Federal Agency Warns: Charge Your Phones Amid Widespread Severe Weather

As of Friday morning, an National Weather Service map shows wind advisories, high wind watches, and tornado watches were in effect for most of the southeastern U.S., Midwest, and some Mid-Atlantic states. The brown and light brown sections are areas where wind advisories have been issued. (Weather.gov.)

Much of the Southeast United States is experiencing strong winds on Friday, with gusts blowing down trees and causing power outages as residents in Tennessee were warned to charge their cellphones, according to a National Weather Service bulletin.

“With grounds already wet, some trees will come down much easier leading to power outages. Be sure to fully charge cell phones tonight so you will be able reliably receive any additional Severe Thunderstorm or Tornado Warnings that may be issued on Friday. Winds will begin to relax from west to east starting around sunset Friday evening,” said the National Weather Service’s (NWS) bulletin that applies to “all” of Middle Tennessee.

It further advised residents to “avoid being outside in forested areas” or around trees, adding that people should try to remain in the lower levels of their homes and avoid windows “if possible.”

As of Friday morning, an NWS map shows wind advisories, high wind watches, and tornado watches were in effect for most of the southeastern U.S., Midwest, and some Mid-Atlantic states. Winds are expected to gust up to 60 mph in some areas, noted the NWS, adding that power outages are expected throughout the region.

About 83,000 Texas customers are without power, while some 23,000 people are without power in Mississippi and Louisiana as of Friday morning, according to tracking website PowerOutage.us.

What NWS Is Saying

“A powerful storm will continue to affect the eastern third of the country with severe thunderstorms, strong winds, and heavy snow,” the federal weather agency warned. “This storm will exit the northeast corridor by Saturday evening. ”Another storm system approaching the west coast will bring additional heavy precipitation, especially for the higher terrain with more snow in the forecast. The snow tracks into the northern Plains Sunday.”

That system, it added, will “produce a multitude of weather hazards throughout the eastern third of the country over the next 24 hours” starting Friday morning, adding that it is forecast to approach the “all-time record low sea level pressure values for portions of the Ohio and Missouri valleys.”

“The ongoing severe weather and flash flood risk associated with the system will continue through the early Friday morning hours across the Lower Mississippi Valley, with the threat shifting northeastward throughout the day as the strengthening low lifts northward into the Ohio Valley,” the bulletin stated. “Thunderstorms developing ahead of the eastward progressing cold front will have the potential to produce damaging wind gusts, small hail, and isolated tornadoes on Friday, resulting in the Storm Prediction Center issuing an Enhanced Risk of Severe Thunderstorms for eastern portions of the Tennessee Valley.”

Flash flood warnings were also issued around the mid-Mississippi states and Ohio Valley region, stretching east toward the Mid-Atlantic states, according to the NWS.  A swath of heavy snow is expected in the Upper Midwest through New England on Friday and Saturday, with sleet and freezing rain possible south of the heaviest snow.

Weather Channel meteorologist Jonathan Belles wrote that the storm will keep pushing “a squall line eastward through the night and into the Southeast” on Friday before tracking to the Midwest states.

No deaths or injuries have been reported from the storms that struck Texas and Louisiana on Thursday night after slamming California earlier in the week with as much as 7 feet of snow.

Winds of nearly 80 mph were recorded near the Dallas suburb of Blue Mound. The roof of an apartment building in the suburb of Hurst was blown away, resident Michael Roberts told KDFW-TV.

“The whole building started shaking. ... the whole ceiling is gone,” Roberts said. “It got really crazy.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.