Golf-ball-sized hail, flash flooding tear through Missouri (VIDEO)

Screenshot from youtube video by Patrick Mawhinney

Screenshot from youtube video by Patrick Mawhinney

A massive cluster of slow-moving storms rumbled across the Midwest on Tuesday, dumping large amounts of hail in a relatively short period of time. The National Weather Service issued a severe weather watch for much of Missouri.

Many communities, particularly in St. Louis, were flooded with
rivers of hail when drainage systems were unable to handle the
amount of water and ice. The NWS issued a flash-flood warning for
the city.

“Runoff from this excessive rainfall will cause flash
flooding to occur,”
the agency said in an alert.

Hail up to the size of golf balls was reported in or near several
cities including Columbia, Warrenton and Williamsburg, according
to the Weather Channel.

Near Affton in St. Louis County, 1.13 inches of rain was reported
in just 30 minutes. Farther west in Dutzow, Missouri, 2.25 inches
of rain was reported in half an hour.

In Augusta, also west of St. Louis, storms produced more than 3
inches of rainfall, NWS meteorologist Laura Kanofsky said.

A lightning strike caused a Mississippi River traffic signal on
the Eads Bridge linking Missouri and Illinois to malfunction,
KMOV-TV reported. Crews notified the Coast Guard to inform any
barge traffic of the issue.

Missouri wasn’t the only state to suffer the severe weather.
Heavy rain triggered flash flooding in southern Indiana on
Tuesday morning, forcing road closures due to high water in
Orange and Dubois Counties, according to the Weather Channel.

Kentucky also experienced flash flooding in Corbin, a town in the
southeast. There, one street was impassable due to three feet of
ponded water, according to the NWS office in Jackson, Kentucky.

The Midwest has faced a rash of severe weather since the
beginning of April, with only two days not experiencing severe
weather of some kind, KNXV reported.

Spring warming and changes in where the jet stream carves a path
in the upper atmosphere were combining to increase the chances of
severe weather across the Plains on Wednesday and Thursday, the
Storm Prediction Center said.

On Wednesday, there is an enhanced risk of bad weather across
Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, including more hail, possibly
damaging winds, a tornado, or a combination of all three, AP
reported. That threat travels north and east on Thursday across
Illinois and eastern Missouri. Other severe storms could form
from Michigan to Texas both days.

“By Thursday, it looks like all those ingredients come
together. The timing looks better. You can really blow up some
big storms,”
Greg Carbin, the warning coordination
meteorologist at the Norman, Oklahoma-based Storm Prediction
Center, said.

Showers and storms with heavy rain and flooding are possible
throughout the southeast into Friday.

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