Damaging hail, tornadoes to focus on Mississippi Valley into Thursday night
A potentially dangerous and highly damaging hail event will threaten portions of the Great Plains and Mississippi Valley along with several tornadoes into Thursday night.
With lingering storms moving through Alta Vista, Kansas, a tornado was seen on the ground.
Ingredients are coming together for a potentially dangerous and highly damaging hail event over portions of the Great Plains and Mississippi Valley into Thursday night, AccuWeather meteorologists warn. The severe weather threat will expand to include more than a dozen states in the middle of the nation.
Hailstones the size of golf balls, tennis balls and baseballs hammered portions of north-central Kansas to north-central Missouri late Wednesday into Wednesday night. This included the Kansas City, Missouri, and Topeka, Kansas, metro areas. Near Alma, Kansas, 4-inch diameter hail, which is softball sized, pummeled the ground.
This followed the hail the size of golf balls and eggs that fell on parts of Missouri and Kansas on Tuesday evening in a small sample of what was to come.
Into Thursday night, the risk of severe weather will broaden and extend farther to the south and east, from northeastern Texas to central Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Major metro areas at risk of severe weather and possible tornadoes include St. Louis; Dallas; Little Rock, Arkansas; Memphis, Tennessee; Shreveport, Louisiana; Indianapolis; Dayton, Ohio; and Springfield, Illinois.
AccuWeather meteorologists have outlined a high risk of severe weather centered on northwestern Arkansas into Thursday night.
There is the likelihood of several tornadoes as well as powerful wind gusts and the potential for more large, destructive hail during the severe weather events into Thursday night, AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bill Deger said.
"Any of these severe weather events will pose a significant risk to lives and property," Deger warned.
The severe weather risk will extend well past dark and add to the danger. People are urged to stay aware and updated with severe weather and tornado bulletins as they are issued and to have a plan of action in place for all family members ahead of the storms.
Hailstones larger than baseballs pelted areas near Yuma, Colorado, on Aug. 8, 2023. (AccuWeather/Tony Laubach)
Vehicle owners may want to take preventative measures to avoid total damage to their property. Along with shattering windows and damaging vehicles, hail this large can result in serious injury and fatality.
By Friday, the storm system triggering the severe weather will be past its peak as it moves eastward, and the intensity of thunderstorms is likely to ease. However, there will still be gusty to locally severe thunderstorms from Texas to eastern Tennessee, Georgia and the Carolinas.
"The severe weather may transition to a flash flood threat as it advances to the south and east on Friday," AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said.
A general 2-4 inches of rain will fall with local amounts that may exceed 6 inches from northern and central Louisiana to central and southern Mississippi and Alabama. This is enough rain to trigger small stream and low-lying area flooding and may have some of the secondary rivers in the region surging.
Daytime heating on Friday may cause the leading edge of the downpours to erupt into robust thunderstorms once again in parts of the Southeastern states, with the potential for hail and tornadoes approaching both the Gulf coast and the Atlantic coast.
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