Global Courant
There were seven reports of tornadoes, some with damage, and other reports of high winds on Wednesday as June’s rare volatile weather hit parts of the Southeast and Gulf Coast, forecasters said.
No deaths have been reported in the possible tornadoes, which hit Alabama, Georgia and Texas, according to US authorities the National Weather Service.
The possible tornadoes occurred on a day when more than 23 million people were in the path of multiple waves of severe thunderstorms, which carried the risk of tornadoes.
This screenshot from a video shows a tornado in Blakely, Georgia, on Wednesday.Rand McDonald/AP
Severe thunderstorms moved across parts of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Wednesday night. Tornado looks at covered parts of Florida and Georgia.
Eufaula, Alabama, has sustained damage from what is believed to have been a tornado, the police department said in the city of about 12,000 residents — and it has seen a tornado in the city in four of the past five years.
“We cannot stress enough to be aware of the weather and to be ready for it,” police said.
In Eutaw, a woman has been hospitalized after a storm destroyed the home she was staying in, Mayor Latasha Johnson said. In Abbeville, a possible tornado ripped part of the roof off an Alabama Forestry Commission building, a spokesman said.
High winds also toppled power lines. The most outages in the South were in Alabama, with about 87,000 customers without electricity Wednesday evening, according to the tracking website. power failure.us.
More than 30 million people are in the severe thunderstorm risk zone from northeastern Texas through the southeast coast into the nighttime hours.
The highest risk of tornadoes was more focused in central/eastern Alabama and southwestern Georgia on Wednesday afternoon. That includes the cities of Montgomery, Alabama; Dothan, Alabama; and Columbus, Georgia.
On Wednesday morning, the Storm Prediction Center declared a moderate risk of severe storms, a level 4 out of 5 on its scale, for a region that doesn’t typically get such high levels of severe thunderstorms of that nature in June. For the Southeast and Gulf Coast regions, severe storms are most likely during the early spring months, such as March or April. By mid-June, the greatest concentration of severe thunderstorms is typically over the Great Plains.
Weather in the mainland US on Wednesday.NOAA
An unusually strong subtropical jet stream coupled with large amounts of heat and moisture was behind the explosive thunderstorms.
Severe thunderstorms had already broken out in parts of Arkansas and Mississippi on Wednesday, beginning the first round of multiple storms expected to blow through the regions over the next 24 hours.
As the day progressed from morning to afternoon, Alabama and Georgia joined the severe weather threat, with storms most likely in the afternoon through evening hours.
The heavily trafficked Interstate 20 corridor, including Birmingham and Atlanta, could be affected by the storms, which can produce tornadoes, damaging hail and wind gusts.
In all of those areas, hail can also exceed 3 inches in diameter, the size of a baseball. Hail of that magnitude is rare in the Southeast at any time of year. The greatest hail risk includes the areas of northeastern Texas, southern Arkansas, and northern Louisiana and cities such as Little Rock, Arkansas; Shreveport, Louisiana; and Jackson, Mississippi.
The risk remains Thursday for nearly 4 million people on the Gulf Coast and the Florida Panhandle, including the I-10 corridor. Hazards include damaging hail and wind gusts.
Severe storms aren’t the region’s only concern, as Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle are also facing flooding issues from the storms that could produce up to 5 inches of rain or more locally Thursday morning. For that reason, there were flood watches for 6 million people across the region. Cities most at risk of flash flooding are Birmingham; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Montgomery; and Savannah, Georgia.
The northeast can also get some thunderstorms on Wednesday, with consequences such as wind gusts and small hail. Cities like Hartford, Connecticut and Boston could get such storms around 4 to 9 p.m. ET.
Storms aside, Texas is struggling with triple-digit temperatures that are expected to last through the weekend. Heat warnings are in effect for areas from Waco to Brownsville. Highs can range from 110 to 120 degrees. Records could be broken Friday in cities like Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio; they will all rise to the century mark.
