Tracking strong winds, severe storms Friday

TONIGHT: Increasing clouds and mild with lows in the mid-50s.

TOMORROW: Partly sunny and breezy with strong wind gusts between 50-55 mph. A line of severe storms develop by late afternoon and moves east into the evening. Damaging winds between 70-80 mph are the main concern along with a few tornadoes. Highs tomorrow reach near 80 degrees,

EXTENDED: A WIND ADVISORY will be in effect from noon to 1am Friday for isolated wind gusts between 50-55 mph as winds will be sustained between 30-40 mph during the day. There is also a Red Flag Warning for the Lake area where relative humidity is lower and fire danger will be highest before storms arrive. Storms rapidly develop by late afternoon, and could start out as discrete cells eventually forming into a squall line. 3-8PM still looks like our window for severe weather as storms move from west to east. The overall severe threat has increased to level 4 out of 5 for the eastern half east of Highway 63. The tornado threat has also increased in this same area, and there is a real chance of a strong tornado from about Callaway/Montgomery/Gasconade counties and east toward St. Louis. The threat for damaging winds 70-80 mph is also possible area-wide. Storms will quickly race east at around 50-60 mph, so once storms move in, we’ll be severe clear quickly after. We anticipate power outages with the pre-storm winds and potentially with the severe storms as well. Strong winds stick around into Friday night/Saturday morning but gusts will ease to around 30-40 mph. The weekend is cooler with highs near 60 on Saturday and chilly on Sunday with highs in the low 50s. Next week is warmer to start with another chance of rain by late Tuesday and/or Wednesday.