Almost Entire East Coast Under Weather Warnings

Newsweek -  Weather alerts were in place for nearly the entire U.S. East Coast on Thursday ahead of a windy storm system set to sweep across the region on Friday.

The warnings come amid a bout of stormy weather for the U.S., as NWS meteorologists issued tornado warning and severe thunderstorm warnings in St. Louis, Missouri, and myriad severe weather alerts remain in place across the Pacific Northwest amid another atmospheric river.

In the Northeast, millions of Americans were expecting windy, stormy conditions to begin in the early morning hours on Friday. According to a report by AccuWeather, the same storm responsible for the atmospheric river in the Pacific Northwest earlier in the week is trekking across the country and will hit the Northeast by Friday.

"Along much of the I-95 zone, some of the strongest wind gusts will occur late Thursday night to Friday morning rush hour, right as the storm's cold front approaches and swings through," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Dombek said in the report.

The most widespread issued alert was a wind advisory, in place for coastal Maine south through northern Delaware. Some areas also were under the more severe high wind warnings, such as Bar Harbor, Maine, and Boston, Massachusetts. Wind gusts could reach up to 60 mph in some instances.

"A high wind warning for the Cape and Islands on Friday," NWS Boston posted on X on Thursday. "Southerly wind gusts to 55 to 65 mph are possible, peaking from mid morning into early afternoon. A Wind Advisory is in effect for the rest of southern New England for gusts to 40 to 55 mph."

The storm has already caused rare weather alerts in areas such as Montana and St. Louis. A "rarely used" Civil Emergency Message was issued for Great Falls, Montana, on Wednesday, NWS warning coordination meteorologist Maura Casey told Newsweek, and on Thursday, a "rare" December tornado warning was issued by the NWS St. Louis office, NWS meteorologist Jayson Gosselin told Newsweek.