FORECAST: Severe weather hits the Big Country

ABILENE, Texas ( BCH Weather ) – There’s no fooling around here, the first day of April is shaping up to be a stormy one for mainly the eastern portion of the Big Country. Multiple of our counties are currently under a Severe Thunderstorm Watch.

Coincidentally, Monday is day two of Severe Weather Awareness Week . It seems that mother nature is brewing up quite the example of a severe weather event to begin the week.

The following counties are under a Severe Thunderstorm Watch through 9:00 p.m. Monday: Brown, Callahan, Coke, Coleman, Concho, Eastland, Fisher, Haskell, Jones, Nolan, Runnels, Shackelford, Sterling, Taylor, Throckmorton.

At the time this article was published, the City of Roscoe (Nolan County) was at risk for some pretty major storm impact; including hail damage to vehicles and wind damage to roofs and structures, and trees. The NWS advised residents to move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building.

Around 11:00 Monday morning, there wasn’t much change from the outlook that was released the night prior. Just shortly after that at around noon, the Storm Prediction Center increased the threat for severe storms to a slight risk for the eastern third of the Big Country.

The timing for storm development was around 3:00 p.m. for the Big Country near and along a dry line. Timing for storms in Abilene will be from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., then continuing east through the evening.

Large to potentially very large hail up to golf ball sizes will be the main hazard with strong winds and isolated tornadoes being a more secondary threat along with dangerous lightning.

By the late afternoon and evening Monday, a pacific front will sweep across the area catching up with the dry line. Forcing along the front, aided by a weak shortwave aloft, will lead to further thunderstorm development along the front. Storms should be out of the area around 9:00 or 10:00 Monday night.

Here is the Surface Fronts and Pressures Forecast from the Weather Prediction Center, valid at 7:00 p.m. Monday. You can see the pacific front in the process of overtaking the dryline as the system moves through Texas.

If you shift your focus to the northern portion of the panhandle region, you can see the second reinforcement front gearing up to move south into the Big Country by Tuesday morning.

Tuesday’s highs are expected to only reach the 60s, and even stay in the upper 50s in some areas in the Big Country. It will get pretty chilly Tuesday night into Wednesday morning with lows dropping into the upper 30s and mid 40s across the area.

From Wednesday into the weekend, a gradual warming trend will bring temperatures into the upper 70s to low 80s by the end of the work week. Breezy conditions will also return Friday.

With the Total Solar Eclipse next week, we are gaining a little more information about weather conditions for the event. As of now conditions aren’t looking the best.

Models are showing an increase in cloud cover on Monday, April 8 with the chance of showers and potentially storms. Of course, a lot can change in a week so hopefully conditions improve.

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