One Killed After Storms Roar Through the Gulf Coast

Posted: May 6, 2021 11:19 am

As expected, it was a busy weather day in the southern US as severe thunderstorms erupted across the region. The most damage from the storms was centered on the Gulf Coast states, particularly in Mississippi and Alabama. In addition to the Gulf Coast, storms ignited throughout sections of the Ohio Valley and into the central Appalachians.

Tuesday’s Deadly Storms

A Tennessee woman lost her life when a tree fell on her in Weakley County in the northwestern corner of the state. The woman was in bed when the tree crashed into her bedroom. At least six mobile homes were also damaged as the storm moved across the state early in the morning hours.

High Winds Primary Concern

The biggest concern for this particular line of storms was the high winds. A gust of 75 mph was reported in the small town of Philadelphia, Mississippi. Not surprisingly, the winds brought down power lines and trees while causing damage to homes and buildings as they roared through the region.

During the worst of the outages, more than 300,000 people reported being without power. There were over 100,000 outages in Mississippi alone. Other states that were dealing with outages were Georgia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Virginia. The nation’s capital saw the most severe weather just in time for the evening commute, snarling traffic and making a mess of Washington, DC and beyond.

Flooding in Alabama

The National Weather Service (NWS) called a flash flood emergency for Birmingham, Alabama, late Tuesday afternoon when thunderstorms delivered heavy and unrelenting rain. The NWS in Birmingham recorded 3.46 inches of rain in a period of just two hours, leading to the flash flood warning in southeastern Jefferson County and northwestern Shelby County.

Heading into the Rest of the Week

The good news is that the stormy weather pattern is expected to ease up throughout the rest of the week. The threat of severe weather will not be as high on Wednesday. The areas most likely to see rain through Wednesday night include the Gulf Coast and up through the coastal mid-Atlantic states.

Cooler air will move into the region behind the storms on Thursday. This will lower the risk of severe weather heading into the end of the workweek. The coolest temperatures will be in the Northeast. This cool air mass will dip all the way into the Southeast and into Florida.

For example, while the high temperature in Orlando, Florida, hovered in the 90s earlier in the week, the mercury will drop to the 80s when the front dips down. Similarly, Atlanta will only be in the 70s to close out the week.