INDIANAPOLIS — Severe thunderstorms passed over the central United States on Wednesday, causing devastating wind gusts in hundreds of localities and about 500,000 power disruptions.
Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio appeared to be the heaviest hit, with several tornadoes observed in the late morning and early afternoon.
The National Weather Service recorded damage consistent with an EF-1 tornado in Pike County, Missouri. An assessment of the damage is underway.
On Wednesday, video from Jacksonville, Illinois showed a massive tornado swirling and leaving wreckage in its wake.
Photographs from Jacksonville revealed damage to a sports complex.
A funnel cloud spinning up above a field was seen on video in Menard County, Illinois, approximately 40 miles northeast of Jacksonville.
On Wednesday afternoon, strong storms moved into Indiana, bringing with them high winds and rain. Wind gusts of 67 mph were observed at Warren Park, a community located east of Indianapolis.
This fresh concern comes after intense weather wreaked havoc on the Plains and Midwest in recent days, resulting in tornadoes in Minnesota and Nebraska, as well as a record-breaking 101-mph wind gust in Wichita, Kansas.
The severe weather threat is likely to last through the rest of the week, with the mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and New England on notice by Thursday.
While sections of the mid-Atlantic, including Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, will face severe weather on Wednesday, a higher threat lies throughout the East Coast’s Interstate 95 corridor on Thursday.
More than 62 million people from North Carolina to the US-Canada border in Maine were placed under a Level 2 out of 5 threat on Thursday.
This includes cities such as Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina, Richmond, Virginia, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Hartford, Connecticut, and Burlington, Vermont.
The major hazards from Thursday’s storms will be damaging winds and hail.
Tornadoes are also unlikely to move from northern Virginia into New York’s Hudson Valley, as well as Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine in northern New England.
