SEVERE STORMS POSSIBILITY

A powerful storm system will cause strong to severe storms to develop across Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska on Monday afternoon. Those storms will likely continue overnight along a surging cold front across portions of the mid and lower Missouri valleys and perhaps into the Ozarks Plateau. All modes of severe weather are possible on Monday nt-Tuesday morning, however, the primary hazards look to be large hail and damaging winds at this time. Storms will be strongest across western Missouri and Arkansas and will have the tendency to weaken as they track eastward across the Ozarks during the late morning hours and early afternoon hours on Tuesday. Severe weather will still be a possibility though I think the concern will shift towards flash flooding. We could receive 1-2" of rain with locally higher amounts.

FIRE DANGER

Lately we've had some problems with wild fires in Missouri, especially across Laclede county. We are currently running 3" behind our yearly normal rainfall and anytime the humidity drops below 30% and winds are gusty there is an increased threat for fire danger. Fire risk tends to increase during early spring due to several factors shown in the diagram above. If you need to do any burning of debris it's a good idea to do it after we've received a soaking rain and to make sure you keep tabs on the weather to see if the conditions are good or poor for burning. It also doesn't hurt to contact your local fire department and ask if it is safe to burn. If you are a smoker, it's wise to make sure you put the cigarette out completely and to never just toss it outside because it can potentially start a fire on a dry and windy day.