Severe Weather Update May 25 2024

by National Weather Service forecasting office in Norman, Oklahoma

Good afternoon from the National Weather Service in Norman here is an update on our evolving severe weather situation for today Saturday May 25.

There's a risk of severe thunderstorms covering all of our area today. Uh, there's a moderate risk that's shaded in red, then the enhanced, the slight, and the marginal. I wouldn't get too hung up on those colors. Uh, don't worry whether you're in the red or the orange or the yellow, everyone in our area regardless of the risk category has the potential for dangerous thunderstorms today. This could include damaging winds over hurricane force. It could include hail up to softball size. And, what we're most afraid of is it could include tornadoes, dangerous damaging tornadoes, strong tornadoes, and uh again, any thunderstorm that forms this afternoon will be capable of that, but certainly not everybody is going to see that this afternoon and this evening.

Peak time will be after 3 o'clock in western Oklahoma and western north Texas, more likely in the 5 p.m. to the 10 p.m. timeframe. As you move further east into the darker blue shaded area, area number two, we don't expect any storms at all before about 6 o'clock this evening, most likely they would be in the 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. time frame. So, think of those times, use those times as you're making plans this Memorial Day weekend, there's a lot of outdoor activities, lots of people aren't at home today, or on the road, or you're out doing things, please pay close attention to your weather today. Uh, because it could be dangerous later on today, this afternoon, and this evening.

This is still a complicated forecast, there's lots of small moving parts and certainly as meteorologists, we are looking at the large-scale potential and it scary, it is very concerning. But the details of exactly what happens, that's going to determine what we eventually see. If, we get tornadoes to form at all today, the tornadoes in the moderate risk area are going to be just as dangerous as they are in the slight risk area. Don't worry about the risk category, don't focus on those colors, numbers, and categories. They don't really mean a lot today. Any of us could see dangerous weather later today. The really good news is most of us are not going to see severe storms today. There's some of us that won't even see a drop of rain or a storm at all today, and that's great. But there is a high potential that if you see a storm nearby today, that its, its going to be bad, so pe, please pay very close attention.

Now is the great time to remember your or review your tornado safety guidelines. The best place to be underground, in a safe room, in a basement, if you can't get there, get into a sturdy building on the lowest floor, put as many barriers, put as many walls between you and the outside as you can, and cover up. You're not safe from any tornado in any vehicle, in a mobile home, or outdoors.

Please check-in often this afternoon and this evening with the local weather, highly anticipated tornado watch will be issued for much of our area later this afternoon. You can check our webpage weather.gov/norman for the very latest graphics and information and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for updates as we go through what is looking like it could be a very dangerous afternoon for some of us across central and western Oklahoma and western north Texas. Please stay safe today.