BROOKHAVEN — Severe storms are in the forecast this weekend once again for central and southwest Mississippi. Lincoln County could see damaging wind gusts up to 60 mph, hail up to a quarter in size and tornadoes could be possible. 

The weather threat is expected to move through the area between Saturday afternoon and into the night. There is a 90 percent chance of rain Saturday night and Sunday to accompany these storms. 

The National Weather Service in Jackson warns there could be localized flash flooding in areas as storms stall over areas. There is no specific given in the NWS forecast discussion on where flash flooding threats could occur in their coverage area. 

“Rainfall trends will continue to be monitored as we get closer,” NWS Jackson states. “A flood graphic could be introduced come Saturday if trends start to increase.” 

 

Winds cause outages 

Strong winds whipped across Lincoln County Wednesday and Thursday bringing down weakened trees and standing dead pine trees from the 2023 drought and the subsequent pine beetle outbreak. There are still many standing dead pine trees left to fall in Lincoln County which could cause power outages and possibly spark wildfires. 

NWS Jackson reports wind gusts peaked at 41 mph Wednesday with sustained winds reaching 28 mph. Those winds managed to bring down trees and limbs on power lines in 50 different incidents across Lincoln and Copiah Counties affecting a reported 1,000 Entergy customers according to Brookhaven Customer Service Manager Fisher Warren. 

Magnolia Electric reported a peak of 1,300 outages Wednesday afternoon. Southwest Electric had 166 customers without power Wednesday night thanks to a tree falling on a line, breaking the pole and crushing a storage shed on Old Red Star. Fortunately, power companies have been able to restore electricity quickly.