Slight risk of scary weather on Halloween

Convective outlook map

All of Indiana most of the western half of Ohio and extreme southern Michigan are at slight risk of severe weather between 8 a.m. EDT Thursday, October 31 and 8 a.m. EDT Friday, November 1, according to the Day Two Convective Outlook that the National Weather Service (NWS) Storm Prediction Center issued at 1:26 p.m. EDT today. The slight risk area includes the entire 37-county warning area of the northern Indiana NWS office.

Halloween afternoon, forecasters expect a line of thunderstorms to develop and move rapidly eastward. The primary threat will be damaging straight-line winds. The line of storms could bend, however, into a bow or wave pattern, which could support tornadoes embedded within the line.

Parents venturing out with trick-or-treaters should make sure they have a way to receiving word of any storm watches or warnings that might come out tomorrow afternoon and evening. Possibilities include keeping the car radio tuned to a local station, signing up for text alerts available on the websites of many local media outlets and/or installing a weather alert smartphone app. SKYWARN spotters should prepare for the possibility of activation Thursday afternoon and/or evening.

The next update on severe weather risk for Halloween comes with the first Day One Convective Outlook of the day, due at approximately 2 a.m. EDT. Additional updates will follow at 9 a.m., 12:30 p.m. 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.