Clouds increase, but storms hold off until later in the week

Ajouté : 2026-05-05

[00:00:02]Well, today was picture perfect, but we are seeing some changes. While yes, blue skies over most of the area, take a look at the stark contrast in weather conditions here in Ozark versus weather conditions over and near Joplin where skies are currently cloudy. We have seen clouds move into that area this afternoon and you can see it kind of when we take a look at our satellite information here. Southeast Kansas into Oklahoma, you can see that area gray right there. That's low cloudiness and it extends east to about I-49. Further east, skies have been generally crystal clear. Now, off to the south we find wet weather. This is that rain trigger that I was talking about yesterday that was going to pass by to our south and it's doing that. But, there's moisture also moving north.

[00:00:47]Winds have become south to southwesterly and that's transporting moisture north and you can see that reflected here by the green. These are higher dew points and that higher humidity air is generating the low cloudiness across Oklahoma into southeast Kansas. And that higher humidity air is going to be overspreading our area as we work into Wednesday and that's going to make for a cloudier day, especially west versus east. I think the day starts off cloudy to the west. There'll be sun to the east, but even as we get into the afternoon we'll find partly cloudy skies across our eastern counties. I think our hour-by-hour forecast does a pretty nice job of painting that picture. This is through 7:00 in the morning and by then areas along and west of highway 65 look cloudy. East of highway 65 mostly clear to partly cloudy and as we work through the morning and into the afternoon, we should find partly cloudy skies here.

[00:01:40]Meanwhile, areas to the west, which will have a rather cloudy morning, should at least have some peaks of sunshine as we get into the afternoon. Temperatures look comfortably cool to start the day about 52 in Springfield with an afternoon high of 75. It looks like that cloud cover may hold highs down a bit.

[00:01:56]Low to mid-70s common across southwest Missouri, northwest Arkansas. Meanwhile, off to the northeast and east where there'll be more sun, looks like closer to upper 70s. Looking ahead to Thursday, very similar setup. We'll find partly to mostly cloudy skies.

[00:02:10]Temperatures look a little warmer, upper 70s to low 80s and winds look stronger out of the south at 15 to 25 mph with gusts of 30 to 40 mph. That wind's usually a sign this time of the year that you got a storm approaching and we will have a cold front approaching overnight Thursday night and it will trigger strong to severe storms to our northwest. The Storm Prediction Center has painted a big bull's-eye for that risk of severe weather from Oklahoma through Kansas into Iowa. That does include northwest Missouri, but like we saw many times last week, the severe weather risk with this system too will be weighted toward the northwest. Those initial storms that fire up near I-35, they're probably going to be severe. All hazards possible, but as the storms approach our area and get into west-central Missouri, they'll already be transitioning into more of a line of thunderstorms. And then from there, I think that line will probably quickly fade as it approaches and then drops south of I-44 late in the night Friday night. And I do expect these storms to not arrive in our area until after midnight. That's midnight Thursday night and as we work through Friday morning, early Friday morning, getting into Warsaw and Humansville and then it looks like it gets to I-44 maybe sometime 3:00 to 4:00 in the morning and then dropping south from there toward northern Arkansas through sunrise on Friday.

[00:03:31]There might still be an outside chance for a storm or two to the southeast Friday afternoon along the cold front.

[00:03:37]Maybe some hail with a few of those storms. Looks like about 74 for a high on Friday. Quiet on Saturday. Additional storms expected on Sunday and a few of those could produce hail and there may also be a wave of strong to severe storms late Sunday night into Monday morning. We'll have to keep an eye on the forecast up and down when it comes to sunshine and rain, but the temperature's kind of staying about the same.

[00:03:59]>> yeah. I mean, the temperatures running a little bit above normal and and all in all, temperatures look pretty comfortable. Let's hopefully we can keep these severe weather chances away. Let's hope. All right, thank you, Jamie.