Missouri Suddenly at Risk for Big Hail, Wind & Tornadoes Thursday

Well, this was an unexpected weather development. Previously, forecasts called for parts of Missouri to have a chance of mild thunderstorm activity late this week. Now, parts of Missouri are suddenly in the danger zone for hail, wind and even some tornadoes Thursday afternoon.

I have a weather alert app that no one else has. It's my wife the meteorologist who sent me a "notification" today that the northern half of Missouri is now in what the NOAA Storm Prediction Center calls an "enhanced" chance for big thunderstorm activity.

There's a lot of very technical weather nerd talk in their discussion, but this part is (sort of) understandable "highly favorable thermodynamic and kinematic space should exist for significant severe hail and wind threats with supercells likely growing upscale" which is why they "have upgraded to level 3-ENH risk across the most likely corridor" which is northern Missouri and the southern part of Iowa.

I asked my wife for a translation into common person English and she said there is a good chance northern Missouri will see wind damage from storms, likely big hail (which appears to be the biggest risk) and perhaps even a twister or two (or three).

The National Weather Service in St. Louis has now updated their official forecast to adjust to this new enhanced chance of severe weather in Missouri for Thursday, too.

Whenever the forecasters make a sudden drastic change to a forecast like they've done here, I pay attention. That means some variable in the weather has made a sudden change and could cause problems for parts of Missouri with little warning.

Consider this your unofficial alert if you live in these areas.

UPDATE: 6-13-24 - 10:39am - NOAA has now updated the forecast and are warning of big hail for Missouri in these storms.