For the second time in a week, the Storm Prediction Center has issued a high risk of severe weather. This corresponds to a level 5 on the National Weather Service's severe weather alert scale.
AccuWeather Global Weather Center says storm-rattled areas of the southern United States from Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas to Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky will face more potentially damaging and dangerous weather conditions into Thursday night as the second, and more powerful, storm of the week threatens to bring violent thunderstorms and at the same time continues the risk of flooding rainfall.
The first storm of the week brought torrential rain and localized flooding from part of the upper Texas coast to Louisiana and part of Mississippi Tuesday into Tuesday night.
It was also just a week ago that portions of the lower Mississippi and Tennessee valleys were hit with destructive severe weather and tornadoes.
During St. Patrick's Day, March 17, alone, 56 reports of tornadoes, 27 incidents of large hail and 79 episodes of damaging wind gusts were tallied by the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center.
This is also part of the same zone that was hit with record cold conditions and heavy amounts of snow and ice during February. The severe cold caused major damage to infrastructure, and some communities were still struggling to recover from the disastrous results of the winter weather as of late March.
"An outbreak of severe weather is likely to include everything from the threat of large hail and damaging straight-line wind gusts to isolated tornadoes with the main part of the event from Thursday to Thursday night," AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno said.