Another round of severe thunderstorms will likely slam parts of the nation’s heartland Wednesday, from Texas to Nebraska.This isn’t unusual for mid-May, but could cause minor delays in freight flow across the region.
A warm front in northern Texas will move northward into the middle Mississippi Valley by Wednesday evening. This will result in a significant air mass change, with southerly winds leading to increasing warmth and humidity. In addition, impulses of energy in the upper atmosphere will help trigger thunderstorms that could turn severe in many spots Wednesday from late afternoon into the nighttime in the highlighted religion on the map above. A thunderstorm is defined by National Weather Service (NWS) as severe if it produces any of the following:
⦁ Winds of at least 58 mph
⦁ Hail at least 1 inch in diameter
⦁ A tornado
Initial thunderstorms will likely be supercells, which are thunderstorms that rotate. They may have a tendency to be high precipitation (HP) supercells with torrential rainfall that could cause localized flash flooding. Significantly large hail will be the primary hazard with Wednesday’s supercells, with hail in some areas reaching golf ball size or larger. The overall tornado risk is low, but not zero. There’s a 5% to 10% chance of a tornado developing within 25 miles of any location within the potential threat zone.
Some of the large cities at risk include, but are not limited to Fort Worth, Texas; Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Wichita and Topeka, Kansas; and Kansas City, Missouri. Drivers will likely be delayed at times on Interstates 10, 20, 35 and 40.
The Dallas freight market may get hit by severe storms, but it’s on the edge of the highest risk region. Dallas is a key market, ranking fourth nationally out of 135 markets in terms of its Outbound Tender Volume Index (OTVI) in FreightWaves SONAR. In terms of Outbound Tender Market Share (OTMS) – a market’s outbound volume in relation to the rest of the country – Dallas accounts for nearly 3.0% of the nation’s outbound freight.
Have a great day! Please stay healthy and be careful out there!