Severe storms to threaten Chicago, Indianapolis as vigorous spring storm strikes
The same storm bringing high winds and blizzard conditions to a large area of the central United States will also trigger severe thunderstorms into Thursday night.
Isolated severe storms were reported across northern Kansas and southern Nebraska at midweek. In some areas, the difference between severe storms and wintry weather was less than 50 miles.
As the powerful storm over the Plains continues continues Thursday night, the risk of severe weather will continue, but it will progress farther to the east when compared to Wednesday.
The storms are likely to reach severe levels into Thursday evening in central Illinois, southeastern Missouri and western Kentucky.
While the risk of tornadoes is low with this setup, storms from much of Illinois to Indiana, western Kentucky and northwestern Tennessee will carry the risk of damaging wind gusts, large hail and bursts of heavy rain.
The most widespread impacts will be torrential downpours that can cause urban flooding and strong wind gusts that can knock down trees and cause power outages.
Major cities in the path of the storms on Thursday include St. Louis and Cape Girardeau, Missouri; Chicago, Springfield and Peoria, Illinois; Paducah, Kentucky; and Terre Haute, Indiana.
The storms may not reach Indianapolis, Louisville, Kentucky and Kalamazoo, Michigan, until late Thursday night.
While the storms will be well past their peak, some locations in Ohio, eastern Kentucky West Virginia, western Pennsylvania and western New York state may get a storm with gusty winds, small hail and a torrential downpour on Friday.
In some cases there can be damaging wind gusts in absence of thunder and lightning, due to the powerful nature of the large storm system.
While the storms can bring torrential downpours and brief urban-style flooding, these will tend to be brief and not likely to significantly contribute to river flooding.
However, heavy, long-duration rain farther north and melting snow more to the north can lead to additional rises or slow the rate of recession on some of the rivers in the coming weeks.
Download the free AccuWeather app for the latest forecasts and severe weather watches and warnings for your location, and stay tuned to AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios for continued storm coverage.
