Parts of the central US stretching from North Dakota to northern Texas, including Dallas, face an enhanced risk from severe thunderstorms, strong wind, hail and possibly tornadoes on Thursday, the US Storm Prediction Center said.
Flood watches have also been posted across eastern Texas, including Dallas and Fort Worth, as up to 3 inches (7.6 cm) of rain may fall in isolated areas, the National Weather Service said.
Already 117,764 customers are without power in eastern Texas, according to PowerOutage.us data on Thursday morning. While more than 25,000 outages stem from last week’s damaging windstorm that struck Houston, many come from storms that swept through Wednesday. Parts of eastern and northern Texas were hit by three possible tornadoes and many instances of damaging hail, the storm center said.
Meanwhile, heat advisories are in place across southern Texas along the Rio Grande River, including Brownsville, where temperatures will feel as high as 113F (45C) when combined with humidity. Thursday’s high in Houston is forecast to reach 90F and steadily climb to 97F by Monday’s US Memorial Day holiday. San Antonio is forecast to reach 97F Thursday and then climb into the 100s over the weekend peaking at 103F on Sunday.
The heat, which also covers much of Mexico, will likely linger at least through early June, according to the Commodity Weather Group LLC. Temperatures will rage 5F-8F (3C-4C) above normal through Texas and eastern Mexico into the weekend and then linger about 5 degrees above normal through June 8, the commercial forecaster said.
Rounding out Texas’ perils on Thursday are red flag fires warnings posted in many western counties, as well as most of New Mexico. The risk of wildfires will be high, the weather service said.
Other areas of the central US, including Nebraska, Kansas and western Iowa, are also on alert for dangerous weather on Thursday, the US Storm Prediction Center said, potentially bringing more disaster to states that have already been pummeled by severe storms this week. The town of Greenfield, Iowa was struck by an EF-3 tornado on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. At least five died in the storms, the Associated Press said. Governor Kim Reynolds declared a disaster emergency in 15 counties across Iowa.
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