A Storm System Sweeps Across the Southeast Triggering Tornado Warnings and Damaging Winds

A storm system sweeping across the Southeast late Saturday and Sunday brought tornado warnings to Mississippi and Louisiana, and then took aim at parts of Georgia and Florida, as people in the Northeast were finally getting a reprieve from weeks of bitterly cold temperatures.

Some of the fiercest storms in the South were reported near Lake Charles, Louisiana, where high winds from a thunderstorm overturned a horse trailer and a Mardi Gras float, damaged an airport jet bridge and flung the metal awning from a house into power lines. The damage was documented by National Weather Service employees who surveyed the area.

Power poles were snapped and toppled near the Louisiana towns of Jena, Cheneyville and Donaldsonville, the weather service reported.

No deaths or serious injuries were reported, but the damage reports came as the storm system continued its path into parts of south Georgia and the Florida Panhandle, which were under tornado watches on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Northeast was beginning to thaw after a weeks-long stretch of uncommonly cold weather.

Boston was running nearly 7 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 14 Celsius) below average for February by midweek, and the city was on pace for its coldest winter in more than a decade. Boston remained cold on Sunday, but the week’s forecast called for temperatures climbing into the high 30s and low 40s, which is closer to the seasonal average.

Elsewhere in the U.S., parts of California were bracing for showers, thunderstorms and snow showers. Jacob Spender, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento, said a storm system was moving on shore in California throughout Sunday and through the week.

Heavy snow was forecast for elevated areas, Spender said.

“As we get up into the mountains and the foothills, we’re going to be looking at some snowfall,” Spender said. “So there will be snowfall all the way down into the foothills as well."

Spender said people should heed travel advisories in the coming days.

“So if they are traveling, packing winter safety kits. Anything to be prepared. This is a bigger system, and a major system,” Spender said.