The same storm system responsible for producing violent and deadly thunderstorms in Oklahoma recently will reach the northeast for Thursday. The nature of the storms will change somewhat from producing tornadoes to more of a straight-line wind gust, hail and flash flooding event. However, there is a chance that a couple of the strongest thunderstorms will produce a brief tornado.

The risk for damaging and dangerous thunderstorms is forecast to extend from eastern Virginia to eastern New York state and portions of New England. Much of this area will be in a sea of warm, humid air as a cool front providing a focusing point for the storms arrives.Only the immediate coast of southern and eastern New England would be spared the worst of the gusty storms, due to a flow of cool air off the ocean. People should be prepared for travel problems, sporadic power outages, frequent lightning strikes and urban flooding Thursday afternoon and evening. -SS