Tornadoes, damaging winds and hail threaten eastern US through Thursday evening, with a possible outbreak of severe weather in the central US by Friday.

By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist

Published Apr 14, 2026 11:22 AM EST | Updated Apr 16, 2026 4:42 AM EST

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Severe weather this week will feature higher-risk storms than last week, stretching from the central United States to parts of the East. On Tuesday, there were 235 filtered reports of severe weather ranging from tornadoes to high winds and hail the size of baseballs and softballs. Another 193 reports came in Wednesday.

This severe weather classification system by AccuWeather differs from the Storm Prediction Center and is meant to be easier to understand outside of the meteorological community.

Extensive severe weather threat continues Thursday

The combination of prior heavy rain, snowmelt and downpours this week is responsible for a new surge of high water on area streams and rivers in the Great Lakes. Moderate to major flooding persisted through midweek.

Waters may not begin to recede on most rivers until late this week or this weekend, and it could be a couple of weeks until most streams and rivers are below flood stage.

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Thursday will be a day of severe weather transition, as one storm system departs before a new one arrives on the Plains. Still, severe thunderstorms will rumble from portions of New England through parts of the Ohio, Tennessee, and mid-Mississippi valleys, with the greatest concentration forecast in upstate New York, southern Vermont and northwestern Massachusetts.

Any thunderstorm in this zone will be capable of producing damaging wind gusts of 55-65 mph, hail and flooding downpours. There can also be a few tornadoes, particularly in New York and Pennsylvania.

Central US severe storms to surge with new vigor Friday to Saturday

Friday and Saturday are likely to bring a broad zone of potent severe weather from the Plains to part of the Midwest.

Friday's threat zone, which has the potential to evolve into a severe weather outbreak, will extend from just north of the Big Bend area of the Rio Grande River in Texas to the northern parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. It is possible that close to 300 reports of severe weather will occur on Friday and Friday night.

The most concentrated zone of severe storms Friday will extend from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to northern Wisconsin. Within this zone, AccuWeather meteorologists have added a high-risk severe weather area that includes the Kansas City, Missouri, metro area.

Saturday's severe weather threat will extend from southern Arkansas to Detroit, Michigan, and southwestern Ontario.

Saturday's storm forecast is beginning to escalate from a widely separated risk to a more concentrated zone of severe weather.

As has been the case in recent weeks and months, much of the rain from the storms will continue to avoid large parts of the Southeast, where widespread drought persists.

As the cold front associated with the late-week severe weather presses into the Southeast, there will be an opportunity for rain in some locations this weekend. Much cooler to colder air will quickly follow.