The area in orange has an enhanced risk of tornadoes during the night. Please make sure you have more than one way to get warnings that can wake you up if a warning is issued.  This is my last weather update for the night. 

Updated The brown area near the OK-TX border has a significant chance of tornadoes. A tornado watch has been issued for that area.  The brown area from east Texas to southeast Alabama is under a tornado watch (till 9pm) from Houston to southwest Louisiana. Overnight, there is an enhanced  risk of tornadoes into southern Alabama (see post below for Saturday's tornado threat).  Please make sure you have at least two independent ways of receiving tornado warnings during the night.  I invite you to follow me on Twitter @usweatherexpert for real-time updates. 

This is an important forecast. The yellow area has an enhanced risk of tornadoes. Within the yellow area, the hatched region is where strong tornadoes  are forecast to occur. NOW is the time to prepare your safe place.  The brown area is where there is a significant risk of a tornado.  Please keep up on the weather tomorrow and tomorrow night. There is a chance of tornadoes over the western part of the brown area tomorrow morning. 

I didn't think I'd see this in The Daily Mail   but even it couldn't stomach these costly and silly ideas. Even if we adopted all of them, the effect on future weather would be nearly immeasurable.  High cost. No gain. 

President Biden has nominated oceanographer Dr. Richard Spinrad to lead NOAA.  Regardless of how qualified he is as an oceanographer, that background is not what is needed in an administrator right now. NOAA has not had an administrator with a meteorological background (even though the majority of NOAA's employees work in the atmospheric side) since its very first from 1970 to 1974.  While I hope to be surprised, this nomination does not seem to bode well for the National Weather Service and the federal meteorological services. 

One month from today is the tenth anniversary of the catastrophic Joplin Tornado which killed 161 people.  As you read the various articles that will come out over the next month, keep in mind that the tornado warning system failed the people of Joplin which is why the death toll was so high. When the Sirens Were Silent  explains what went wrong -- a story some don't want you to hear. The book includes state-of-the-art tornado safety procedures for work, school and home. 

If trillions won’t stop storm surges from destroying beach front property, wildfires from engulfing millions of acres, seasonal precipitation from becoming more variable, what are we to do? The answer is to adapt to climate change, something humans have been doing since we first climbed out of trees.  Please read the entire article , it is short and very well done.