St. Patrick's Day Hurricane Threat for Australia

This satellite image from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center captured Tropical Cyclone Lua midday Friday (local time).

By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist

Mar 16, 2012; 10:02 AM ET 

St. Patrick Day's will be far from festive in North West Australia with hurricane-strength Tropical Cyclone Lua set to slam onshore.

Friday evening (local time, Friday morning EDT), Lua was churning off the coast of Australia with the strength of a Category 1 hurricane.

The warm waters of the Indian Ocean will help Lua's strength increase to that of a strong Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds between 100 and 110 mph (160 and 175 kph) prior to the cyclone's St. Patrick's Day landfall.

The AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center has pinpointed Lua's landfall to midday Saturday (local time) near or just east of Port Hedland.

Destructive winds, flooding rain and inundating surf will accompany the cyclone onshore.

"Winds will diminish [Saturday night, local time] as Lua continues to move south across Western Australia. However, very heavy rainfall will continue along the path of the storm," stated AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Tony Zartman.

"Rainfall amounts along Lua's path will reach 5 to 10 inches (12 to 25 cm) through the weekend, resulting in flash flooding," Zartman continued.

Even though Lua has yet to make landfall, it is already having an economical impact on Australia.

Bloomberg reports that the cyclone has forced companies to halt production at offshore oil fields that account for more than one-quarter of Australia's oil output.

Shipping of iron ore has been interrupted with the closure of Port Hedland in anticipation of Lua.

Lua is not the only adverse weather threatening Australia this St. Patrick's Day.

Zartman is concerned that an area of disturbed weather will unleash locally heavy rainfall across northern parts of the Northern Territory into northern Queensland through the weekend with the Cape York Peninsula especially at risk.

However, a twin of Tropical Cyclone Lua will not form from this disturbed weather. Tropical development, if any, will be slow due to the disturbed weather's proximity to land.

St. Patrick's Day Hurricane Threat for Australia

Strong Storms Aim For Western Texas and Oklahoma

By Matt Alto, Meteorologist

Mar 16, 2012; 6:20 AM ET

With record-challenging warmth sprawled across much of the eastern half of the nation, moisture in combination with an upper-air disturbance moving northeast across the southern Plains will bring the risk for strong thunderstorms to portions of the region today.

Although the day will start out looking non-threatening as periods of clouds and sunshine fill the skies across the region, conditions will quickly turn stormy heading into the late afternoon and evening hours.

Widely scattered and isolated storms will develop in the warm and moist air mass over the region as temperatures across the region rise to the upper 70s to lower 80s due to the daytime heating from the sun. It is this heating that will act as the fuel for these storms as they develop during the late afternoon hours.

The widely scattered nature of the storms may allow many locations to remain dry throughout the course of the day and not experience any thunderstorm activity.

AccuWeather.com meteorologists expect many of these storms to become severe late this afternoon and evening and have pinpointed an area from extreme southwestern Kansas through western Oklahoma and western Texas that will be under the gun.

Cities within this area included Amarillo, Lubbock and Abilene, Texas, as well as Lawton and locations to the west of Oklahoma City, Okla.

The main threats expected from these storms will be large hail, damaging winds greater than 50 mph and frequent cloud to ground lightning.

These storms may also produce periods of heavy rain that could reduce visibility for motorists.

Although the atmospheric conditions are not favorable for tornadoes, it is not completely out of the realm of possibility that a few could develop.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms will continue into the night, but these strong storms will lose their punch and quickly weaken as they track to the east into central Texas and Oklahoma.

After a brief break from the strong storms on Saturday, many of the same locations could see another round of severe weather heading toward the end of the weekend and into early next week.

More Strong Storms on the Way Early Next Week

The Wild Wild West St. Patrick's Day Storm will become the next player in the severe weather sweepstakes across the central Plains early next week.

According to Expert Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski, "the storm system will bring the risk of severe weather, high winds, and wildfire danger to western and northern Texas and the southern Plains."

As the storm system moves out of the Rockies and into the High Plains, thunderstorms will fire during the afternoon and will quickly organize and become severe as they track eastward through the overnight hours.

Again, large hail and damaging winds will be the main threats from these storms. Areas that will likely be threatened include an area that spreads from western Texas through central Kansas and Nebraska.

The focus of the severe weather Monday looks to be over the eastern half of the southern Plains.

Keep checking back with AccuWeather.com over the come days as we detail this severe weather potential across the Plains early next week.

Strong Storms Aim For Western Texas and Oklahoma

Severe Weather from Michigan to Tennessee

Video still courtesy of YouTube user Tree Town Sound.

Mar 15, 2012; 9:42 PM ET

Severe weather is erupting from Michigan to Tennessee tonight bringing hail, damaging wind gusts and even tornadoes.

A reported tornado touched down, damaging trees, power lines and a shed 2 miles northeast of Dexter, Mich. Another reported tornado touched down just 2 miles from Ida, Mich. There have been numerous reports of a third tornado 3 miles south of Columbiaville, Mich.

Patti Vanriper, employee of La Fontaine Chevrolet in Dexter, Mi., described the scene as "horrifying," "I have debris on my car. I think it's insulation. There are roofs torn off houses, and debris is blown all over. It's really 

scary," said Vanriper.

 

 Photo courtesy of Patti Vanriper, employee of LaFontaine Chevrolet in Dexter, Mi.

"We'll see the severe weather threat it transition into more of just a threat for heavy rains where the remnant storms go," AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Brian Edwards said." The Ohio Valley and the Tennessee Valley should transition into a heavy rain and maybe some thunder overnight. Farther east into western and central New York and Pennsylvania could see some of these storms reach them late tonight. Those should probably just be rain and again, maybe some thunder."

A Tru-Seal factory roof has collapsed due to heavy rain. Three injuries have been reported. All personnel are accounted for.

A person was struck by lightning in Hartselle, Al. The extent of their injury is unknown at this point.

Hail reports have come in from Missouri, Alabama, Michigan, Indiana, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee. There have been nearly 200 hail reports in total.

Baseball-sized hail (2.75 inches) fell on Carrollton, Illinois.

Flash flooding has caused a mudslide between Great Crossing and the Franklin County Line in Georgetown, Ky. Red Lick Road near Locust Branch, Ky., was covered by a foot and a half of flowing water.

Trees have been blown down in multiple counties across Kentucky.

Winds gusted to 70 mph near Davison, Mi. Down in the South, winds gusted to 71 mph in Huntsville, Al.

These raw videos show the aftermath of the tornado that ripped through Dexter, Mi.

 

Severe Weather from Michigan to Tennessee