Another Round of Storms for Monday

The severe weather threat is low to kick off the work week, but you'll still need to keep an eye to the radar with scattered showers and storms arriving in the mid to late morning, and continuing into the early evening.

A few scattered ripples or waves of energy will ride through the northwest flow currently in place in the upper levels of the atmosphere. The ripples will act as a lifting mechanism needed for showers and storms, and the instability needed will come by way of a cold pocket of air. At the 500mb level of the atmosphere, a pocket, or area, of very cold air will arrive overhead from the northern plains. The cold air will bring steeper lapse rates in the atmosphere which will generate some instability.

Timing of the waves will be in the mid to late morning, which will bring initial showers and storms this morning and that will continue through the early evening.  Some small hail will be possible in these storms, as the freezing line drops closer to the surface with the arrival of the cold pocket. This allows for a better chance for small hail, even though cloud tops won't be very high, they will be tall enough to tap into that chilly air.

Once the sun sets this evening, the threat for storms goes down. Another chance for rain and thunder arrives Tuesday.