A Significant Spring Storm Impacting the Central U.S. This Week

A significant late-season winter storm will bring an expanding area of heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain to the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest. Further south, severe thunderstorms are expected from the southern Plains into the southern Great Lakes. A multi-day excessive rain and flooding event will impact the Ozarks into the Ohio Valley through Saturday. Read More >

Automatically generated image showing areas of the convective interest parameter.


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Convective Interest

This is a highly experimental index which attempts to show areas where surface based convection is favorable or may initiate within the next hour. The index uses a combination of several fields, (CAPE, CIN, low level lapse rates, moisture convergence, satellite, and most unstable LI) to develop a number between -100 and 100. Negative values are indicative of an environment not supportive of surface based convection. The higher the value, the more favorable the environment is for surface based convection. Values greater than 70 are suggestive that convective initiation will likely occur within the next hour in that region. This index works best in regimes of airmass (or pulse) convection or on days where the cap is the primary inhibiting factor for convection.

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A Significant Spring Storm Impacting the Central U.S. This Week

Convective Parameters - Convective Interest