South braces for severe weather: Tornadoes, hail and flooding rain possible from Texas to the Carolinas
Doyle Rice- Cities where storms could fire up Friday include Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, and Oklahoma City.
- There have only been 34 tornadoes reported across the United States so far this April, far below average.
- Another round of severe storms is possible next week, forecasters said.
A long stretch of relatively quiet weather is about to come to an end across the South, forecasters warn.
Severe storms with large, destructive hail, damaging winds, tornadoes and heavy rain that could cause flash flooding is forecast to develop across the Southern Plains to the Deep South over the next couple of days, the National Weather Service said.
AccuWeather meteorologist Ryan Adamson said that "one area of thunderstorms is expected to develop over central and southeastern Texas on Friday afternoon." A second area is also likely to form over central Oklahoma and far northern Texas, he said.
Major cities where storms could fire up Friday include Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Oklahoma City and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the Storm Prediction Center said.
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These storms are forecast to produce a widespread, 2 to 4 inches of rainfall across the South, CNN said, potentially leading to floods. The most vulnerable places for flooding will be urban areas, roads and small streams, the weather service said.
On Saturday, storms will pick up again and stretch to western South Carolina and the Florida Panhandle, AccuWeather said. "There can be strong thunderstorms with drenching rain, damaging wind gusts and hail from the lower Mississippi Valley to the Southeast on Saturday," said AccuWeather forecaster Paul Pastelok.
Tornadoes will also be possible across eastern Louisiana into the coastal Carolinas on Saturday. Cities such as Atlanta and Birmingham, Alabama, could see storms on Saturday.
There have only been 34 tornadoes reported across the United States so far this April, according to the Storm Prediction Center, compared to the average number of 224 tornadoes for the month.
While there will be a break in the severe weather Sunday and Monday, another round of storms is possible from Tuesday through Thursday in portions of the central and southern U.S., the prediction center said.