Good afternoon from the Atlanta International Airport. I’m glad the airport offers free wifi service so I’m able to provide an update to y’all without a ridiculous fee. Enough about my personal adventure for the day – lets chat about the threat for another round of severe thunderstorms this afternoon. The Storm Prediction Center has issued a Category 2 Slight Risk of severe weather for the western two-thirds of the Texas Panhandle along with parts of the South Plains north/northwest of Lubbock. The environmental setup is fairly similar to Wednesday. Modest amounts of wind shear combined with an unstable airmass will support the potential for an organized storm mode. Initial thunderstorms will likely fire up on residual outflow boundaries left over from last night’s storms. A supercellular mode is possible with the most intense storms. They may produce damaging hail, strong winds, and even a tornado. Low-level wind shear could be locally enhanced by outflow boundaries – so any storm that latches onto one of them will need to be watched closely. Another complex of storms should develop this evening with another round of hail and damaging winds possible in the risk area. Storms will slowly move to the southeast.

Current data indicates thunderstorm development may begin as soon as 4 PM in the form of isolated storms. Those initial storms will grow upscale into a complex this evening and impact a larger portion of the Texas Panhandle and perhaps even the South Plains.