02:14But I also want to point out that storm that's off to the south and to the southwest.

02:17Once again, all the storms that we are tracking across the Northern Plains,

02:20they have all those rich inflow winds working the way into the actual storm.

02:25So all the storms we're watching out here across parts of the Northern Plains,

02:28especially that we're going to be watching out for the potential of tornadoes to increase.

02:32So Grant County, even though you're only under a severe thunderstorm warning,

02:35not a tornado warning, you need to treat this as a tornado-worn storm

02:38because this storm is definitely going to be capable of producing a tornado as well.

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