Portions of Florida and Georgia are under a Tornado Watch as severe weather continues to blast across the South and Southeast on Tuesday.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A multiday severe weather threat that has placed millions of people across the South on alert for dangerous thunderstorms continues Tuesday in the Southeast, where portions of Florida and Georgia are under a Tornado Watch as extreme weather continues to blast through the region.
Deadly severe thunderstorms swept across portions of the Gulf Coast on Monday with hurricane-force wind gusts and baseball-sized hail that had people scrambling for safety and knocked out power to more than 80,000 customers.
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The storms have been pushing across the Florida Panhandle and North Florida, as well as southern Georgia, where several Severe Thunderstorm Warnings were issued before sunrise on Tuesday.
HOW YOU SHOULD PREPARE FOR A TORNADO
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The National Weather Service issued a Tornado Watch for portions of Central and North Florida, as well as southeastern Georgia, until 1 p.m. ET Tuesday.
That Tornado Watch includes cities like Spring Hill, Ocala, Gainesville, St. Augustine and Jacksonville in Florida.
Waycross, Brunswick and St. Marys in Georgia are also included in the Tornado Watch.
MAY IS PEAK MONTH FOR TORNADOES IN THE US
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Several areas of the Southeast, Tennessee Valley and mid-Atlantic will be at risk of seeing severe weather on Tuesday.
However, NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has placed nearly 9.5 million people across portions of Florida and Georgia in a Level 2 out of 5 risk of dangerous storms on its 5-point severe thunderstorm risk scale.
This means anyone living or working in communities from Tampa and Orlando in Florida northward to southern Georgia should prepare for severe weather and take appropriate action if storms approach.
Be sure to download the free FOX Weather app and enable notifications to be alerted to severe weather in your area and to check on any changes to the forecast.
(FOX Weather)
The FOX Forecast Center said the strong to severe thunderstorms will weaken early in the afternoon across northern Florida, and conditions should begin to quiet down by the early-evening hours.
However, the severe weather threat won’t be over.
The FOX Forecast Center said a dip in the jet stream would move over the region later on Tuesday night, and its presence will help to ignite a new round of thunderstorms during the evening and into the overnight hours.
That activity is expected to peak in intensity during the predawn hours on Wednesday, with the potential for damaging wind gusts and possible tornadoes.
(FOX Weather)
More severe weather is possible across Central Florida and the mid-Atlantic on Wednesday.
Those thunderstorms will be capable of producing small hail and damaging wind gusts greater than 60 mph.
Tornadoes are also possible across Central Florida on Wednesday from the Tampa area on the Gulf coast through Orlando and into Melbourne on the Atlantic coast.