COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A strong line of thunderstorms brought on tornado warnings for many central Ohio counties early Wednesday.
Beginning at 4:45 a.m., Franklin County as well as Fairfield, Licking, Knox, Madison, Morgan and Perry counties, issued warnings that extended through 6:30 a.m. Those have all been cleared.
The National Weather Service has confirmed a tornado touched down in Madison County at 5:20 a.m. The category the tornado touched down at has yet to be determined.
The weather alerts have caused several central Ohio school districts to announce delays Wednesday morning and American Electric Power announced thousands are without power.
Watch NBC4 live and NBC4i.com for updates throughout the morning.
QUICK WEATHER FORECAST:
- Today: AM storms, falling temps
- Tonight: Clearing clouds, low 23
- Thursday: Mainly sunny, high 42
- Friday: Spotty PM showers, high 49
- Saturday: Clearing, warmer, high 59
- Sunday: Warm sunshine, high 68
FORECAST DISCUSSION:
We start the morning off with some strong thunderstorms working through the region. Expect this activity to continue through the morning commute, before eventually pushing off to the southeast by late-morning to early-afternoon. Beyond that, we’ll be on the back edge of a cold front. This will lead to falling temperatures through the afternoon, eventually down into the 30s. We’ll be much colder this afternoon than we are this morning. We’ll also be windy, with gusts as high as 40 MPH.
Clouds break tomorrow, giving way to lots of sunshine. Expect highs to be cooler, however, in the lower 40s. We will be much less windy by tomorrow afternoon.
Friday, a quick, weak system works through, bringing the chance for a few spotty afternoon showers. Otherwise, we kick off a warming trend into the weekend, with highs in the upper 40s.
We continue to warm into the weekend. Expect partly cloudy skies Saturday, with highs in the upper 50s. By Sunday we’ll be into the upper 60s, close to 70, with lots of sunshine.
-McKenna
