Tracking heat and storms Friday, soggy weekend ahead
TONIGHT: Partly cloudy with lows in the upper 60s.
TOMORROW: Spot shower early, then becoming hot and humid. Highs in the low 90s with a heat index between 97-100.
EXTENDED: The front that slid through yesterday will push back north as a warm front during the day tomorrow, sending our temperatures back into the low 90s with a heat index near 100 degrees for the afternoon. The heat will be enough to create a lid on storms through the day, but updrafts will be able to punch through that given the amount of instability and wind shear we'll have available by the end of the day. Storms are expected to form as isolated cells near the front along the Iowa-Missouri border tomorrow afternoon, and these could pose a hail threat just to our north. Storms are expected to congeal into a line north of us before sunset that sags south/southeast into the evening and overnight, with the highest severe threat along and just outside the Mississippi River. The northern half of Mid-Missouri is in a level 3 or enhanced risk of severe storms Friday night into Saturday. Storms should move into our northeast counties between 7-9 PM, and continue to build west and head south into more of Mid-Missouri by late evening, bringing the threat of heavy rain and damaging winds, along with the possibility of an isolated tornado or two. Storms should lose intensity by morning, but we could have some lingering rain around Saturday morning. Depending on how quickly that moves out, we could see another round develop toward mid-late afternoon that could pack a punch if the environment can recover after the morning round. If it does, we could end up with more heavy rain and the threat of damaging winds. The threat is more conditional, so we have not extended the Weather Alert Day into Saturday afternoon/evening at this time.
This low pressure will slowly drift northeast Sunday into Monday, leaving us with some lingering showers and temperatures in the upper 70s to around 80 on Sunday. It exits the area early next week, leaving us with warmer temperatures back into the upper 80s to low 90s for much of next week.
