Dangerous Severe Weather/Tornadoes/Flood Underway In South

Areas in dark green, yellow and especially orange and red
are most at risk for tornadoes and damaging thunderstorms
today. Areas of the nation in light green, including
here in Vermont, are facing possible thunderstorms
today but none of those storms will be severe. 

 A very expensive and potentially deadly round of extreme weather is going on near the Gulf Coast today.  

As of mid-morning, tornado warnings, along with severe thunderstorms packing winds of 80 mph or more and severe flooding was ongoing, mostly in Texas and Louisiana.

The extremely risky weather appears poised to intensify further later this morning and afternoon. Aside from the life threatening nature of all this, the storm system will probably be another disaster costing $1 billion or more. 

I say that because I'm guessing there's already been a few hundred million dollars in damage already.  Last night, large hail caused a lot of damage to cars, windows, roofs and other items in and near Austin, Texas.  Hail storms in populated areas are often the most expensive kind of storm.  

Tornadoes cause more intense destruction, but hail storms tend to hit broader areas, dispersing the problems over a wide area.

Those tornadoes of course have their own impacts.  Buildings have already been damaged or destroyed by likely tornadoes in Katy and Port Arthur, Texas.

Flash flood emergencies were in effect across eastern Texas, where up to 15 inches of rain has already landed. 

A squall line was making its way through eastern Louisiana into western Mississippi this morning. Some of the storms had winds of 80 mph and possible embedded tornadoes.

Meanwhile, ahead of this line, supercell thunderstorms were developing, and those threaten to produce tornadoes. Some of those tornadoes could be quite large, powerful and long lasting. 

The greatest threat for these tornadoes is in southern and eastern Louisiana, southern Mississippi and southwestern Alabama. The zone where tornadoes are most likely is also the area that is most at risk of flash flooding.  Up to eight inches of rain is forecast there today

This is the same storm that is expected to bring showers thunderstorms, a burst of warm air and wind to us here in Vermont later this week.   We might have a little flooding and perhaps isolated wind damage in the Green Mountain State. But the problems here will be minuscule compared to the rough weather in the South.