Locally severe storms to hammer parts of the eastern US into Thursday night
Thunderstorms will pack a punch at the local level over the eastern Great Lakes, central Appalachians, upper Ohio Valley and the southeastern United States coast into Thursday night.
Spotty showers and thunderstorms are in store over a broad area of the eastern U.S. prior to the end of this week.
As a disturbance moves eastward from the Midwest, a number of the storms will grow and become severe in parts of eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, western New York state, northern West Virginia and western Maryland.
The greatest threats from the storms, in addition to a clustering of frequent lightning strikes, will be strong wind gusts and hail.
A slow-moving supercell thunderstorm developed in southern Kalamazoo County, Michigan, on Wednesday afternoon, dumping hail as large as ping-pong balls as it moved slowly southeast. Hail drift accumulation reached at or nearly to 18 inches in some isolated sections of Vicksburg just after 4:30 p.m. Wednesday resulting in the destruction of large sections of soybean and corn fields near the small southwestern Lower Peninsula of Michigan community.
A few communities can be hit with winds strong enough to break tree limbs and cause sporadic power outages. Others may experience hail large enough to damage crops and gardens.
Major cities in the severe weather risk area include Cleveland and Youngstown, Ohio; Morgantown and Wheeling, West Virginia; Pittsburgh, Erie and Bradford, Pennsylvania; and Jamestown and Olean, New York.
Elsewhere in the Northeast, any isolated thunderstorm can briefly pulse and cause a torrential downpour with gusty winds. Such storms may affect parts of the Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City metro areas and others.
Additional eruptions of thunderstorms are forecast over the Northeast in hit-or-miss fashion through this weekend.
A second area of heavy, gusty and locally severe thunderstorms will affect areas farther south in the Eastern states into Thursday night.
This area stretches from part of northern Florida to the Georgia and Carolina coast and southeastern Virginia as a weak southward dip in the jet stream interacts with a stalled front and a sea breeze.
While the main threats from the storms in this swath will be from urban and low-lying area flooding, a few of the strongest storms can also produce brief high winds that can break tree limbs and cause sporadic power outages.
The flooding threat will continue into this weekend.
Since the storms will be near peak as many people are heading home from work or venturing to evening plans, motorists should be prepared for street and highway flooding associated with blinding downpours.
Be sure to move indoors and away from windows at the first rumble of thunder. If you can hear thunder, you are at risk for being struck by lightning. Picnic pavilions, canopies and golf carts are not safe places to seek shelter from lightning.
Download the free AccuWeather app to stay alert of flood advisories and track rainfall for your location minute-by-minute using MinuteCast®. Keep checking back for updates on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
