Severe weather blows through southeastern Texas

Following days of dreary weather, severe thunderstorms ramped up into Wednesday afternoon and continued through the evening across portions of Texas.

Severe thunderstorms impacted a large swath of Texas on Wednesday after storms fired up just east of Abilene, Texas and marched southeastward. These storms produced damaging winds and hail over an area from just south of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, south to San Antonio and all the way east to Houston.

According to the Storm Prediction Center (SPC), there were more than 75 hail reports in Texas on Wednesday, a handful of which were large hail, greater than 2 inches in diameter.

There were also dozens of damaging wind reports across central and eastern Texas on Wednesday.

In addition to Wednesday's severe threat in Texas, periods of heavy rain will continue to soak portions of the south-central United States.

Wet weather began in earnest across the southern Plains and portions of the Mississippi Valley on Memorial Day and has yet to let up for many areas. A stalled storm system, now centered over the lower Mississippi Valley is to blame.

"The stalled storm will tap into moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, which will add to the intensity of rainfall rates across the region and increase the potential for flash flooding," AccuWeather Meteorologist Renee Duff said.

Through Thursday, a major concern will be the development of training thunderstorms.

"Training thunderstorms are storms that repeat over the same areas and maximize the likelihood of flooding," Duff said.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP

Flash flood warnings dotted portions of the Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas region, known as "Arklatex," on Tuesday night, due in part to these repeating downpours.

Locations caught under these repeating downpours will have the greatest opportunity to approach an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 8 inches of rainfall.

For residents across the area desperate for sunny and dry weather, hope is on the horizon. The troublesome storm system responsible for unsettled weather in the south-central U.S. will finally weaken and push east of the area on Friday.

A large dome of high pressure will set up shop over the eastern half of the country for the weekend and persist into early next week. This will allow dry conditions to prevail for the South Central states.

Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.