COLUMBIA, MISSOURI — A Level 2 out of 5 severe weather threat is spreading across a wide band of the central U.S. today, stretching from Kansas and Missouri all the way up into North Dakota. The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center says damaging wind gusts will be the biggest danger through the afternoon as scattered storms merge into larger clusters, while North Dakota faces a separate hail risk from a few more powerful cells.
Wind Gusts Top the List of Concerns in Kansas, Missouri
In the southern half of today’s risk zone — covering Kansas and Missouri — officials say the main hazard will come from strong, damaging wind gusts as individual storm cells combine into bigger systems this afternoon. Meteorologists note that when storms cluster like this, the wind threat typically grows stronger as the merged cells feed off one another.
The area around Columbia, Missouri, is expected to see the most active stretch between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m., with conditions likely to peak closer to 4 p.m., according to weather officials.
Hail Becomes the Bigger Worry Up North
The threat changes character as it moves north into North Dakota, where hail — rather than wind — is expected to be the dominant hazard. A handful of more intense storm cells could develop there, officials say, a shift that reflects how different atmospheric conditions are lining up across the north-south corridor covered by today’s outlook.
Beyond this core zone, the Level 2 risk area curves from New Mexico through Colorado and Kansas, then bends northeast across the Great Lakes region into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. A smaller, separate Level 2 pocket has also been flagged near the Delaware-Maryland coastline.
Lower-Level Risk Blankets a Much Wider Region
Surrounding this more serious threat, forecasters have placed a broader Level 1 risk zone that runs from the Southwest through the Plains and Midwest and into New England. While the odds of severe weather are lower across this larger area, officials caution that isolated strong-to-severe storms are still possible.
Authorities are urging residents in the Kansas-Missouri-North Dakota corridor to stay alert through the evening as today’s storm system continues to organize and move through the region.