One-two punch of severe weather to blast central, eastern US
On the heels of one of the biggest severe weather outbreaks of 2023, even more episodes of damaging thunderstorms will erupt across the nation’s mid-section to the East Coast, causing more disruptions.
AccuWeather’s Tony Laubach was reporting during a live broadcast in Otis, Colorado, on Aug. 8, when a tornado emerged from a dusty storm on a path toward Yuma.
Following one of the biggest severe weather days of the year Monday, more thunderstorms will be on the prowl in multiple parts of the United States through the end of the week, AccuWeather meteorologists warn.
Monday's deadly severe weather outbreak, which was warned by AccuWeather days in advance, triggered more than 500 reports of high winds east of the Mississippi River. The staggering number of wind reports was part of a multiple-day severe weather event that began across the Great Plains Saturday.
Mother Nature is far from done producing severe weather this week.
The same storm system responsible for several days of severe thunderstorms finished up its dangerous and disruptive rampage in New England Tuesday evening, bringing hefty rainfall totals and areas of flash flooding. By late Tuesday night, 24-hour rainfall totals neared the 3-inch mark across central Maine, with daily records set in locations like Augusta.
Localized flash flooding was reported in portions of New Hampshire, Vermont and northeastern New York state as rain shifted northeastward across New England on Tuesday.
"These same areas in the northern tier of the Northeast were hit hard by a season's worth of rain in a few weeks' time during July," AccuWeather Meteorologist Lauren Hyde said.
Farther south, a complex of thunderstorms tracked across the Southeastern states throughout the afternoon and evening hours on Tuesday, spreading damaging winds and hail to Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. This same thunderstorm complex produced torrential rain and flash flooding in portions of eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas Tuesday morning as it tracked across the region.
AccuWeather Radar view of storms pushing across far eastern Nebraska and Kansas shortly after midnight on Wednesday.
As a separate storm system, not unlike the storm that sparked multiple days of severe weather from Saturday to Tuesday, moves out of the Rockies, it continued to trigger damaging thunderstorms over a large part of the central Plains during the early morning hours on Wednesday.
New cross-country severe weather threat is in the making
The same feature that triggered severe weather across the central Plains on Tuesday will continue to move eastward through Thursday with the likelihood of igniting damaging thunderstorms and dangerous flash flooding.
On Wednesday, a large area of severe weather is likely over the middle portion of the Mississippi Valley, including in St. Louis and Nashville.
AccuWeather meteorologists have outlined a moderate severe weather threat zone that extends across much of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas to south-central Kentucky and part of Middle Tennessee.
"Within this moderate threat zone, portions of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas could be a hot spot for a few tornadoes on Wednesday afternoon and evening," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Matt Benz said.
The same storm system will renew the risk of urban and small stream flooding from parts of Missouri and Arkansas to portions of Kentucky and Tennessee into Thursday.
Part of this region received 6-12 inches of rain from repeating storms last week. It will take less rain to trigger quick rises on small streams that could inundate campsites and communities in low-lying, unprotected areas.
On Thursday, severe weather associated with the same system will push into the Southeastern states.
Thursday's severe weather threat will stretch across a large part of the Carolinas and into Virginia, as well as much of eastern Tennessee and northern Georgia.
An area of steady rain is likely to set up north of where severe weather erupts, including across a portion of the mid-Atlantic, Benz said. He added that if the system tracks a bit farther north, the severe threat could extend into northern Virginia and central Maryland.
Even though there is some uncertainty as to how far north severe weather will fire up, a new round of downpours and thunderstorms will pivot slowly across the Northeast, causing disruptions.
Another severe weather zone to develop in northern tier
As if two cross-country storms were not enough, a third system is likely to push across the northern tier of the U.S. from Thursday to Friday.
Parts of the Dakotas and Minnesota will be at risk for locally severe storms packing high winds and hail Thursday.
By Friday, the severe weather threat will shift into the upper Great Lakes region.
The strongest storms that erupt from southeastern Minnesota to northwest Indiana from Friday to Friday night can bring the threat of hail, flash flooding and localized damaging winds of 60-70 mph.
Cities within the risk zone on Friday will include Des Moines, Iowa, Chicago, Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Rochester, Minnesota.
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