Lightning strike hits airport runway in U.S. Texas

HOUSTON, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Amid severe weather across the U.S. South, a lightning strike on Monday afternoon hit a runway of William P. Hobby Airport, one of the two major airports in the fourth largest U.S. city of Houston, Texas, according to the Houston Airport System.

Airport authorities shut down the runway immediately for repairs, local media outlet ABC 13 reported. No details of the damage were available so far.

Prior to the lightning strike, both the Bush Intercontinental Airport and Houston William P. Hobby Airport had already issued ground stops due to severe thunderstorms in the Houston area.

Ground stops were extended until 7 p.m. local time at Hobby and at least 5:30 p.m. at Bush, said the report.

The current severe weather brought dangerous thunderstorms, softball-sized hail, destructive wind gusts and possible tornadoes, as well as flooding threats to the U.S. South on Monday, putting more than 46 million people from Texas to Florida on alert.

Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued on Monday in parts of Mississippi and Alabama, while a tornado warning was issued for the Hattiesburg area in Mississippi, local media reported.

The FOX Forecast Center said that this week's severe weather and flooding threats won't be as high as what happened in recent weeks.