Louisiana, Texas and parts of the Plains again braced for severe thunderstorms, hail and a tornado threat on Thursday — and even worse weather could be in store for Friday.
A tornado touched down Thursday afternoon near Belle Glade, Florida, after a waterspout on Lake Okeechobee moved onshore at about 2:45 p.m. ET, according to The Weather Channel. No damage was reported.
Scattered storms were set to strike parts of southern Louisiana and north Texas on Thursday afternoon with damaging winds and potentially large hail, according to The Weather Channel. The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm watch in parts of central Texas until 9 p.m. CDT (10 p.m. ET)
Isolated strong storms could also hit eastern Colorado and western Kansas in the High Plains, Brian Fortier, a senior meteorologist with The Weather Channel, told NBC News.
The storms were expected to be "very few and far between, but the ones that do develop will be pretty strong," he added.
There were preliminary reports of two tornadoes in Colorado, one spotted around 5:51 p.m. MDT (7:51 p.m. ET) in Haxtun, Phillips County, and another around 5:58 p.m. MDT (7:58 p.m. EDT) in Granada, Prowers County.
Thursday’s isolated storms were expected to expand and intensify on Friday.
The Weather Channel said storms were likely in the morning in Texas and the central Plains, and in the afternoon in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi. Some storms could bring hail 2 inches or larger in diameter.
The storm system is expected to continue east on Saturday with severe weather looming over Mississippi, the Tennessee Valley and parts of the Southeast.
And on Sunday and Monday, yet another weather system could hit parts of the southern Plains, Texas and Oklahoma that were already battered by severe weather earlier this week.
