Timeline: When strong storms are likely in central Ohio on Thursday

Yahoo

30-04-2025

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Powerful thunderstorms Tuesday afternoon and evening brought pockets of strong winds that knocked out power to more than 88,000 customers in Ohio, with gusts of up to 60 mph. Most of the power has been restored 24 hours after the storms moved across the state.
Columbus and central Ohio Weather Radar
Despite an extensive pattern of wind damage covering hundreds of miles across the Ohio Valley and western sections of New York and Pennsylvania, this will not likely meet the criteria for a derecho — a long-lasting straight-line wind event — because the strongest gusts stayed below 75 mph (with the exception one reported gust in the Pittsburgh area).
Keep up to date on the go with the Storm Team 4 weather app. Click here to download.
The back-to-back weather systems about six hours apart — called mesoscale convective complexes — that spawned the clusters of strong storms Tuesday pushed a cold front south of the Ohio River by Wednesday morning. The same boundary will return north as a warm front Thursday, with renewed chances for a few locally strong-to-severe storms later in the day.
The Storm Prediction Center has placed a large swath of Ohio in a Level 2-of-5 risk for damaging winds Thursday.
The risk of large hail and an isolated tornado are lower compared to Tuesday's storms, due to winds aloft flowing in the same direction, reducing the risk of spin developing with stronger, taller cells that will also be less organized, rather than a large complex of storms.
The timing of storms Thursday is a little trickier due to a more strung-out and scattered nature of the lift, or forcing. Any showers and storms that develop Wednesday night and early Thursday will not be severe, associated with a warm front lifting north.
However, strong daytime heating (80 degrees) will drive up the instability later in the day, leading to isolated storms toward evening. The greater risk of a few thunderstorms capable of producing damaging wind gusts and possible hail will occur with a broken line approaching the I-71 corridor around sunset, weakening by midnight over eastern Ohio.
After the cold front crosses Ohio Thursday night, the severe threat will end, although an upper-air system will hang around Friday triggering scattered showers and a few non-severe storms, accompanied by cooler air, with temperatures in the low 70s.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.