More than 30 million at risk from severe thunderstorms as turbulent weather patterns continue this week.
The following written content by Ryan Adamson, AccuWeather meteorologist
More than 37 million Americans living in areas from the southern Plains into the Ohio Valley will be at risk for some form of severe weather Thursday as a turbulent stretch of weather continues.
It has been an active week of severe weather so far in portions of the Plains. Wednesday was particularly volatile with multiple tornadoes and dozens of reports of large hail and damaging winds. There were also strong winds farther east as well.
An EF1 tornado ripped through the town of Selden, Kansas, Monday night and left damage in its wake. No fatalities or serious injuries were reported. So far this week more than 50 tornado reports have been documented by the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center.
While the East will have a respite from severe weather Thursday, it appears that it will be another day with widespread severe weather farther west.
“Strengthening low pressure in the central U.S. will produce locally strong to severe thunderstorms throughout portions of the Midwest and southern Plains late Thursday afternoon into Thursday night,” said AccuWeather Meteorologist Adam Sadvary.
Thunderstorms were already ongoing in eastern Kansas and western Missouri early Thursday morning. However, additional thunderstorms are likely to develop over a much larger area by Thursday afternoon as a cold front continues to progress southeastward.
Like on Wednesday, the greatest threats are expected to be large hail and tornadoes as the storms initially develop. As the storms begin to congeal into a line, damaging winds will become the primary threat.
Wind gusts could reach an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 80 mph in spots. For comparison, a Category 1 hurricane in the Atlantic or East Pacific has winds in the range of 74-95 mph.
The highest risk area Thursday will stretch from parts of northeastern Texas through central Oklahoma, southeastern Kansas, central Missouri as well as parts of northwestern Arkansas and western Illinois. Read more from AccuWeather.
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