Thursday is a triple threat across the United States. One storm system will be responsible for three primary impacts, including severe storms, precipitation, and snowfall.
Severe storms eye The Gulf Coast and Ohio Valley
The severe weather threat on Thursday is related with the same system that caused Wednesday’s destructive storms from Texas to Missouri. In Louisiana’s Tangipahoa Parish, where authorities reportedly rescued children from a trailer that had been toppled and damaged by a probable tornado, the damage appeared to be the worst.
The risk of severe storms is somewhat reduced on Thursday, but as the day progresses and temperatures increase, modest instability is expected to develop throughout southern Alabama, southwestern Georgia, and the Florida Panhandle.
Thunderstorms will intensify proportionally, with a few storms becoming severe. Wind shear — the change in wind speed and/or direction with height – will continue to lessen, but should still be sufficient for a few severe thunderstorms capable of locally destructive wind gusts and a brief tornado, according to the FOX Forecast Center.
In the Ohio Valley on Thursday, isolated destructive wind gusts are possible across portions of Indiana, Ohio, and southern Lower Michigan.
The threat of severe weather in both locations will end Thursday evening as the sun sets.
Rain and strong winds batter the Midwest
In addition to the possibility of severe storms, wind energy will remain abundant in the atmosphere across the Midwest, even in the absence of thunderstorms. Consequently, winds will gust to greater than 45 mph across a large area.
This is the result of a sudden pressure shift between a strengthening low-pressure system in the Midwest and a powerful high-pressure system over the Rockies.
According to the FOX Forecast Center, a line of rain showers will build along or ahead of the storm system’s cold front in eastern Illinois and Indiana, then expand to portions of Ohio and Lower Michigan.
Up to two inches of precipitation is possible in the central and southern sections of Lower Michigan.
Although the rain showers are not predicted to generate a significant amount of lightning, they will boost the winds in certain regions to dangerous levels of 60 mph or more.
The potential of damaging winds should end by Thursday evening as the rain storms move into Canada, according to the FOX Forecast Center. However, despite the absence of precipitation on Thursday evening, strong gusts will persist.
On Thursday, more than 60 million people in over a dozen states are subject to High Wind Warnings or Wind Advisories.
Low-pressure tracks into the Great Lakes, bringing snow to the Upper Midwest.
On Thursday morning, snow swiftly developed in the upper and middle Mississippi Valley.
Thundersnow was observed shortly before 2:30 a.m. CST in Kansas City, Missouri, as huge, wet snowflakes fell across the metropolitan region, according to the FOX Forecast Center. Wednesday evening, snow blanketed much of central Oklahoma, including Oklahoma City. About 2.5 inches of precipitation fell northwest of the city.
Snowfall rates between 1 and 2 inches per hour are possible on Thursday morning in Iowa and Wisconsin, where snowfall will intensify. This is anticipated to affect the morning commute in towns such as Davenport, Cedar Rapids, and Madison in Iowa and Wisconsin.
Thursday afternoon, the snow will finish in Iowa, while it will continue through Thursday evening in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
There is a possibility of travel delays on Wisconsin’s interstates due to icy, snow-covered highways, notably Interstate 94.
Eastern Iowa, central Wisconsin, and northern Lower Michigan will receive between 3 and 8 inches of snow by the end of the storm, while western Iowa, southern Minnesota, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan will receive less.
This storm will bring measurable but insignificant amounts of snow to Minneapolis and Milwaukee.
In the eastern portion of northern Lower Michigan on Thursday morning, a period of freezing rain could make travel dangerous for several hours before temperatures rise above freezing.
This low-pressure system will simultaneously deliver a warm front across New England, according to the FOX Forecast Center. This front will bring extensive precipitation to the Northeast.
The Catskills and Adirondacks of upstate New York and the mountains of northern New England will experience a few hours of snow and freezing rain on Thursday morning.
»Severe storms, heavy snowfall, and hazardous winds will affect the United States«
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