A lot of times during the summer months and really throughout various other times of the year, we get some instability and we get pop up thunderstorms.  Well yesterday they said there was a 20% chance of thunderstorms which usually mean we get nothing.  So yesterday at lunch I don’t think there was a cloud in the sky.  When I left work, I saw a pretty good sized cell far to the south so I checked the radar on my cell phone and it was pretty far away.  The closer I got to home more and more little cells were popping up and thought to myself that these were pretty close.  Got home checked radar and sure enough, this one (20% chance) was coming right at us.  Sweet..!!!  So I grabbed a few pictures of the clouds in the area and the rain approaching.

Tornado Watch #311 was just issued for our area
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/ww0311.html

 Tornado Watch #311 states this:
TORNADOES…HAIL TO 3.5 INCHES IN DIAMETER…THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 80 MPH…AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.

DISCUSSION…VERY UNSTABLE AIR MASS WITH MLCAPES AOA 3000 J/KG AND LITTLE REMAINING INHIBITION ARE IN PLACE AHEAD OF COLD FRONT ACROSS NRN TX/SRN OK.  THUNDERSTORMS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP RAPIDLY DURING THE AFTERNOON ALONG/AHEAD OF COLD FRONT AND THE DRY LINE EXTENDING SWD IN NRN TX.  MDT/STG DEEP LAYER SHEAR WILL SUPPORT SUPERCELLS INCLUDING THREAT OF VERY LARGE HAIL AND TORNADOES.

Earlier this morning the chance of severe weather was a slight risk and it was upgraded to a moderate risk this afternoon.

http://spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/ww0153.html

Looks like we are 1 county outside the edge of this tornado watch. With all the discussion going on, I’m sure we will be under one they way this storm is moving. It is still early on though. Local media mentioned storm initiation about 6pm to 7pm. However sometimes they are wrong so I like to check out what noaa.gov says.

This watch comes from Mesoscale Discussion #540
http://spc.noaa.gov/products/md/md0540.html

http://spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/ww0148.html

Tornado watch #148 was just issued for our area today till 9pm.  Radar is indicating clear skies and some storms starting to fire out west..

EFFECTIVE THIS MONDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 200 PM UNTIL 900 PM CDT.
   
TORNADOES…HAIL TO 3 INCHES IN DIAMETER…THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 80 MPH…AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.

DISCUSSION…SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO BEGIN DEVELOPING ALONG SURFACE DRYLINE OVER NORTH CENTRAL TX IN THE NEXT HOUR.  THESE STORMS WILL LIKELY BECOME SEVERE RAPIDLY IN ENVIRONMENT OF HIGH CAPE VALUES AND FAVORABLE VERTICAL SHEAR.  SUPERCELLS
CAPABLE OF VERY LARGE HAIL AND TORNADOES ARE EXPECTED.  THREAT WILL LIKELY PERSIST THROUGH MUCH OF THE EVENING.