Severe storms to rattle parts of the midwestern US on Monday
It looks like snow accumulation, however it is baseball sized hail which fell Sunday afternoon in Colorado, making for some dangerous driving conditions. This video was shot by a Twitter user along I-70 in Flagler, Colorado, which is about 90 mins from Denver.
The same storm system that brought damaging winds and hail to southern Nebraska and northwestern Kansas on Easter Sunday targeted parts of the Midwest with severe thunderstorms into Monday evening.
The warmth that prevailed for Earth Day festivities around Chicago fueled locally severe thunderstorms into the evening.
Areas from eastern Iowa to northern Illinois and central and southern Wisconsin were at the greatest risk for severe weather on Monday evening.
Wind gusts in excess of 60 mph will be possible in the strongest storms and can knock down trees and power lines and tear shingles off roofs. Trash cans and any loose objects can be tossed around and be turned into dangerous projectiles by even the weakest tornado.
If you can hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning. Move indoors immediately to avoid this danger.
As the storms crossed Lake Michigan later Monday evening, they weakened before reaching Detroit around sunrise on Tuesday.
“This same storm will move into the eastern Great Lakes on Tuesday and trigger another round of showers and thunderstorms from western New York into the Ohio Valley,” said Rathbun.
“While widespread severe weather is unlikely, any heavier storm could bring a strong enough wind gust to knock down tree limbs or toss around any loose objects,” he added.
Residents from Buffalo, New York; to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Louisville, Kentucky, may experience torrential downpours and frequent lightning from Tuesday’s storms.
As the storm system pulls northward into Canada and begins to weaken, nothing more than a few showers are expected in the Interstate-95 corridor later Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning.
In the wake of the stormy weather, dry and pleasant conditions should grace residents from the Midwest to the mid-Atlantic on Wednesday.
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