textproduct: Shreveport

KEY MESSAGES

Issued at 1225 AM CDT Thu Apr 23 2026

- Weak upper ridging will largely suppress convection today, but cannot rule out a few diurnally driven showers or stray storm.

- Warm and moist southerly flow will prevail through the end of the week ahead of a cold front arriving late Friday into the weekend.

- An active weather period is expected through this weekend into early next week, including daily severe weather chances across much of the region from late Friday through Monday.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 1225 AM CDT Thu Apr 23 2026

In the wake of yesterday's convection, a very warm and muggy night will result in low temperatures in the 60s with low stratus clouds returning in earnest through daybreak this morning. Expect gradual scattering out of these low clouds, eventually yielding partly to mostly cloudy skies by the afternoon with high temperatures in the lower to mid 80s. Any convection should be isolated at best with weak upper ridging now in place following the upper disturbance largely responsible for the scattered convection over the past few days. With prevailing southerly flow, expect the warm temperatures to stick around into Friday with similar highs in the upper 70s to mid 80s.

As we move through the day on Friday, a cold front will approach from the NW and with an embedded trough in the upper-level flow pattern shifting SE through the Southern Plains and the Ozarks. Along the sfc front, convection is expected to become widespread by Friday afternoon as it enters the NW zones in our region along and north of I-30 with additional SE progression expected along and south of I-20 through the evening/overnight hours. A surge in MLCAPE values ranging from 2000-3000 J/kg ahead of this convective complex will promote strong/rapid upscale growth of thunderstorms, promoting a rather broad area of potential severe weather from the Ozarks well south into much of our region from Friday afternoon through Friday night. The damaging wind threat is likely to be the predominant concern, especially with a linear storm mode of rapid acceleration from north to south. However, veering low-level flow ahead of the front will promote modest shear such that individual storms may pose a threat of large hail along with a few tornadoes. For now, SPC's Day 3 outlook highlights much of our area in Slight Risk and this could be expanded/upgraded with future outlooks over the next few days.

As we move into the weekend, the aforementioned cold front will stall invof of I-30 and eventually lift back northward by late Saturday. This will only reinforce warm and moist air advection areawide through the remainder of the weekend as additional upper level perturbations advance through the W/SW flow aloft. As these disturbances interact with the warm and unstable environment still in place, expect the severe weather risk to persist across our NW zones late Saturday and again on Sunday before expanding farther SE on Monday when a broad upper-level trough will swing SE and nudge a cold front deeper into our region by Monday night into Tuesday. Much like the weekend frontal boundary, it doesn't look as if the early week front will clear the region either due to the presence of a strong and expansive upper-level ridge just to our S/SW across northern Mexico and much of the western/central Gulf. Therefore, the forecast is likely to remain unsettled through at least the middle of next week and likely beyond that with another deepening upper trough looming out west.

/19/

AVIATION

(18Z TAFS) Issued at 1252 PM CDT Thu Apr 23 2026

MVFR/VFR conditions prevail with mostly cloudy skies over the region. Clouds are expected to continue to lift through the afternoon but not fully clear for most terminals. Scattered showers and thunderstorms will be possible areawide this afternoon as well, but the lack of confidence on any location has kept any VCTS out of this package. Winds will be gusty out of the south/southeast through the period. Clouds will lower again starting at KLFK and spread northward ahead of the next round of widespread severe weather, with VCTS included as early as 24/07z. /57/

SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT

Issued at 1225 AM CDT Thu Apr 23 2026

Spotter activation is not expected through Friday morning, but will likely be needed as early as Friday afternoon into Friday evening/overnight.

/19/

PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS

SHV 69 83 66 86 / 10 50 60 10 MLU 66 86 66 86 / 0 60 80 30 DEQ 64 78 58 81 / 40 80 50 10 TXK 68 82 64 84 / 30 70 60 10 ELD 64 81 61 83 / 10 70 70 20 TYR 69 83 67 87 / 10 30 40 10 GGG 68 83 65 86 / 10 40 50 10 LFK 68 86 68 87 / 10 30 30 10

SHV WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

AR...None. LA...None. OK...None. TX...None.