Weather Alert Day: Severe storms possible this evening in Columbus area
TORNADO WATCH IN EFFECT FOR TONIGHT:
Tornado Watches are now in effect through 10 p.m. tonight for the southwest quadrant of the state, up to, and including Franklin County.
QUICK WEATHER FORECAST:
- Tonight: Rain & storms before midnight, mostly cloudy, low 41
- Wednesday: Rain showers, breezy, cooler, high 47
- Thursday: Light AM wintry mix, to cold rain showers, high 45
- Friday: Early showers, partly sunny, cool, high 44
- Saturday: Mostly sunny, brisk, high 50
FORECAST DISCUSSION:
Good Tuesday evening,
It has been a mild and moist day today with showers and storms already pushing through our area. We have had near record rainfall already, with more rain expected this evening. On top of that much of our area had picked up 1-2" of rain yesterday, making flooding a concern tonight. On top of that, we are watching the line of strong to severe storms in Indiana moving toward our area.
These storms will continue to race towards our area, and will have the risk of strong damaging winds, large hail, frequent lightning, heavy rainfall, and isolated tornadoes this evening. The timing for the arrival of these storms will be in our far western counties after about 630pm and pushing past sunset as they move through Central Ohio. Flooding will be a concern as heavy rains will be possible, but since the storms are moving quick, and not training (following the same track), I do not anticipate large areas of 1"+ rainfall.
After this system passes, we will begin to see a small window of quieter weather overnight as temps fall back into the lower 40s to upper 30s. However, on the backside of this system the low will drive down some colder air for the remainder of the work week. Temps will struggle into the mid to upper 40s on Wednesday with scattered rain showers, and breezy conditions.
Thursday expect a light wet wintry mix in the morning, giving way to cold rain showers in the afternoon with highs only in the middle 40s. Rain showers will be possible early on Friday, with still a chilly day with highs only into the lower to middle 40s. We will start to dry out later Friday and set us up for a nice, but brisk start to the weekend.
Temps on Saturday will push back up near 50 with sunshine returning to our area. Expect more sunshine and warmer temps on Sunday with highs in the upper 50s. Unfortunately, it is appearing that more clouds will start to move in for Monday, but with temps in the lower 60s. For the Eclipse hours in the afternoon, it does appear at this point that we will at least have mixed clouds, and an isolated shower can't be ruled out later in the day as a warm front lifts north.
Tuesday will be a warmer day behind the front, with highs in the upper 60s to near 70.
-Dave