The National Weather Service predicted extreme weather across a vast swath of the U.S. with a population exceeding 100 million people. Powerful winds gusting up to 80 mph were forecast from the Canadian line to the Rio Grande border with Mexico.
The storm system is expected to bring rain to California’s central coast on Friday, a day after the National Weather Service confirmed that a high-end EF-0 tornado with estimated peak winds of 85 mph touched down in Pico Rivera in East Los Angeles early Thursday as a large strong storm system moved through, causing flooding across the Greater Los Angeles area.
Forecasters say the severe storm threat will continue into the weekend, with a moderate chance of tornadoes and damaging winds pushing farther south Saturday to areas including New Orleans and Birmingham, Alabama. Heavy rain could bring flash flooding to some parts of the East Coast on Sunday.
Experts say it's not unusual to see such weather extremes in March, when emerging spring warmth and lingering winter cold create big temperature differences for storms to thrive.
“If there’s a time of the year where a storm like this can deliver these coast-to-coast impacts, we are in it,” said Benjamin Reppert, a meteorologist at Penn State University.
