Rounds of severe storms to threaten southeastern US through the weekend

By Faith Eherts, AccuWeather meteorologist 

 

 

 Thunderstorms with damaging winds, flooding downpours, hail and tornadoes will threaten lives and property in the southern United States through the weekend.

A potent storm system traveling across the southern part of the nation from California will tap warm, moist air, enhance the thunderstorms and lead to an outbreak of severe weather.

The outbreak includes two rounds of severe weather this weekend.
Locally violent storms to erupt into Saturday night
On Friday night, thunderstorms began to blossom across Louisiana and southern Mississippi. The storms have prompted several tornado warnings.
"The first round of storms will bring the potential for locally strong tornadoes, along with the risk of damaging wind gusts, hail and flash flooding," according to AccuWeather Storm Warning Meteorologist Alex Avalos.

New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama, are among cities that will be threatened by this first round of storms.
The risk of tornadoes will linger through the morning hours and will pose an added risk.
Line of severe thunderstorms to sweep across southeastern US on Sunday
As one batch of severe thunderstorms cycles eastward along the I-10 corridor, a new round of severe weather will erupt farther west along the Gulf coast and the lower Mississippi Valley during Saturday night.
Locally severe thunderstorms are possible as far west and north as Little Rock, Arkansas; Memphis, Tennessee; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana; during Saturday night.
"During the second half of the weekend, we expect the thunderstorms to organize into a squall line," Avalos said.

This fast-moving, solid line of thunderstorms will bring a second threat of severe weather to some locations and carry the risk of violent weather conditions to many more places in the South, when compared to early in the weekend.
The threat of storms will extend northward from the Gulf coast to northern Georgia and as far to the east as the coasts of northeastern Florida, Georgia and South Carolina on Sunday.
"By Sunday, the storms will carry an elevated risk of damaging winds and sudden, torrential downpours," Avalos said. "There can still be a few spin-up tornadoes along the line of storms."
By Sunday night, the damaging thunderstorms will shift into eastern North Carolina and South Florida, including Miami.
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AccuWeather Severe Weather Center
Southeast US interactive radar
People are encouraged to stay alert and monitor severe weather bulletins closely as they are issued.
Motorists should be vigilant for rapidly changing weather conditions. Some roads may be inundated due to torrential downpours.
The same storm system will turn northward along the Atlantic coast with strong winds, heavy rain, snow and ice for the Northeast states early next week.