Severe Weather Could Kick Off Your Weekend Across North Dakota

Hang on, it could be a bumpy road as we kick off the weekend in North Dakota. According to the Storm Prediction Center from the National Weather Service, much of North Dakota is in the enhanced risk area today for severe weather.

As I was coming home from the Bismarck Larks game last night you could see huge thunderheads that stretched from the horizon all the way to the heavens.  When I checked the radar on my phone, both those storm systems to the north and south of Bismarck Mandan were actually a long ways away.  The storms to the north were in southern Manitoba and to the south in South Dakota in northern North Dakota.  It's crazy how big thunderheads can get.  Judging by how big the clouds were it seemed much closer to us.  We could be seeing clouds like that today.

This time around, severe thunderstorms capable of producing damaging wind gusts, very large hail, and a couple of tornadoes are possible across much of North Dakota.  This includes central and eastern North Dakota, including the cities of Bismarck, Mandan, Fargo, and Grand Forks.

The storms are expected to start firing up after 2 pm this afternoon.  They are expected to linger into late into the evening around 11 pm.  Several rounds of storms are possible.  A very strong cold front will follow the storms that will linger into the weekend giving us significantly cooler weather with high temperatures only around 70 degrees and strong northwest winds.

Be weather aware today.