Hazardous Weather Outlook shifts severe storms toward the Northeast
A hazardous weather outlook is shifting east Thursday after severe storms brought strong tornadoes and widespread damaging winds to parts of the Midwest. The system is expected to keep firing as it moves into the Ohio Valley overnight, then reach the East on Thursday with scattered thunderstorms that could turn severe.
In the Midwest, the weather service reported a large and extremely dangerous tornado near Harpers Ferry by the Wisconsin and Iowa border, another near Charleston, Illinois, and large and extremely dangerous tornadoes in Spencer and Martinsville, Indiana. A tornado was also located near Springfield Capital Airport, Illinois, while there were numerous tornado warnings across the region.
Wisconsin Survey at 7 A.M.
The weather service in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, will send out a survey team Thursday at 7 A.M. to examine the tornado near Harpers Ferry. The report comes after over 70 wind reports and a handful of hail reports during the outbreak.
Storms are still capable of producing swaths of damaging wind gusts and tornadoes, some of which could be at least EF2. That raises the stakes for communities still in the path of the line as it shifts east through the overnight hours.
Chicagoland Flooding Risk
Flooding is also part of the threat. There is a significant risk of flash flooding in Chicagoland and northwest Indiana, where rainfall rates from storms could reach as high as 2 inches per hour.
That sets up a separate hazard for drivers and residents even where the worst tornado threat has passed. Heavy rain can arrive fast enough to overwhelm drainage in a short window.
East Coast Cities Thursday
By Thursday, the frontal system reaches the East and at least scattered thunderstorms could turn severe with damaging thunderstorm wind gusts. New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. could be included in the severe weather area.
The setup comes a week after another severe weather outbreak across the same broader region, when over 1,700 storm reports were recorded between June 7 and 12. For people in the Northeast, the practical move is to treat Thursday as an active weather day, not a routine rain event.
