A potential severe weather event following Christmas is forecasted to impact over 10 million people in the south-central United States, according to experts at AccuWeather. The threat includes damaging thunderstorms across parts of southeastern Oklahoma, eastern Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana from midday Thursday through Thursday night.
AccuWeather Meteorologist Gwen Fieweger mentioned, “Given sufficient energy and a pronounced change in wind speed and direction with height in the atmosphere, all modes of severe weather are on the table, including hail, flooding, high winds, and isolated tornadoes.”
Showers and thunderstorms are expected to develop around midday Thursday over the Dallas metro area, potentially leading to travel disruptions for air passengers. Similarly, Houston is anticipated to face a significant risk for severe thunderstorms later Thursday afternoon into Thursday night, with thunderstorms bringing downpours and locally damaging winds persisting into early Friday morning as they move across Arkansas and Louisiana.
Motorists traveling along interstates 10, 20, 30, and 40 on Thursday or Thursday night should be prepared for slower travel times due to downpours reducing visibility and causing ponding on the roads.
Fieweger stated, “This will be the second round of severe weather to impact eastern Texas this week, with the first round bringing hail, localized flooding, and even funnel cloud sightings on Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning.”
Rain and thunderstorms from Thursday night are expected to transition into a less conducive environment for severe weather on Friday, though a thorough soaking is still likely from Louisiana to Kentucky. The risk of storms producing hail and damaging wind gusts will be localized, primarily from southeastern Texas through central and southern Mississippi from Friday through Friday night.
Further rounds of rain and thunderstorms are forecasted to continue across the Southeastern states during the last week of 2024, heightening the risk of flash flooding and potentially generating severe weather on a local scale.
AccuWeather meteorologists have identified a zone from Nashville to Lake Charles and New Orleans, Louisiana, and Montgomery, Alabama, for the potential of thunderstorms bringing hail and damaging wind gusts on Saturday into Saturday night. There is a possibility of feisty thunderstorms or a line of blustery showers shifting toward the Southeast coast and reaching as far north as the mid-Atlantic by the end of the weekend.
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