Severe Storms Four Corners Region / Central & Southern Plains Today and Tomorrow Southern & Central Plains / Mid & Upper Mississippi Valley

Threats: Severe thunderstorms capable of Damaging winds along with hail some large enough to cause damage. A tornado or two can't be ruled out as storms intensify during daylight hours.

Today Friday 10/12 : A strong low pressure system currently centered in the area of Southern Nevada and Northwestern Arizona will continue to move in a east-northeast direction today. Severe storms 'already firing' in eastern Arizona this morning will continue while heading easterly and likely intensify as the day heats up. Also seeing some higher tops in eastern New Mexico Western Texas this morning on the outer periphery of the Low pressure circulation, these will likely continue to build through the day and possibly bring severe storms. A Tornado watch may be issued later today. Some weakening is likely during the overnight hours due to loss of daytime heating, but severe storms are still possible.

Tomorrow Saturday 10/13 : Storms look at this time to be more concentrated than those of Friday. As the Low pressure continues heading east-northeast, areas of the southern and central plains will likely see thunderstorms early Saturday morning which will continue to build through the day while heading for the Upper and lower Mississippi Valley. Later in the day they will likely bring with them severe storms capable of damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes. As always not everyone will experience severe weather so stay aware of changing conditions. Monitor you local weather offices, television stations and weather radios. We'll have more on this later.

Below are graphics showing areas of concern and possible weather for today 'Friday 10/12/12' and tomorrow 'Saturday 10/13/12'.

Friday October 12 2012

Saturday October 13 2012

Georgia Drought Update: Long Term Drought Improves - October 6 2012

Recent rains during the last 14 days brought much needed drought relief for areas in North and Central Georgia. While improvement is seen, drought continues into fall for many in central, west central and southwest Georgia. Northern and southern areas of Georgia including the southeast are now drought free.

Rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches fell across areas of North, Central and West Central Georgia in the past 14 days, while amounts of 5 to 8 inches were observed in North Central and Central Georgia where minor flooding occurred. East Central Georgia saw rainfall amounts around a ½ inch to 1½ inches.

The seasonal drought outlook for Georgia hints at 'some improvement in the coming months. This will mainly be due to lower temperatures and shorter days. However October is the dry month for Georgia. Here's the current drought conditions across the US and the seasonal outlook ..

One aspect of current drought across the US I would like to bring attention to is the drought in the Northern and Central Plains. While this area has without a doubt experienced extensive drought conditions this summer, Georgia has endured drought conditions all year. I only point this out because most large weather and news companies seem to forget about us down here in the south.

Here is an 'animated image' showing drought conditions across the entire US from January 31 2012 through September 25 2012. Notice Georgia has as mentioned endured drought since the beginning of 2012 and if you check my drought archives, you'll see including multiple years of drought.

We'll see how things go during fall and winter here in the Georgia as we really missed out once again on wiping drought out with anything tropical.