Storms Bring Risk of Tornadoes and Floods, From Texas to New Jersey

Weather|Risk of Severe Weather Looms Over Eastern Half of the U.S.

Large portions of the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic are at significant risk of severe weather on Friday, as a multiday storm system moves slowly to the East. A bull’s-eye centered over parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana and Kentucky is risk for some of the most severe weather.

These storms will be capable of unleashing large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes, possibly some strong ones.

“I’d be surprised if we didn’t see some tornadoes in that corridor,” said Aaron Gleason, a meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center.

Here are the key things to know:

• The risk on Friday generally stretches from eastern Texas into the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast.

• By early afternoon, an area of the East Coast that includes Southern New Jersey, Philadelphia and Delaware had been under a rolling series of flash flood and tornado warnings.

• Across parts of the middle Mississippi Valley and the Ohio Valley, the potential for thunderstorms will be greatest in the afternoon and the evening, with the storms expected to persist overnight.

• On Thursday, at least 11 tornadoes spun up across the Upper Midwest, including one that was reported in Mayville, Wis., that damaged businesses and homes, forcing road closures and downing power lines, the authorities said. More than 300,000 customers are still without power.

“It’s a fairly broad area for severe potential, and it looks like all hazards could be possible,” Mr. Gleason said.

The Northeast had a taste of severe weather early in the day.

On Friday afternoon, thunderstorms moved through an area that includes southern New Jersey, northern Delaware, northern Maryland and southeast Pennsylvania. The area was put under a severe thunderstorm watch with the storms capable of delivering hail as big as limes and winds up to 70 miles per hour. Flash-flood warnings were issued across several areas including Philadelphia and Trenton, N.J., and a few tornado warnings were in effect in southern New Jersey.

“It’ll be offshore in a matter of hours,” Brian Hurley, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center, said just before 1 p.m. Friday.