Severe weather to rattle south-central US through Saturday
The Houston metro area will be among the areas at risk for thunderstorms capable of producing damaging wind gusts, hail, flooding downpours and isolated tornadoes into this weekend.
It was a busy and hectic Christmas Eve for holiday travel at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas due to severe weather. Long lines were present for people traveling for the holiday.
A post-Christmas severe weather event put more than 10 million people at risk for damaging thunderstorms across part of the south-central United States.
The area that was at risk for severe thunderstorms stretched from southeastern Oklahoma through eastern Texas into Arkansas, much of Louisiana and western Mississippi into Thursday night.
"Given sufficient energy and a pronounced change in wind speed and direction with height in the atmosphere, all modes of severe weather were on the table, including hail, flooding, high winds and isolated tornadoes," AccuWeather Meteorologist Gwen Fieweger said.
"Houston faced the greatest risk for severe thunderstorms from Thursday afternoon into the evening," AccuWeather Meteorologist Jacob Hinson said. There were multiple pictures and videos of a tornado on the ground near El Campo, Texas, approximately 70 miles southwest of downtown Houston.
"This was the second round of severe weather to impact eastern Texas so far this week, with the first round having brought hail, localized flooding and even funnel cloud sightings on Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning," Fieweger said. On Saturday, another round is on the way.
Rain and thunderstorms from Thursday night will move into a less conducive environment for severe weather on Friday, but a thorough soaking is still likely from northern Mississippi to Kentucky. There will be a localized risk of storms producing hail and damaging wind gusts from far southeastern Louisiana through central and southern Mississippi from Friday through Friday night.
Rounds of rain and thunderstorms are expected to continue across the Southeastern states during the last week of 2024. The rounds of wet weather will elevate the risk of flash flooding but can also generate severe weather at least on the local level.
AccuWeather meteorologists are highlighting a zone from Nashville to Houston, New Orleans, and close to Atlanta for the potential for thunderstorms packing hail, damaging wind gusts and even a few isolated tornadoes Saturday into Saturday night.
As of Thursday morning, AccuWeather forecast team has raised the threat level to moderate for Saturday, which means that numerous severe thunderstorms are possible in the orange zone.
Severe thunderstorms or a line of fiesty showers with thunder and lightning may shift toward the Southeast coast and perhaps as north as the mid-Atlantic at the end of the weekend.
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