A vast storm system Wednesday night may bring snow from eastern South Dakota into northeast Nebraska, northwest Iowa, and central and southern Minnesota, to include the Twin Cities, The Weather Channel reported. Four to eight inches of snow could fall Wednesday night alone in the Sioux Falls to Minneapolis corridor.

Light snow could reach as far east as northern Wisconsin, The Weather Channel reported.

Farther east, in upstate New York, Buffalo could see a brief period of freezing rain Thursday morning.

Earlier Wednesday, the storm pounded the Dakotas with snow, coated Oklahoma with rare spring ice and took aim at parts of the Mid-Atlantic and South.

Snow, freezing rain and strong winds snapped trees, broke power poles and left cars sheathed in ice in South Dakota, and the city of Sioux Falls declared a state of emergency.

More coverage from weather.com

Farther south — and much more unusually — ice coated roads in Oklahoma, all the way down to the Red River border with Texas.

“For April, that is really amazing,” said Tom Niziol, a meteorologist and winter weather expert for The Weather Channel.

It all made for a messy day of travel in the Great Plains and the Midwest. Chicago O’Hare, a hub airport for the central United States, reported almost 500 flight cancellations.

Dirk Lammers / AP

Icy branches partially block a city street and fall amid parked cars in Sioux Falls, S.D.

As the storm system lumbers eastward, powerful thunderstorms are expected later Wednesday and overnight in Pennsylvania and Maryland, including Philadelphia and its suburbs.

It has been unusually cold this week in the West and unseasonably warm in the East, including temperatures pushing 90 degrees Wednesday in Washington. That warm air makes the weather system more dangerous.

“There will be more than enough fuel for these storms,” said Carl Parker, another meteorologist for The Weather Channel.

A line of late-day storms was expected to sweep across Arkansas on Wednesday afternoon, threatening to dump damaging hail and perhaps spawn tornadoes before pushing out of the state in the evening.

The same storm system has already produced bizarre weather elsewhere in the country.

Earlier this week, the temperature fell 55 degrees in Denver in less than 24 hours. Gusty wind nudged 21 cars of a freight train off the tracks in Nebraska. And snowflakes the size of cotton balls fall in Marshall, Minn., NBC affiliate KARE in Minneapolis reported.

This story was originally published on Wed Apr 10, 2013 6:32 AM EDT

The storm that dumped snow across parts of the Rockies and northern Plains on Tuesday was expected to bring more severe weather on Wednesday.

The central and southern Plains areas were at risk for severe weather, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center.

Swaths of land from New Mexico to Wisconsin were under winter storm warnings,while parts of Utah were under blizzard warnings.

According to the National Weather Service, Oklahoma City and Wichita Falls, Texas, were at risk for tornadoes and possible hailstorms Tuesday night and into Wednesday.

Earlier Tuesday, blizzard warnings were in effect in Colorado, where the temperature plunged more than 50 degrees in less than 24 hours and the wind chill approached zero. Wyoming got more than a foot of snow.

The culprit is a deep dip in the jet stream that swung west and pulled arctic air far into the country. As it collides with warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, strong storms and tornadoes are possible in the Great Plains and Texas.

“It’s just brutal to be outside,” said Eric Fisher, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel.

Full coverage from Weather.com

In Denver, the temperature plummeted from 71 degrees at 2 p.m. Monday to 16 degrees at 7 a.m. Tuesday, with a wind chill of 1. More than 250 flights were canceled into and out of Denver on Tuesday alone.

In Wyoming, authorities closed two stretches of interstate more than 100 miles long — I-25 between Cheyenne and Douglas and I-80 between Laramie and Rawlins. More than a foot of snow fell by midmorning in the city of Lander, and one town near the Nebraska state line reported 2-foot snow drifts.

Snow was also falling at midday Tuesday in Colorado, Utah, the Dakotas and Minnesota.

Brennan Linsley / AP

A man crosses the street during a winter storm that brought snow and a fast plunge in temperature overnight to downtown Denver on Tuesday.

The calendar may say spring, but April is the second-snowiest month of the year in Denver. The city has averaged 9 inches in April since 1882, second only to the 11.5 inches it gets in an average March, according to the National Weather Service.

The weather pattern threatened to bring damaging wind, large hail and perhaps tornadoes to parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa, and weaker storms later in the day in the Ohio Valley.

“We’re looking at the gamut today for severe weather,” Weather Channel meteorologist Kevin Roth said.

As the system moves east, severe storms are possible Wednesday across a boomerang-shaped swath of the country from the Texas Gulf Coast north through Indiana and into western Pennsylvania.

Severe storms could move into Georgia, West Virginia and the Carolinas on Thursday.

NBC News' Becky Bratu and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Tue Apr 9, 2013 4:59 AM EDT

High winds and heavy rains brought more misery to the Eastern Seaboard Thursday, a day after a squall line thundered across the South and produced widespread flooding, tornadoes and violent storms that leveled homes and killed at least two people.

The National Weather Service issued watches and warnings predicting damaging winds, flooding and perhaps even more tornadoes as the storm system pushed toward the Atlantic.

Major cities including Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York were lashed by gusts of up to 60 mph Thursday, strong enough to topple trees and bring down power lines. The accompanying storms could bring up to an inch of rain per hour and lead to flash flooding, the weather service said. 

Even stronger winds, gusting to 65 mph, were predicted for Boston and parts of New England.

Nearly 430,000 homes and businesses were without electricity following the storm Thursday, about half of them in Massachusetts, according to National Grid and Western Mass. The rest of the outages were spread throughout the Northeast and included nearly 74,000 customers in Connecticut, 74,000 in Rhode Island and 37,000 in New Jersey, according to local utility providers.

Traffic delays were also in effect due to the windy conditions. Some flights to Newark International Airport were delayed more than two and a half hours and flights going to LaGuardia Airport in New York were delayed a little more than an hour, according to the FAA.

On Wednesday, eight different states confirmed tornadoes: Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Mississippi and Indiana.

The hardest-hit area was Adairsville, Ga., where a tornado ripped through Interstate 75, overturning cars and destroying homes and businesses.

“The sky was swirling,” Theresa Chitwood, who owns the Adairsville Travel Plaza, told the Associated Press.

Anthony Raines, 51, was killed when a tree crashed down on his mobile home, crushing him in his bed, Bartow County Coroner Joel Guyton told the Associated Press. Nine other people were hospitalized for minor injuries, authorities said.

Another death reported from the storms was in Tennessee, where a tree fell Tuesday onto a storage shed a man had taken shelter in.

David Goldman / AP

Workers look for personal belongings after a tornado struck Adairsville, Ga., Wednesday.

The Adairsville Supermarket, a 55,000-square-foot staple in the town since 1958, was reduced to a massive pile of rubble, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.  Only a few people were inside at the time of destruction, but all of them managed to escape unscathed, the store’s owner Dilip Patel told the newspaper.

Across the street, a hotel was also a nearly-flattened pile of rubble and most of the roof was gone.

“It was like you just opened it up with a can opener,” Trish Cooper, a hotel guest, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “You could just see everything.”

The storms were largely caused by a mass of cold air and high winds colliding with warm, wet air from the Gulf of Mexico that brought balmy temperatures to much of the East and Midwest.

As the cold air takes hold, a return to winter proper follows suit.

Winter storm warnings were in effect Thursday in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, while parts of the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest hunkered down under wind chills predicted to dip as low as 55 degrees below zero in North Dakota.

"Dangerous wind chills of 20-50 degrees below zero are possible for the Dakotas and Minnesota," Weather Channel meteorologist Kevin Roth said.

In more populous areas, including the Twin Cities, wind chills had potential to reach minus 40 degrees, the weather service said.

Those in the Upper Midwest who escape the worst of the wind chills still won’t have it easy. Forecasters warned of heavy lake-effect snows from Wisconsin to Western New York.

Skip Butler / The Daily Tribune News via AP

Emergency crews rescue Brenda Mulkey, injured at her home when a suspected tornado touched down in Adairsville, Ga. Wednesday.

Related:

• Tornado rips through Georgia city as storms wreak havoc
• Full coverage from weather.com

Abby Tabor / AP

Vehicles drive through floodwaters on Canal Boulevard in Thibodaux, La., Jan. 10. Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a statewide emergency Thursday after storms rolled across Louisiana, dumping huge amounts of rain and flooding some areas. The declaration lets Louisiana use state money to help local governments recover from storm damage.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency Thursday, as the National Weather Service issued multiple flood warnings after severe weather drenched the state's southeast region.

In addition to flooding concerns, the National Weather Service confirmed at least three tornadoes touched down in Louisiana Thursday morning: one near New Iberia, another in Breaux Bridge and a third near Plaquemine.

"The state anticipates additional parishes will declare states of emergency and that assistance may be needed to assist the parishes in their response to this continuing threat," the declaration read.

The state's Acadia, Avoyelles, Concordia, East Carroll, Evangeline, Livingston and St. Landry parishes also made emergency declarations, which will help prepare funds and resources for responding to flooding from the storms, WDSU reported.

Widespread street flooding was reported in Ascension, St. James, St. John and Livingston parishes, according to WDSU.

The Louisiana National Guard is on standby and has sent high-water trucks to some areas, according to WDSU.

The region won't be drying out anytime soon. Another storm system is expected to bring heavy rainfall Saturday night through Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

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Crews scrambled to restore power Wednesday after a string of Christmas tornadoes tore across the South, toppling trees, ripping off roofs, and dropping one-inch hailstones.

The National Weather Service said there were a record 34 tornadoes reported in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Tuesday.

A state of emergency was declared in Mississippi, where homes, roads and businesses were damaged in at least nine counties. Eight people were injured but expected to survive, officials said.

A tornado watch was issued Wednesday for the eastern Carolinas until 5:00 p.m. ET.

At one point late Tuesday, holiday celebrations went dark for at least 150,000 customers in Alabama; electricity had been restored to all but 8,500 by the next morning, according to Alabama Power.

The worst of the tornadoes hit Tuesday afternoon in Mobile, Ala.

Rick Cauley, who was hosting relatives for Christmas, got everyone in the house to a shelter at the high school down the block.

"As luck would have it, that's where the tornado hit," Cauley told The Associated Press. "The pressure dropped and the ears started popping and it got crazy for a second."

The school was damaged, but the family was fine.

Mobile Press-Register reporter John Sharp wrote that he hunkered down in his bathtub in the fetal position while the power flickered off and the twister roared around his building.

When he walked outside, he was stunned. The roof of a small shopping center had caved in, and several cars in a restaurant parking lot were destroyed.

Hundreds more flights canceled as Christmas storm moves east

“Visibly, it was like a bomb has gone off at The Loop,” he wrote. “A one-way street sign was literally sawed into half. The Dauphin Island Parkway/Airport Boulevard sign was flattened. Power lines were lying on the ground.

“It's a Christmas miracle no one was killed,” he added.

Mobile’s Trinity Episcopal Church lost a large section of its roof and a wall, but officials were looking on the bright side. Hours before the tornado touched down, there were 500 people in the church for Christmas Eve services.

"Thank God this didn't happen last night," senior warden Scott Rye said.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley released a statement thanking first responders for their holiday efforts.

Christmas storms spread snow, tornadoes across US, snarling travel

"The people of Alabama are strong," he said. "We will recover together.”

Yuletide twisters are unusual, but they happen. Ten storm systems in the last 50 years have spawned a holiday tornado, National Weather Service spokesman Chris Vaccaro told the AP.

In 1982, 29 tornadoes in Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi killed three people and injured 32 over Christmas.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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NASA

Hurricane Sandy is seen from the International Space Station on Oct. 29 shortly before it made landfall on the East Coast.

CHICAGO -- Nearly four in 10 Americans say the severity of recent natural disasters such as Superstorm Sandy is evidence the world is coming to an end, as predicted by the Bible, while more than six in 10 blame it on climate change, according to a poll released on Thursday.

The survey by the Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with the Religion News Service found political and religious disagreement on what is behind severe weather, which this year has included extreme heat and drought.

Most Catholics (60 percent) and white non-evangelical Protestants (65 percent) say they believe disasters like hurricanes and floods are the result of climate change.

But nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of white evangelical Protestants say they think the storms are evidence of the "end times" as predicted by the Bible.

Overall, 36 percent point to end times and 63 percent to climate change.

PRRI research director Daniel Cox said that some respondents -- including 75 percent of non-white Protestants -- believe extreme weather is both evidence of end times and the result of climate change.

"No one really knows how (end times) would look and how God would bring it about," Cox said.

Politics also color perceptions of the weather, the survey found. More than three-quarters of Democrats and six in 10 independents believe that the weather has become more extreme over the last few years, while less than half of Republicans say they have perceived such a shift.

"Their political leanings are even affecting how they experience weather, which is pretty fascinating," said Cox.

The January-to-November period in the United States this year was the warmest first 11 months of any year on record for the contiguous states. And 2012 will likely surpass 1998 as the warmest year on record for the nation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Most climate scientists believe that the warming trend for the nation and the world is tied to human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels.

Extreme storms like Sandy, along with more intense droughts, wildfires and floods, are projected by some as the result of climate change, though scientists are reluctant to attribute individual events to global warming.

The PRRI survey found that while there is disagreement about the causes of global warming, there is widespread agreement about the need for action.

Two-thirds of Americans say the U.S. government should do more to address climate change -- including most of those who believe global warming is due to natural weather patterns, the survey found.

It also found that 15 percent of Americans believe that the end of the world, as predicted by the New Testament's Book of Revelation, will occur in their lifetime. Some 2 percent believe that the end of the world, as predicted by the ancient Mayans, will occur by the end of this year.

Some people who say they believe in end times do not act on that belief in their everyday lives, said Cal Jillson, political science professor at Southern Methodist University.

"I think that's their way of expressing a deep commitment to Biblical literalism," said Jillson. "If you sat down with them and said, 'Do you really think that within the next few years we'll experience the end times?' they probably don't ... A good number of these people are saving for retirement."

The survey of 1,018 adults was conducted between Dec. 5 and Dec. 9. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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During the upcoming 2012-13 winter season, The Weather Channel will name noteworthy winter storms. Our goal is to better communicate the threat and the timing of the significant impacts that accompany these events. The fact is, a storm with a name is easier to follow, which will mean fewer surprises and more preparation.

Hurricanes and tropical storms have been given names since the 1940s. In the late 1800s, tropical systems near Australia were named as well. Weather systems, including winter storms, have been named in Europe since the 1950s. Important dividends have resulted from attaching names to these storms:

• Naming a storm raises awareness.
• Attaching a name makes it much easier to follow a weather system’s progress.
• A storm with a name takes on a personality all its own, which adds to awareness.
• In today’s social media world, a name makes it much easier to reference in communication.
• A named storm is easier to remember and refer to in the future.

Related: Check Out the New Storm Names for the 2012-2013 Season

The question then becomes: “Why aren’t winter storms named?” In fact, in Europe the naming of weather systems has been going on for a long time. Here in the U.S., summer time storms including thunderstorms and tornadoes occur on such a small time and space scale that there would be little benefit and much confusion trying to attach names to them. However, winter weather is different. Winter storms occur on a time and space scale that is similar to tropical systems.

weather.com

In fact, historically many major winter storms have been named during or after the event has occurred. Examples include “The President’s Day Storm” and “Snowmageddon.” Yet, until now, there has been no organized naming system for these storms before they impact population centers.

One of the reasons this may be true is that there is no national center, such as the National Hurricane Center, to coordinate and communicate information on a multi-state scale to cover such big events. The National Centers for Environmental Prediction’s Hydrologic Prediction Center (HPC) does issue discussions and snowfall forecasts on a national scale but it does not fill the same role as the NHC in naming storms. Therefore, it would be a great benefit for a partner in the weather industry to take on the responsibility of developing a new concept.   

This is where a world-class organization such as The Weather Channel will play a significant role. We have the meteorological ability, support and technology to provide the same level of reporting for winter storms that we have done for years with tropical weather systems. 

In addition to providing information about significant winter storms by referring to them by name, the name itself will make communication and information sharing in the constantly expanding world of social media much easier.  As an example, hash tagging a storm based on its name will provide a one-stop shop to exchange all of the latest information on the impending high-impact weather system.

Related: Cantore's Famous "Thunder Snow" Video  |  Recalling Snowtober 2011

There will be many differences from the “tropical model” for naming winter storms. Unlike tropical systems, winter weather takes place at latitudes under extreme energy and forcing from the atmosphere.

Often a weather system that is expected to strike a metropolitan area three days from now has not even completely formed in the atmosphere. Therefore, naming of winter storms will be limited to no more than three days before impact to ensure there is moderate to strong confidence the system will produce significant effects on a populated area. In addition, the impacts from winter systems are not as simple to quantify as tropical systems where a system is named once the winds exceed a certain threshold. 

The process for naming a winter storm will reflect a more complete assessment of several variables that combine to produce disruptive impacts including snowfall, ice, wind and temperature. In addition, the time of day (rush hour vs. overnight) and the day of the week (weekday school and work travel vs. weekends) will be taken into consideration in the process the meteorological team will use to name storms.

This is an ambitious project. However, the benefits will be significant. Naming winter storms will raise the awareness of the public, which will lead to more pro-active efforts to plan ahead, resulting in less impact and inconvenience overall. 

Coordination and information sharing should improve between government organizations as well as the media, leading to less ambiguity and confusion when assessing big storms that affect multiple states. It will even make it easier and more efficient for social media to communicate information regarding the storm resulting in a better informed public. And, on the occasion that different storms are affecting separate parts of the country, naming storms will allow for clearer communications.

Finally, it might even be fun and entertaining and that in itself should breed interest from our viewing public and our digital users. For all of these reasons, the time is right to introduce this concept for the winter season of 2012-13.

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Residents from New England to Washington, D.C., were cleaning up on a much-milder Sunday after storms spawned two New York City tornadoes and toppled thousands of trees as well as power lines, cutting electricity to tens of thousands.

Below's a look at the damage by area.

NEW YORK CITY
A twister with 70 mph winds formed over water near the Rockaway Peninsula of Queens Saturday morning, then hit the beachfront neighborhood of Breezy Point.

A second, 110-mph tornado followed seven minutes later about 10 miles away.

Residents got advance notice but still the storm took people by surprise, and 1,100 electricity customers lost power. No injuries were reported in either.

At Breezy Point, roofs were ripped off cabanas at the Breezy Point Surf Club. The storms also scattered deck chairs and left a heavy metal barbecue and propane tank sitting in the middle of a softball field, at least 100 yards from any home, the Associated Press reported. 

"It picked up picnic benches. It picked up Dumpsters," said the club's general manager, Thomas Sullivan.

Courtesy Caitlin Walsh

Some of the debris at the Breezy Point Surf Club is seen Saturday.

"We were all scared," added club worker Caitlin Walsh, 24. "The windows on the whole building broke, the lights went out, and the rain was pouring in. Everything was shaking. It was really crazy."

Related: NBCNewYork.com reports on the twisters

Broken flower pots, knocked-down fences and smashed windows littered the community of seaside bungalows.

Half an hour later, the weather was beautiful, but Sullivan had to close the club to clean up the damage.

The roof of Bob O'Hara's cabana was torn off, leaving tubes of sunscreen, broken beer bottles and an old TV set exposed to the elements, the Associated Press reported.

O'Hara, who has spent summer weekends at the Breezy Point club for his entire 52 years, tried to be upbeat. "We got a new sunroof," he said, and "the TV was getting thrown out anyway." 

The second twister hit to the northwest, in Brooklyn's Canarsie section and also near the water. Several homes and trees were damaged.

Tornadoes in the New York City area have occurred with more regularity in recent years. A small tornado uprooted trees on Long Island last month.

In September 2010, two tornadoes knocked down thousands of trees and blew off a few rooftops in Brooklyn and Queens. A weaker tornado struck the same year in the Bronx.

In 2007, a more powerful tornado damaged homes in Brooklyn and Staten Island.

WASHINGTON, D.C., AREA
Tornado-like funnel clouds were reported in Fairfax County, Va., and in Prince George's County, Md., but had not yet been confirmed.

A dozen people were injured while trying to evacuate the Prince George's County Fair, and six people were evacuated from a Washington apartment building when a tree fell on it.

Fairfax County officials reported three home cave-ins because of downed trees, a water rescue in the Potomac River and dozens of electrical wires down.

Related: NBCWashington.com reports on the storms 

Area storms left more than 108,000 households and businesses in Virginia without power, while over 60,000 electricity customers in the District of Columbia and the Maryland suburbs were hit by outages.  

By Sunday morning, more than 16,000 customers in the region were still without power.

NEW ENGLAND
The storms later moved into New England with wind gusts up to 60 mph, downing trees and flooding roads.

In Fall River, Mass., floodwaters reached up to car windshields and stalled out dozens of vehicles, the Associated Press reported. A day care center was evacuated and St. Anne's Hospital's emergency room flooded. 

In New Hampshire, WMUR-TV reported 4,000 power outages. The storm reached every county in Vermont, all within a two-hour window, but mercifully left the state without any extraordinary damage, according to early reports.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Jeff Roberson / AP

Storm clouds roll in over Busch Stadium as the St. Louis Cardinals prepare to take on the Milwaukee Brewers in a baseball game on Friday night.

Powerful storms rumbled across parts of the Midwest and the southern Plains late Friday evening, leaving a total of four people dead.

The storms left damaged homes, downed trees and thousands of power outages in their wake as they swept across Oklahoma, weather.com reported.

Two adults and an infant were found dead inside their destroyed mobile home after it was blown into a ravine in Nowata County, according to Doug Sonenburg, undersheriff of Nowata County.

The storms sent high winds through much of northeastern Oklahoma late Friday, causing road closures and evacuations in some areas.

Read more from The Weather Channel

Public Service Company of Oklahoma reported 17,790 customers without power, and at least 2,885 Oklahoma Gas and Electric customers were without electricity.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol also reported that Ash Grove, Mo., resident Jimmy King was killed when straight-line winds flipped the semi he was driving onto a cement barrier wall and trapped him inside near Afton, according to The Associated Press.

Troopers said the 70-year-old King was pinned in the wreckage for nearly three hours and died at the scene of massive injuries.

Utility crews were also scrambling to address scattered power outages in southern, central and eastern Missouri after powerful thunderstorms swept across the state.

Several high schools postponed their Friday night football games to avoid taking chances.

The storms brought large hail to the Ozarks and the Columbia and Jefferson City areas, along with winds up to 70 mph that snapped power poles and trees in several communities.

Emergency managers received scattered reports of roofs torn from barns and streets blocked by fallen trees and power lines. The National Weather Service posted a few tornado warnings, but no funnel clouds were reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Tucson firefighters rescued a man and woman who were trapped in a storm drain just hours before torrential rains flooded the city and surrounding areas. 

The fire department responded just after 10:30 a.m local time Saturday after a passerby heard the screaming from the drain and called emergency services, NBC News station KVOA reported.

The pair, who showed signs of heat-related illness, had entered the drain willingly and became disoriented, officials told KVOA.

They spent more than eight hours in the drain, azcentral.com quoted Tucson Fire Capt. Barrett Baker as saying.

The situation was even more serious because of storms that were heading towards Tucson later in the weekend, Baker added.

"Being caught in a storm drain during a monsoon would've made this a body recovery rather than a rescue," Baker told azcentral.com. "Storm drains are just that -- storm drains. They are not people drains."

Heavy rain flooded roads throughout Tuscon on Sunday, KVOA reported in a separate story, leaving many motorists stranded. 

Firefighters had to rescue three elderly people who had tried to cross a wash, KVOA reported. A 93-year-old woman had to be carried out of the torrential waters in a stretcher. 

"You don't know what it looks like underneath that running water so when in doubt do not drown, turn around," Northwest Fire Captain Adam Goldberg told KVOA. "Somebody is not getting the message and the message is quite simple: If there is running water don't try to cross it."

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Severe winds knocked down trees in areas from Michigan to Georgia on Friday, a day after a line of severe storms tore through parts of the Midwest and Northeast, killing two people, cutting power to tens of thousands and spawning a tornado that damaged property in Elmira, N.Y. 

A second tornado touched down near Montrose, Pa., on Thursday, but no major damage was reported there.

With the new storms only getting started Friday afternoon, key cities in the danger area are Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Nashville, Washington D.C., Roanoke and Raleigh, the National Weather Service stated. While describing the risk as slight, it added that any storms could be strong enough to blast 60 mph gusts and dump large hail.

Most of the initial reports of wind damage were in the Carolinas, Indiana and West Virginia, according to the Storm Prediction Center.

In Washington, any rain would provide some relief to recent high temperatures. Thursday saw 100 degrees --the seventh day at 100 or above this month, and a record for the most days above 100 for any month in D.C., NBCWashington.com reported. 

In Elmira, thousands were still without power Friday morning after a twister tore through the town Thursday around 4 p.m. ET, the Elmira Star Gazette reported.

Trees fell on many homes and cars, while at least one business lost part of its second story to the tornado. The town was alerted to the possibility of a tornado a half hour before it hit, and no injuries were reported.

Adam Fenster / Reuters

Gary Dunning surveys the tornado damage to his business in Elmira, N.Y., on Thursday.

More than 85,000 homes and businesses in Pennsylvania were still without power Friday morning after Thursday's storms, while about 34,000 in New York and 13,000 in Ohio also had no electricity -- and thus no air conditioning for the sweltering summer heat.

In New York City, a 61-year-old man in Brooklyn's Cobble Hill neighborhood was killed when scaffolding at a church fell on him as the storm passed through around 8 p.m. ET, NBCNewYork.com reported. 

"It's possible that lightning struck the top of the roof, causing some bricks to fall on top of the scaffolding," a police spokesman said. 

In Genesee, Pa., a woman camping was killed when she took refuge in her car and a tree then fell on it. 

The storms also disrupted air travel, forcing the cancellation of over 900 flights on Thursday, according to FlightAware.com, a flight tracking website. The highest number of cancellations was at New York's LaGuardia Airport. 

Flight delays were also reported at airports in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington D.C., according to the FAA flight monitoring website.

As bad as it was, Thursday's outbreak was nowhere as damaging as the June 29 storms that tracked over 600 miles from Indiana to the Mid-Atlantic and left millions without power.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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