Severe weather targets Florida to North Carolina, Virginia Wednesday

By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist

February 24,2016; 9:05PM,EST

 

 

For ongoing updates of the severe weather outbreak, click here to view our live blog.

---

Following a significant tornado outbreak on Tuesday, severe weather will stretch from the Florida Peninsula to Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and southern New Jersey into Wednesday night.
For part of the Atlantic Seaboard and Piedmont areas, this is a dangerous situation.
"The significant threat for tornadoes continues with the greatest risk from central and eastern Virginia and parts of Maryland to central and eastern North Carolina and coastal South Carolina," according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Henry Margusity.

Major cities facing a tornado threat include Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Norfolk, Virginia.
An isolated tornado could occur as far north as Interstate 78 in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The same winter storm set to spread disruptive snow into the Midwest and push drenching rain across the Northeast's Interstate-95 corridor threatens to ignite severe weather in a dozen states.
The first sporadic severe thunderstorms ignited over central Texas with a few incidents of large hail and strong wind gusts during Monday night. The outbreak grew in size and magnitude across much of the central Gulf Coast states on Tuesday into Tuesday night.
According to the Storm Prediction Center, 24 tornadoes were reported on Tuesday. Many of these tornadoes occurred in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
The greatest threat from the storms will be from damaging wind gusts, hail and flash flooding into Wednesday night.
RELATED:
AccuWeather severe weather center
Southeastern US Interactive Radar
The difference between tornado watches and warnings
The severe weather risk will extend northward to the Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia areas during Wednesday evening and perhaps as far north as the New York City area during Wednesday night.
Farther northeast, a band of drenching rain with strong winds at the coast will push through the rest of the I-95 corridor in the Northeast on Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
People in the alerted areas will need to monitor the weather closely for rapidly changing conditions and have a plan of action should severe weather strike the local area.

WATCH: Reed Timmer chases tornado-warned cells in Louisiana

Even in the absence of severe weather, residents are reminded to seek shelter as soon as thunder is heard. Stay ahead of violent thunderstorms with AccuWeather MinuteCast®.
The passage of a cold front will sweep away the severe weather danger and open the door for drier, less volatile air to filter later in the week.
Content contributed by AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski.