The potent storm system that dragged its cold front across the Southeast yesterday, fueling severe thunderstorms and tornados, has been inching its way eastward. Currently centered over southern Illinois, its counterclockwise winds are pulling up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and the mid Atlantic, sending it westward below the Great Lakes.
This train of showers, sleet and heavy rain is curving from central Ohio across northern Indiana, central Illinois and northeastern Missouri, dipping southwestward across central Missouri. Here in Columbia, the swath of unrelenting precipitation has continued overnight and through the morning hours; by this evening, the central zone of low pressure should be far enough to the east that we will escape its pinwheel of chilly rain.
Tomorrow and through the weekend, we expect a southerly flow of warm, dry air and the first sunny days in more than a week. Spared the destructive storms that devastated the Southeast, we will nevertheless welcome the exit of this large and powerful system.
