Weather alert: Tornado and severe thunderstorm watches until 8 p.m.
Damaging winds, large hail, and tornadoes possible.
Heads up Minnesota.
Severe storms with damaging winds, large hail and possible tornadoes are very likely to sweep across much of Minnesota late Friday afternoon into this evening.
See up to the minute severe weather posts on the MPR severe weather live blog here.
Update 2:45 pm: A tornado watch has been issued for much of central Minnesota, including the far west Twin Cities.
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A severe thunderstorm watch includes most of southwest Minnesota until 8 p.m.
The weather situation is potent, and severe weather watches and warnings ar almost certain today. In fact, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center says there’s a 95 percent chance they will issue severe weather watches soon across much of southern Minnesota.
Enhanced risk
There is an enhanced risk for severe storms packing damaging winds and large hail over 2 inches in diameter across our region Friday.
Squall line
Storms are developing in western Minnesota as I write this post. The short-range forecast models indicate a squall line with damaging wind threat sweeping east through Friday night. For the Twin Cities, the most likely timing window for storms is between about 6 and 8 pm.
Here’s NOAA’s NAM 3 km resolution model.
Stay alert for likely severe weather watches and warnings through Friday evening.