National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Heavy Rain From the Central Plains to the Mid-Atlantic; Heat Wave Begins This Weekend

Strong to severe thunderstorms and heavy rain will impact portions of the central Plains into the Upper Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic through the weekend. A stretch of unusually hot and humid weather is expected across portions of the central U.S. and the Southeast beginning this weekend and continuing through next week. The heat may reach dangerous levels, particularly mid to late next week. Read More >

Overview

A vigorous upper level low moved east from southern Colorado across south central Kansas through the late afternoon on Tuesday, June 9, 2020. As it did, a surface low deepened and moved east across Kansas pushing a cold front south across the Panhandles and western Texas. The cold front moved into the Oklahoma Panhandle early in the morning and quickly swept south across the region. A strong pressure gradient between the low over Kansas and high pressure surging southeast out of Colorado created very strong winds across the region behind the front which lasted into the evening.

Across the northern Panhandles, sustained winds increased to 35 to 45 mph out of the north to northwest with gusts mainly in the 55 to 65 mph range. Further south, sustained winds generally ranged from 25 to 35 with gusts reaching 45 to 55 mph. These strong winds lasted most of the day before finally diminishing from west to east beginning in the late afternoon. Although the relative humidity was only 15 to 35 percent across the central and western Panhandles, the high winds and dry fuels associated with recent onset of moderate to extreme drought in the area led to a high wildfire danger across part of the region.

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