Tornadoes, thunderstorms threaten large part of Midwest

Much of the central United States, from Texas through Missouri and up into the Great Lakes region, was threatened by severe weather Wednesday, with the potential for powerful winds, large hail and even a few tornadoes.

Thunderstorms pushed across western Missouri on Wednesday morning, then marched northeastward across Illinois before beginning to move into western Indiana and the southern Great Lakes region in the afternoon.

“The bulk of the severe threat is shifting into Indiana now,” Bill Bunting, chief of forecast operations at the Storm Prediction Center, said at 2 p.m.

By 7 p.m., more than 230,000 customers were without power in Indiana, according to PowerOutage.us.

Nearly a dozen tornadoes have been confirmed so far by the prediction center, mostly in Illinois.

A tornado watch was issued early Wednesday afternoon for a large section of Illinois, Indiana and Michigan and it will remain in effect through 7 p.m. Central time. Several more local tornado warnings were also issued.

A tornado watch means that conditions are favorable for tornadoes, while a tornado warning is an order to take immediate action because a tornado has been sighted or weather radar indicates one will form.

The risk for severe weather Wednesday was highest in an area that includes southeast Missouri eastward across much of Illinois and Indiana, western Ohio and northern Kentucky. There’s a chance for more isolated severe storms in the southern Plains.

An area along the East Coast from Washington, D.C., to just south of New York could also see heavy rain and strong thunderstorms. The severe weather was causing flight delays at airports in Chicago, Washington and the New York City area, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

“The biggest threat for the entire risk area is damaging winds of up to 60 to 70 mph,” said Andrew Lyons, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center. Winds of this speed can knock over trees.

Severe weather has persisted across the region all week, but the storms Wednesday were likely to be less organized and more scattered than those that had been forecast on Tuesday, Lyons said.

Strong thunderstorms bringing a range of threats are typical across the central and eastern United States for this time of year. Flash flooding in San Antonio last week left at least 13 people dead, and a toddler and at least five other people were killed in West Virginia last weekend.

The area at risk for tornadoes Wednesday included Chicago, but the threat was most likely away from the city.

“We can’t rule out the possibility in Chicago proper, however, it looks like the better chances are going to be off to the south and east,” said Scott Baker, a meteorologist with the weather service in Chicago. Baker said damaging winds and heavy rains that could bring flooding were bigger threats in Chicago on Wednesday.

The tornado threat for St. Louis, which experienced a deadly tornado outbreak last month, was over by 2 p.m. Central time Wednesday. Chris Kimble, a meteorologist at the weather service’s St. Louis office, said a tornado crossed the Mississippi River 75 miles north of St. Louis on Wednesday and caused some damage. “We have people out there surveying the damage now,” Kimble said.

The storms will also bring a chance of heavy rain that could lead to flash flooding to portions of the South and Midwest, especially a large section of Michigan, northeast Illinois including Chicago, and western Kentucky.

Thursday, the threat of thunderstorms is expected to lessen overall but will shift east into the mid-Atlantic states and New England.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.