Severe weather to target Central, Southern states next week

Following a brief reprieve from widespread severe weather in the United States, the threat for severe thunderstorms will ramp up again early next week.A smaller scale threat for severe weather remains the southern Appalachians on Saturday, with more damaging winds, hail and tornadoes.The threat for severe thunderstorms will diminish early on Sunday as the storm system tracks northeast. While storm will bring periods of soaking rain and a bit of snow to the Northeast from Sunday through Monday, drenching storms will continue in southern Florida.However, the break for most of the Southern states will be short-lived.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP"A storm will dive southward from Canada into the Midwest early next week and will become a focal point for another round of severe weather on Tuesday," AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said.A cold front associated with this system will stretch from the Midwest through the middle Mississippi Valley and into eastern Texas, by Tuesday afternoon. "While many storm systems have targeted the South with severe weather in recent weeks, the threat for feisty thunderstorm development may extend farther northward into the Midwest," Buckingham said.Gusty thunderstorms are expected to develop along this cold front as it advances eastward later on Tuesday afternoon.Wind flow at the lower levels of the atmosphere will become more southerly on Tuesday over the southern Plains, as well as the lower and middle Mississippi Valley, allowing the storm system to use warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico as a fuel source.Any thunderstorm that develops in this warm and moist environment will have no trouble tapping into strong winds aloft, forcing damaging winds to the surface. At this time, all of the typical severe weather impacts are fair game from Tuesday afternoon into early Wednesday morning. Damaging wind gusts, torrential downpours, hail and a few tornadoes will be possible.The threat for severe weather is predicted to shift eastward on Wednesday as the storm system pushes over the Great Lakes and a cold front digs through the Ohio and Tennessee valleys, and into the Southeast.As the system pushes eastward, it may lose out on some of the Gulf moisture, causing it to weaken slightly. But, it will continue to produce severe thunderstorms over already storm-weary areas.The southern tier of the country has been hit hard by severe weather so far this spring.On Friday, severe thunderstorms tore through portions of the southern Plains and the lower Mississippi Valley, and damaging winds and hail hammered the regions into early Saturday morning.> Nearly golf ball sized hail just fell in Tomball, TX. @weatherchannel @KPRC2Justin @KPRC2 @ReedTimmerAccu @abc13houston pic.twitter.com/5vFilGxXN3> > -- Michael Palomaki (@michaelpalomaki) April 25, 2020In addition to a combined total of more than 120 damaging wind and hail reports, there were at least three preliminary tornado reports by the Storm Prediction Center on Friday evening. A tornado spun up in Bennington, Oklahoma, and in Ivanhoe, Texas. A "weak and brief" landspout was also spotted over an open field just east of Malta Bend, Missouri.On Saturday evening, a tornado is shown to have touched ground around Carthage and Gordonsville, Tennessee, according to the National Weather Service in Nashville. A tractor trailer on I-40 eastbound was overturned by the tornado passing through. Three injuries were reported with the incident, according to the Storm Prediction Center.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3cKp7kb