(Bloomberg) -- Flooding rain, thunderstorms and possibly more tornadoes continued to threaten the US South Monday after a weekend that saw a deadly outbreak of storms in Mississippi. Worst storms will likely arrive later this week.
A slight chance of severe thunderstorms, which can spawn tornadoes, damaging winds and hail, is possible Monday across Alabama, northern Florida and Georgia, the US Storm Prediction Center said. A storm set to strike California with flooding rains Tuesday is expected to sweep across the US, raising a severe risk of thunderstorms and tornadoes from Texas and Oklahoma across Arkansas and into the Midwest Thursday and Friday.
“That is going to be the big severe weather day we’re expecting,” said Carl Erickson, a meteorologist with commercial forecaster AccuWeather Inc.
On Friday, at least 25 people died in Mississippi when tornadoes ripped across the state, according to the state’s Emergency Management Agency. In Mississippi and Georgia, 31,300 customers were without power Monday at 1 p.m. local time, according to Poweroutage.us. President Joe Biden declared a major disaster for the area allowing federal funding to flow.
At this time of year warm air from the south clashes with lingering colder air in the north to fuel ferocious storms. Mississippi’s outbreak was made worse because the warm water off the Gulf of Mexico helped fuel the danger, Erickson said.
From 2020 to 2022, tornadoes killed at least 202 people with 1,212 occurring, on average, each year. Since 1980, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and hail have killed 1,982 people and caused nearly $384 billion in damages and losses, according to the US National Centers for Environmental Information.
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