SPC 1630Z Day 1 Outlook
Day 1 Convective Outlook
NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK
1020 AM CST Thu Nov 24 2022
Valid 241630Z - 251200Z
...THERE IS A MARGINAL RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS TODAY THROUGH
TONIGHT ACROSS THE MID AND UPPER TEXAS INTO SOUTHERN LOUISIANA
COASTAL PLAIN...AND PERHAPS PARTS OF CENTRAL TEXAS...
...SUMMARY...
Strong thunderstorms may impact parts of central and southeastern
Texas into southern Louisiana today into tonight. It is possible
that a few of these could pose some risk for severe weather.
...Synopsis...
The westerlies appear to be trending more progressive across the
northern mid-latitudes of the Pacific through North America, while
remaining more amplified in the southern mid- and subtropical
latitudes. The latter regime still includes prominent ridging along
an axis from the subtropical eastern Pacific into the Pacific Coast
states, with a significant downstream low digging along the higher
terrain of New Mexico. Models suggest that the mid-level low will
continue southward into northern Chihuahua through late tonight,
while mid-level ridging develops eastward across and east of the
northern Rockies, and downstream short wave troughing digs across
the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes region.
In lower levels, expansive cold surface ridging is in the process of
shifting off the Atlantic Seaboard, but potentially cold air
associated with it still lingers across much of the Southeast, and
as far southwest as Louisiana/adjacent southeast Texas coastal
areas. Only a gradual further modification is forecast, with a
reinforcing intrusion of cold air already surging southeast of the
Rockies, as far south as the Texas/Oklahoma Panhandle vicinity. As
this air spreads across the southern Great Plains toward
northwestern Gulf coastal areas, potential for surface cyclogenesis
likely will remain suppressed to the lee of the southern Rockies.
...Texas/Louisiana...
Sufficient low-level warming and moistening has occurred, in
association with southerly return flow around the southwestern
periphery of the retreating surface ridge, to contribute to
sufficient destabilization for increasing thunderstorm development.
Initially, this has been mostly rooted within a lower/mid
tropospheric warm advection regime across central through
northeastern Texas, above a residual near-surface stable layer.
However, this stable layer has become increasingly shallow in a
corridor across parts of the Edwards Plateau and Hill Country into
the mid/upper Texas coastal plain.
In advance of the digging mid-level low, a belt of westerlies
emanating from the subtropical eastern Pacific has become
increasingly cyclonic across and east of the lower Rio Grande
Valley, with some building of downstream ridging across the lower
Mississippi Valley into the Southeast. This will generally be
maintained through this period, but a smaller-scale short wave
perturbation is in the process of progressing through this regime,
and may be contributing to recent thunderstorm initiation across
parts of Deep South Texas into the upper Texas coastal plain. It
appears that this activity will increase in coverage through the
day, before spreading into/through the lower Mississippi Valley
overnight.
This convection will at least inhibit further near-surface
destabilization inland of mid/upper Texas coastal areas, if not tend
to stabilize the environment, but modest boundary-layer
destabilization (CAPE on the order of 500-1000 J/kg) still appears
possible near immediate coastal areas. In the presence of strong
deep-layer shear (beneath 50+ southwesterly 500 mb flow), any
convection supported by inflow of this unstable boundary-layer air
may tend to gradually organize. While this could eventually include
a couple of supercell structures, the tendency for low-level flow to
remain modest or weaken and veer through the day will maintain
smallish low-level hodographs and limit the overall severe weather
potential.
..Kerr/Thornton.. 11/24/2022
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