Residents from the Northeast to the southern Plains are in storm recovery mode Friday after storms blasted the regions Thursday with large hail and damaging winds, and the threat for more unsettling weather looms Friday.
NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center highlighted over 500 reports of high winds and large hail damage on Thursday after a series of frontal boundaries turned severe.
As of Friday morning, nearly 300,000 customers were still without power across the impacted regions. During the height of the severe storms, more than half a million outages were reported by data provided by PowerOutage.us.
Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio still top the list of hardest hit states after strong wind gusts damaged trees and power lines. Wilmington, Ohio hit a gust of 71 mph while Romulus, Michigan clocked a gust of 62 mph.
Georgia Power advised its customers that crews were busy repairing lines in eastern and northern part of the Peach State following several reports of trees and power lines down around Athens.
SEVERE STORMS KNOCK OUT POWER TO OVER HALF A MILLION CUSTOMERS ON THURSDAY
Hail was the largest threat Thursday for residents in Genesee County, Michigan. The storm produced some of the largest hailstones that locals ever recall seeing.
Stones were estimated to be the size of tennis balls or even baseballs during the severe storm. The ice chunks were large enough to damage homes, vehicles and any outdoor object that was not protected from the elements.
“Our next-door neighbor had windows busted. Both neighbors across the street had their car windshields busted out completely,” said Ted Forrest, a resident of Davison. “I knocked on their door to tell them. Both vehicles in my driveway suffered damage but are still drivable, thankfully.”
Despite the damage, initial reports indicate the hailstones were smaller than the all-time state records.
MICHIGAN RESIDENTS STUNNED BY LARGEST HAILSTORM THEY’VE EVER WITNESSED IN TOWN OF DAVISON
Heavy rain also poured down in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, on Thursday as the National Weather Service issues warnings of a life-threatening thunderstorm affecting the Nashville area. The destructive storm contained wind gusts of up to 80 mph, the NWS said.
One resident was praying for her seven chickens in her backyard as she filmed the storm blowing through Mount Juliet, by Old Hickory Lake.
Earlier in the week, the strongest tornado ever observed in North Carolina in July was on the ground for more than 16 miles and had winds estimated to be 150 mph when the EF-3 tornado rolled through communities north of Rocky Mount.
Despite the extreme weather, no fatalities were reported.
Severe thunderstorms with wind damage and hail will be possible again across parts of the Southeast Friday. Marginally severe storms will also be possible in parts of the Northeast and High Plains.
Thunderstorms began to fire up Friday morning across parts of eastern Oklahoma into western Arkansas. The FOX Forecast Center said they will advance quickly east-southeastward across the lower Mississippi Valley and Southeast through the day.
More storms could develop near Memphis, Tennessee, to the Atlantic Coast through the afternoon with robust daytime heating of a moist low-level airmass.
“We’ll see a second round open up the day on Saturday morning,” FOX Weather meteorologist Jane Minar said. “Now, thankfully, come Saturday, that risk for severe storms expected to shift a little bit further off to the south.”
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