Severe weather is targeting parts of the South through Wednesday, with widespread thunderstorms stretching from Texas to the Deep South and bringing very large hail, damaging winds and a few tornadoes. A tornado caused damage near Mineral Wells, Texas, as the storm line pushed east.
The threat is expected to be much lower on Wednesday, though storms still could develop across portions of the Deep South and mid-Atlantic. Hail could reach baseball size in a few spots, especially in Texas, keeping the weather tornado warning concern alive for another day even as the worst of the outbreak begins to ease.
The latest round is the last day of a six-day rash of thunderstorms that has pounded a broad swath of the country since last Thursday. In that span, there have been almost 900 reports of severe thunderstorm winds, wind damage, hail or tornadoes in the U.S., a tally that shows how persistent and widespread the pattern has been from the Plains and Midwest into parts of the South.
Thursday was the most violent day so far. Almost two dozen tornado reports came in from Oklahoma to Iowa, and there were over 160 damaging wind and hail reports combined. That night, forecasters issued a rare tornado emergency for the storm that tore through Enid, Oklahoma, and nearby Vance Air Force Base.
The Enid tornado was rated EF4, with winds of 170-175 mph, and it injured 10 people. It was the first EF4 in Garfield County, Oklahoma, since April 26, 1991. The National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma, also reported five other tornadoes and said the emergency was only the ninth time it had ever issued that level of warning. At Vance Air Force Base, a gust hit 107 mph.
The weekend kept the storm track active. Friday brought one tornado report in Kiowa, Oklahoma, and 10 tornado reports in Mississippi, along with more than 120 damaging wind and large hail reports combined. Saturday added roughly a dozen tornado reports, mainly across Texas and Oklahoma, while a hail stone recovered in Alpine, Arkansas, measured between 4 and 5 inches in diameter. Hail the size of tennis balls, hen eggs and softballs was reported across Kansas and Texas.
The toll turned deadly early Sunday morning, when storms continued through Texas and two people were killed, one in Wise County and another in Parker County. On Sunday, forecasters logged over 90 hail reports, over 50 damaging wind reports and seven tornado reports across the Plains, and some tornado warnings carried particularly dangerous situation tags, including ones in Sycamore, Kansas, and near Joplin, Missouri.
The main front is expected to clear the Southeast and push the storms offshore, which is why the severe threat should be much lower on Wednesday. But after a six-day run that produced tornadoes, destructive wind and giant hail across a huge stretch of the country, the final question is not whether this outbreak was serious. It is how much damage is still being assessed before the pattern finally moves on.
