The multiday severe weather threat continues Thursday along much of the Gulf Coast from portions of southern Texas and southern Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle. Isolated severe thunderstorms are also expected across the eastern Florida Peninsula.
Cities with the highest risk of severe storms include Corpus Christi in Texas, New Orleans and Baton Rouge in Louisiana and Jacksonville and Orlando in Florida.
Thursday’s threat comes after thunderstorms dropped large hail and prompted dozens of severe weather warnings across parts of Texas and Florida on Wednesday.
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NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center has issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch for southeastern Louisiana, southeastern Mississippi, southwestern Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle until 1 p.m. EDT.
The main threats from Thursday’s storms include damaging winds, large hail, a few tornadoes and heavy downpours.
“South Texas, you are highlighted for the potential of extremely large hailstones being 2 inches in diameter or larger,” FOX Weather meteorologist Britta Merwin said. “So we’ll take a close look from Brownsville up towards Corpus Christi. But this is literally the entire Gulf Coast that is under the threat of severe weather today.”
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In addition to the severe threat, there will be an increasing flood threat in the Southeast, as 1 to 3 inches of rain could fall in a short amount of time.
“As this continues to get closer and closer to the Gulf of Mexico, it’s tapping into that rich moisture profile,” Merwin said. “The thunderstorms down South across the I-10 corridor, they just produce more rain than any other part of the South.”
The highest threat of severe storms is expected across parts of Texas on Friday, in addition to a more isolated risk of severe thunderstorms along the Southeast coast from Florida to the Carolinas.
The FOX Forecast Center said scattered severe storms are likely to produce damaging hail from late afternoon through the evening from north-central Texas to the middle and lower Rio Grande Valley. Cities in the bull’s-eye of the severe weather threat include Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Waco.
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Isolated strong to severe storms may also occur along parts of the Southeast coast. Cities like Miami, Orlando and Jacksonville in Florida, Charleston in South Carolina and Raleigh in North Carolina will all be at risk of seeing severe weather on Friday.
A low-end risk of severe storms is possible from late Saturday into Sunday morning across portions of the central and eastern Gulf Coast states. This includes areas from southeastern Louisiana to northern Florida.
Damaging wind gusts and large hail are expected to be the primary threats, but an isolated tornado cannot be ruled out.