Missouri & Illinois Being Warned about Dangerous Storms this Week

I am very surprised by this. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center is already warning nearly all of Missouri and Illinois about dangerous storms later this week. This is nearly unprecedented this far out.

There is obviously growing confidence among the meteorologists in NOAA's Storm Prediction Center that severe storms will develop later this week in nearly all of Missouri and Illinois. This is their 4 to 8 day outlook which shows Friday, March 14 being a day to watch.

Here's also a probability map for severe storm development from Colorado State University for Friday, March 14.

The forecasters at NOAA are normally very conservative and will rarely create such a large warned area this many days out. They are not alone in their thinking. This is all because of a near record low pressure event that meteorologist Travis Roberts said could be a record-setter going back as far as 1950.

This is why many forecasters now believe a bomb cyclone event could happen over Missouri and Illinois with a drastic pressure drop that could ignite explosive severe thunderstorm development.

Be very aware of severe storms possibilities on Friday and even Saturday in some places. While it's still too early to know for sure, it seems all but certain that some parts of Missouri and Illinois will see storms at the end of the week.