Oklahoma could see first February tornado in 12 years Sunday as severe weather threat eyes Plains

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – Oklahoma could see its first February tornado in 12 years as a severe weather threat eyes the Plains on Sunday.

Supercell thunderstorms, with the potential for giant hail and tornadoes, seem more and more possible throughout components of Oklahoma and Kansas Sunday afternoon and night, the FOX Forecast Center mentioned.

“Looking at this weekend, we have a big storm that is going to be blasting across the country,” FOX Weather meteorologist Britta Merwin mentioned. “We do have early indications that severe weather is going to be a large component, larger than what we have seen with the last several storms that have crossed the country.”

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Setup for severe weather

A powerful low-pressure system will sweep east throughout the Plains on Sunday. As it does so, southerly winds will transport a heat, humid air mass northward into the area. Combined with loads of wind shear – the change in wind pace and/or route with peak – this setup will strongly favor the event of supercells with threats of enormous hail and tornadoes.

The storms will finally congeal right into a linear line able to producing damaging wind gusts over 60 mph. This line of storms is anticipated to maneuver east Sunday evening and could affect areas like Dallas-Fort Worth, Tulsa in Oklahoma and Kansas City in Missouri.

“Any time that we see an outlook like this from the Storm Prediction Center days ahead, it’s one to make you pause and take notice,” Merwin mentioned.

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Not the place February tornadoes are commonest

“What we have been seeing, which is not abnormal, is our kind of second Tornado Alley in the winter. We usually do see tornadoes across Mississippi and Alabama,” Merwin mentioned. (*12*)

This is the second week in a row, Merwin mentioned, that we have seen severe weather shift a bit bit farther into type of the normal Tornado Alley, which is forward of schedule. We sometimes would see that shift nearer to April.

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If a tornado had been to strike Oklahoma, it might be a uncommon prevalence, with only 51 February tornadoes reported in the Sooner State since 1950. The final February tornado in Oklahoma was an EF-0 tornado on Feb. 27, 2011.