COLUMBUS – Central Ohio residents and more than 50 million other people are being warned to watch for high winds and possibly tornadoes as a storm system that pummeled California this week moves into the Midwest.
The severe weather will ramp up Friday from Detroit to Nashville.
[515am] Thunderstorms are expected to develop this evening and continue into the overnight. Main threat expected to be damaging winds. pic.twitter.com/MpRNUBdkL8
— NWS Wilmington OH (@NWSILN) February 24, 2017
The worst of it is due in Ohio between 9:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. Saturday, according to forecasts by WBNS 10-TV.
Meteorologist Patrick Marsh of the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, says the atmosphere is operating as though it is spring even though the calendar says it is still winter.
Moist air from the Gulf will send temperatures toward 70 in northern Indiana and southern Michigan on Friday — or about 30 degrees above normal. Marsh cautioned that residents of the area should expect storms more typical of April or May.
Heavy rains hit California this week, causing floods around San Jose. The same storm system is expected to bring snow to other parts of the Midwest.