Texas storm threat: Record-breaking South temperatures too

A quick burst of strong storms are possible across Texas and the southern Plains later today and tonight while a record-break temperatures expand across eastern Texas, the lower Mississippi Valley and the South.

This one-two punch of spring-like weather is due to an autumn storm riding along a stationary front stretching from Texas to the Carolina Coast. Pulling still warm air northward from the Gulf of Mexico, strong storms will develop across Texas and Oklahoma later today.

The WeatherRadar shows the storms developing across central and western Texas before expanding northeastward into northern Texas and eastern Oklahoma tonight and early Thursday. Oklahoma City and Dallas could receive after-dark thunderstorms. Several inches of rain will be possible, and flash flooding is possible across the central Rio Grande Valley into central Texas.

East of the storms, southerly flow, as seen on WindRadar, unseasonably hot temperatures are found across eastern Texas, southern Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast. Highs will be in the 80s today, approaching daily high temperature records.

On Thursday, heavy rain will fall across the southern Plains eastward into the Missouri and central Mississippi valleys while a few storms move into eastern Texas. The unseasonably hot and near-record temperatures will spread across the South.

The Daily Briefing published daily at 5 a.m. ET offers the latest nationwide forecast.