The National Weather Service in Springfield issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning early Wednesday for five counties in southwestern Missouri, as a line of storms moved through the region carrying the threat of damaging wind and large hail.
The warning, issued at 6:23 a.m. CDT and set to expire at 7:15 a.m. CDT, covers southwestern Dallas County, southeastern Cedar County, Polk County, northwestern Greene County and eastern Dade County. It is the only active severe weather alert in the country’s warning system at this hour, underscoring how localized — but potentially dangerous — the threat remains for residents directly in the storm’s path.
The National Weather Service instructed residents in the warned area to move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building for protection, standard guidance for severe thunderstorms capable of producing damaging wind gusts and hail large enough to cause injury or property damage.
Severe thunderstorm warnings of this type are issued when Doppler radar or trained spotters detect winds of 58 mph or greater, hail of 1 inch in diameter or larger, or both, within a storm cell. The Springfield forecast office did not report specific wind speed or hail size measurements for this event in the warning text, but treated the threat as sufficient to require immediate shelter for those in the path.
The warning arrives during the early morning commute, a window when fast-moving convective cells can catch drivers and residents off guard. Motorists in the affected counties should avoid roads until the warning expires and be alert for downed trees or power lines afterward.
While Wednesday’s warning is confined to a five-county swath of the Ozarks region, it reflects the kind of fast-developing, short-fused severe weather that can emerge with little notice across the Midwest during the warm season. Residents in and around the Springfield weather area should monitor local alerts directly from the National Weather Service, since warnings of this type can be issued and expire within an hour.
No additional severe weather alerts were active elsewhere in the country as of this warning’s issuance, according to National Weather Service data.