Today's Storm Threat

If you said that you were woken up by the sound of thunder this morning, that wouldn't surprise me. A round of strong thunderstorms pushed through to start off our Tuesday, producing gusty winds, plenty of lightning, and some hefty rainfall. It definitely brought a busy start to the school year for some, and also a messy morning commute.

You can see just how much rainfall was produced by a severe warned thunderstorm as it moved over the Park Hills Golf Course in Freeport, covering most of the driving range. In fact, one of our viewers from Freeport sent in a picture of her rain gauge this morning. Kathy Lapp received an astonishing 3 inches of rainfall in her backyard.

At this moment, most of the activity that affected us this morning has pushed out of the region. This has left us with mostly cloudy skies and we are even seeing a few peeks of sun as the afternoon approaches. A progressing cold front later today will bring another opportunity for a few scattered thunderstorms, some of which could be strong to severe.

The main factor into if we see any strong to severe storms later today will be instability or energy in the atmosphere. The fact that we had a round of thunderstorms move through this morning, it did take a good chunk of energy from the atmosphere's supply. We now have to see if the atmosphere has enough time to replenish and replace the energy that was lost. The cold front will provide the forcing or lift for thunderstorms today. Now the sun needs to do it's part and heat up the surface. Warm moist air at the surface is just one ingredient you need for storms to pop. If cloud cover is present, that lessens the chances.
The Storm Prediction Center has the eastern half of the Stateline under a slight risk (2 out of 5) for severe storms. This leaves the areas that got hammered by this morning's activity under a marginal risk (l of 5). The main time frame for storms will be 3 PM to 8 PM with damaging wind gusts are the primary concern. Large hail and even an isolated tornado or two cannot be ruled out. Stay weather aware through the afternoon.