Roughly 50 million Americans are under a severe weather warning Monday as risks for powerful storms ramp up for the rest of the week.
All forms of severe to extreme weather are possible as we move through Tuesday night and into Wednesday in an area extending from south-central through the eastern U.S., AccuWeather wrote in a forecast. A “powerhouse cold front” is set to unleash a slew of storms as it combines with an emerging warm and humid system coming up from the Gulf, bringing powerful wind gusts, large hail, flash flooding and possible tornadoes.
These systems are expected to converge throughout the Great Plains through the Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee Valleys by late Tuesday evening. Texas and Oklahoma residents may see some extreme weather as early as Monday night, while temperatures are expected to hit record highs in much of the central states.
All modes of severe weather are possible, ranging from powerful wind gusts and large hail to flash flooding and even a few tornadoes. https://t.co/2GG37dhFJo pic.twitter.com/O5lP1eqCFQ
— AccuWeather (@accuweather) February 23, 2024
Cities like Pittsburgh, Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee, along with Louisville, Kentucky, and Birmingham, Alabama, could see disruptions to travel come Wednesday as cold air is likely to undercut the severe weather threat. But it is also possible that this cold front will migrate so quickly that it’ll create “downpours and locally severe thunderstorms” throughout the Great Lakes and Appalachians. (RELATED: Get Ready For A Category 6 Hurricane, But Not In The Way You Think)
Forecasts issued in mid-February stated the U.S. is likely going to experience a “super-charged” hurricane season in 2024 due to the colder-than-normal La Niña weather cycle, which is expected to combine with warmer waters across the Atlantic Ocean.