Severe Weather to Reach From New Orleans to Cincinnati ThursdayUncommon February thunderstorms will affect the Great Lakes and will reach southward to the Gulf Coast, threatening severe weather Thursday and Thursday night.
A two-faced storm will affect the Central states Thursday, creating a drastic change in weather.
While snow will bring blizzard conditions to Minnesota and Wisconsin, thunderstorms will be brewing only a few hundred miles to the south.
Rain and thunderstorms affected areas from eastern Kansas and Missouri to Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and southern Wisconsin Thursday morning. Some locations over the central Plains experienced hail with the storms.
Rain and thunderstorms will advance into parts of western Pennsylvania, western New York and southern Ontario Thursday midday and afternoon.
In areas where there is a significant amount of snow on the ground, combined with the rain, there is a risk of flooding.
However, farther south, a new line of thunderstorms will ignite and will reach reach from the Ohio Valley to the Gulf Coast. It is this zone that is likely to produce severe thunderstorms that are capable of producing damaging wind gusts, flash flooding and even a small number of tornadoes.
Strong winds gusting to 60 mph in the absence of thunderstorms were racing across southern Kansas, Oklahoma and northern Texas Thursday. It is this energy that will cause the severe storms to ignite farther to the east.
Locations most at risk include Cape Girardeau, Mo.; Little Rock, Ark.; and Jackson, Miss.; by Thursday afternoon. Into the evening, impacted areas will extend eastward to include Cincinnati; Louisville, Ky; Nashville and Memphis, Tenn.; and Huntsville, Ala. During the overnight hours, the storms are scheduled to reach Cleveland; London, Ky.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; and New Orleans.
Bron:Accuweather