More severe weather looms for central, eastern US this week
While this week's severe weather may not be as intense as that of this past weekend, there will still be risk to lives and property over some of the same areas that were devastated by tornadoes and high winds.
After nearly 100 confirmed tornadoes across the Midwest and Southeast from March 14-16, severe weather is returning to the Midwest this Wednesday.
In the wake of a deadly and destructive severe weather and tornado outbreak this past weekend, a new multiday severe weather threat will build in the central United States by midweek and will shift to parts of the East Coast before Friday, AccuWeather meteorologists warn.
Like this past weekend's storm, this week's storm will bring everything from blowing dust and wildfire danger to snow and blizzard conditions and severe thunderstorms.
More than 1,000 reports of severe weather, mostly high winds, from Friday to Sunday, including more than 100 tornadoes, are being investigated. The storms have claimed the lives of at least 42 people, with dozens more injured.
There are some similarities in this week's severe weather setup versus this past weekend. Like last weekend, a large storm will move out of the Rockies and onto the Plains. The storm will tap into warm, moist air from the Gulf, and jet stream winds will give thunderstorms a significant boost to severe levels.
However, the storm coming out, while strong, is not quite as intense as this past weekend.
Ground-level winds will not be as ferocious over the southern Plains with this storm. Moisture will be increasing, but not to the extent of the storm this weekend, and the jet stream setup is somewhat fragmented—this could limit the scope and intensity of the severe weather. A secondary storm is also expected to form that may disrupt the uptick in severe weather and cause the threat zone to shift significantly from one day to the next.
Winds with this week's storm will still be strong enough to raise the risk of wildfires and dust once again over the southern Plains.
There will be a growing risk of thunderstorms packing damaging winds and hail.
The setup for tornadoes is significantly different--less favorable for swarms of tornadoes compared to this past Friday and Saturday. However, there will likely be at least a few tornadoes with the multiday event and the few that develop can be strong.
Portions of Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi are at risk of severe thunderstorms, including a few tornadoes, on Wednesday and Wednesday night.
Damaging straight-line wind gusts and hail will be the main threats from Wednesday to Wednesday night. The AccuWeather Local StormMax™ wind gust with Wednesday's storms is 80 mph.
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A widespread severe weather and tornado outbreak is unlikely at this point, and because of this, AccuWeather meteorologists have not issued a high-risk for the event. However, isolated tornadoes can still be devastating to those affected. For this reason, and because conditions can still escalate, all severe weather alerts should be taken seriously, and people should remain vigilant.
AccuWeather has raised the threat level to moderate (numerous severe thunderstorms) in portions of Illinois and Indiana as of Monday night.
As a secondary storm takes shape along an advancing cold front on Thursday, thunderstorms will erupt and may quickly turn severe along part of the Atlantic coast.
The greatest risks from the storms will be strong wind gusts, which can trigger sporadic power outages, and sudden flooding downpours, which can hinder motorists.
The speed at which this secondary storm forms near the coast could prevent much severe weather in the zone from the upper Ohio Valley to the eastern Great Lakes, including the western slopes of the central Appalachians.
This zone was hit hard by damaging winds on Sunday.
However, that same secondary storm could evolve into heavy wet snow for parts of the central Appalachians, mid-Atlantic and New England during Thursday night and Friday.
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