Severe storms leave wide swath of damaging wind, large hail across multiple states in South and East

Furious winds lash South Texas

Gusts up to 89 mph in Jim Wells County damaged houses and took down power lines. Local officials estimated that some 5,300 people were without power at the height of the storm on Thursday evening.

Severe storms produced widespread hail on Thursday across the Tennessee Valley and the Appalachia, with dozens of reports of hailstones around the size of quarters.

There were also numerous reports of wind damage and flash flooding in the same region, including a driver who had to be rescued from flash flooding by a swift water team in Union County, Kentucky.

FIRST STORM OF 2025 ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON COULD DEVELOP BEFORE JUNE

Asheville, western North Carolina still recovering from Helene hit with large hail

Crews in Asheville were seen cleaning storm drains on Thursday after the city shattered its daily rain record from 1973 with a rainfall total of 2.78 inches.

That was accompanied by hail and a top wind gust of 57 mph. 

It's unwelcome weather for the city and surrounding communities in western North Carolina who are still dealing with the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene last September.

Parts of north Mississippi recorded golf-ball-sized hail and 70mph winds.

HURRICANE HUNTERS FLY INTO WORLD'S WORST WEATHER. SEE WHICH STORM WAS THE BUMPIEST

Severe storms damaged property in Neuces and Jim Wells counties in Texas on Thursday, May 8, 2025.

(FOX Weather)

Severe storms cause power outages, battering Corpus Christi and south Texas

Instability lingering from the front draped across the Southeast caused severe storms to fire in parts of South Texas on Thursday evening.

Gusts up to 89 mph in Jim Wells County damaged houses and took down power lines. Local officials estimated that some 5,300 people were without power at the height of the storm.

Several school districts were closed Friday.

Nueces County, which covers Corpus Christi, closed several county roads due to downed power lines lasting into Friday afternoon.

DAMAGE REPORTED IN LOUISIANA AFTER POSSIBLE TORNADO AMID ACTIVE WEEK OF WEATHER ALONG GULF COAST

Severe storms damaged property in Nueces and Jim Wells counties in Texas on Thursday, May 8, 2025.

(Nueces County Sheriff's Office/Facebook / FOX Weather)

How much more rain is expected?

As the wet weather pushes eastward, areas across the Southeast and mid-Atlantic face an increasing threat of thunderstorms, which will last through the weekend and into next week.

Computer model forecasts show a widespread swath of 2-5 inches of rainfall over the next five days, with some communities possibly seeing totals upwards of a foot into next week.

A rather unusual weather pattern for May, known as an omega block, is largely responsible for the stagnant system, with prolonged periods of warmth in some areas of the country and steady rain in others.

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Cities such as Tallahassee, Florida; Savannah, Georgia; and Charleston, South Carolina, are all in the zone of potentially the heaviest precipitation, where rainfall totals could approach double-digits before the wet weather pattern winds down.

Flash flooding is the deadliest weather-related hazard in the U.S., and, according to NOAA data, an average of 127 people die from it each year.

According to National Weather Service forecasters, just 6 inches of fast-moving water can knock an adult off their feet, and a foot of floodwater can carry a car away.