Excessive Rainfall and Tropical Storm in the South; Severe Thunderstorms in the Midwest

Excessive rainfall may produce considerable, potentially life-threatening, flooding across the lower Mississippi River Valley and central Great Lakes region through tonight. Tropical Storm Arthur will move northeastward along the Texas coast today and then move inland over southwestern Louisiana by tonight. An outbreak of severe thunderstorms is expected across portions of Illinois and Indiana. Read More >

March 23rd, 2011
Severe Weather - Hail and Wind

An upper level jet stream tracking through the Ohio Valley combined with low pressure at the surface to produce severe thunderstorms during the afternoon of March 23rd. Several supercells developed with hail to golf ball size (1.75" in diameter). There were also a few thunderstorm line segments with damaging wind gusts ahead of drier air rapidly advancing from the west. Later in the afternoon, the surface low pressure over northern Ohio pushed a reinforced cold front through eastern parts of the area in the wake of the storms, resulting in some non-thunderstorm wind gusts to 55 mph.

A second round of thunderstorms occurred closer to the main cold front during the evening of March 23rd to just after midnight on March 24th. These storms contained primarily hail with diameters of 0.75"-1".