Welcome back fall: Big front to bring sudden end to summery weather in the East. [View all]

[elleng]

Strong to severe storms with strong winds and a slight tornado risk are possible Friday and Saturday.

'A strong autumn cold front is sweeping across the Lower 48, bringing a sharp drop in temperatures and a few strong to severe storms. It’s one of several fronts that will gradually cause the stair-step drop in warmth associated with the changing seasons, replacing summerlike mildness in the East with a dry, crisp autumnal air mass by Sunday.

The front’s parent storm system already dropped up to 28 inches of snow on parts of the Rockies as it unleashed a surge of cold air in the mountains before bringing severe weather to the Great Plains. Nearly two dozen tornadoes were reported, concentrated heavily in northwest Kansas and Oklahoma on Tuesday and in northeastern South Dakota and western Minnesota on Wednesday.

Now in a weakened state, the front is still surging east and will present at least some severe weather risk, albeit less widespread. The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center issued a “slight” risk of severe weather, or Level 2 out of 5, for parts of the Tennessee and Ohio valleys Friday, with a “marginal” risk, or Level 1 out of 5, in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Saturday.

As of midday Friday, the front stretched from near Buffalo to Little Rock, Ark., and into southeastern Texas, where it was slowly approaching Houston and Galveston.'>>>

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/10/15/cold-front-severe-weather-east/?