Mississippi to Michigan on alert for severe storms with damaging winds

By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist

The risk of severe thunderstorms will shift eastward across the Ohio and lower Mississippi valleys on Thursday, following severe weather over the south-central United States into Wednesday.

The entire swath from Michigan, Indiana and Ohio to Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana can expect showers and thunderstorms that have the potential to bring damaging wind gusts.

It is possible the severe weather risk extends farther to the north and northwest and into the Detroit, Chicago and Milwaukee areas.

Strong gusts, in some cases topping 70 mph, can occur without any thunder and lightning.

This risk will be associated with a push of colder air that will cut into building warm and humid conditions in the South and a taste of spring farther north.

The conditions are being set into motion by a rapidly strengthening storm poised to bring both blizzard conditions and flooding to the North Central states at midweek.

The same storm will produce a swath of high winds over a 1 million square mile area of the Central states at midweek.

In addition to the extensive risk for damaging wind gusts, enough rain may fall in a short period of time to aggravate existing flooding of the larger rivers and spur on new flooding along small streams.

Some hail may accompany the stronger thunderstorms.

From near Interstate 40 corridor to just north of the I-10 corridor, there will be the potential for a few isolated tornadoes to develop.

The main tornado risk in this zone will be for brief, spin-up tornadoes along the advancing line of thunderstorms. However, a couple of isolated thunderstorms ahead of the line may produce a longer-lived tornado as well.

"As we have seen a few times already this year, ideal conditions for tornadoes to form do not always have to be present," according to AccuWeather Storm Warning Meteorologist Richard Shraeger.

A tornado outbreak that produces many strong tornadoes is not anticipated at this time.

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However, people spending time outdoors or on the roads in the region should keep an eye out for rapidly changing weather conditions on Thursday to early Thursday night.

Strong wind gusts can knock over trees and send debris flying as storms rapidly develop.

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