Baseball-sized hail, lashing rain and 10 reported tornadoes pounded Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas on Thursday as part of severe weather system that threatens to soak much of the South and Southeast into next week.
Trees were brought down and storm drains overflowed late Thursday, The Weather Channel reported. Funnel clouds were also reported in many locations.
At the Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, rainwater caused a glass wall to collapse. “We had such a large volume of water the drains weren’t able to drain,” Keith Jenkins, associate vice president of student services, told NBC station KPRC.
Baseball-sized hail was reported in Hutchinson County, while golf ball-sized hail was recorded in locations including Amarillo and Potter.
Hail of 2.5 inches in diameter fell in locations including Roger Mills County, Oklahoma, and Hamilton County, Kansas.
The Weather Channel said eight tornadoes were reported in Texas, with one each in Oklahoma and Kansas.
“There were tornadoes reported but the main threat was from damaging winds and hail,” Weather Channel lead meteorologist Michael Palmer said.
Severe storms are once again possible through the weekend from the southern Plains to the Southeast, The Weather Channel said. Additional rainfall of up to three inches with high spots over four inches possible through Monday will cause localized flooding, it said. Friday’s severe threat area is mostly across southern and southeast Texas and in western parts of Kansas. Saturday’s severe threat focuses on Oklahoma and Texas into the Lower Mississippi Valley and Gulf Coast. Meanwhile, a separate system is set to bring April snow to the Rockies, including the possibility of between two and four feet of snowfall in the mountains of southeast Wyoming and north-central Colorado. This story originally appeared on NBC News
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