Lightning , floods and a deluge of hailstones descended on St Louis Tuesday as powerful storms pummeled the mid-United States . Roads around the Missouri city were flooded in the intense downpour , with one town recording more than two inches of rain in half an hour . Several crashes followed the atrocious driving weather , though no injuries were immediately reported . Muds and floods : Roads around St Louis , Missouri , were deluged with rainwater following fierce thunderstorms . Floating away : Here a trash can is seen floating down a street affected by the floods , as a car kicks up spray trying to ford the waters . Downpour : The area was faced with a deluge of hail stones - an enormous pile of which are pictured here . The storms , accompanied by thunder and lightning , also hit further north , barreling into parts of Indiana and knocking down trees and power lines . The severe weather in Missouri produced reports of more than 3 inches of rainfall near Augusta west of St. Louis , National Weather Service meteorologist Laura Kanofsky said . Areas of flash flooding were commonplace throughout St. Louis County before the band of severe weather crept out of the region before noon Tuesday , she added . KMOV-TV reported that a lightning strike caused a Mississippi River traffic signal on the Eads Bridge linking Missouri and Illinois to malfunction . Crews notified the Coast Guard to inform any barge traffic of the issue . Later in the day , storms in southwestern Indiana toppled trees and downed power lines . Indiana State Police reported that strong winds caused a semitrailer to overturn on Interstate 69 near Evansville . Wind gusts measuring 70 mph were recorded in Spencer . Wet n wild : Flash flooding tore through St Louis county after hours of storms . In some palces , two inches of rain hit in just half an hour . More storms were possible elsewhere in the central U.S. Spring warming and changes in where the jet stream carves a path in the upper atmosphere were combining to increase the chances of severe weather across the Plains on Wednesday and Thursday , the Storm Prediction Center said . Particularly strong storms were possible in Kansas and Oklahoma on Wednesday and across Illinois on Thursday , with large hail , high wind gusts and a few tornadoes possible . Other severe storms could form from Michigan to Texas both days . The various contributors to severe weather — instability , heat , frontal passages — wo n't time out perfectly Wednesday but still will cause problems , said Greg Carbin , the warning coordination meteorologist at the Norman , Oklahoma-based center . 'By Thursday , it looks like all those ingredients come together . The timing looks better . You can really blow up some big storms , ' Carbin said .
St Louis was hit Thursday by flash floods . A nearby town had more than two inches of rain in less than half an hour .