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The Midwest and Plains are once again bracing for severe weather, with a system threatening over 130 million people across a vast stretch from Texas to New York. This extensive weather event is set to bring dangerous conditions to a significant portion of the country.
The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has highlighted an increased risk of tornadoes on Tuesday, particularly affecting a corridor that includes eastern Iowa, southern Wisconsin, and northern Illinois. These areas have been placed under a Level 3 out of 5 risk for severe thunderstorms, underscoring the potential for significant weather disruptions.
Meanwhile, parts of the Southern Plains, including central Oklahoma with cities like Oklahoma City, and portions of North Texas such as Wichita Falls, are facing threats from tornadoes and large hail. This is due to a dryline forming, which marks the boundary between the dry air mass from the west and the warm, moist air flowing from the Gulf, setting the stage for volatile atmospheric conditions on Tuesday afternoon.
This latest weather threat follows in the wake of Monday’s severe storms, which unleashed damaging tornadoes and hail across Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Kansas, leaving a trail of destruction.
Looking ahead to Wednesday, a second wave of severe thunderstorms is expected to surge from Texas to New York. Additionally, there is a growing concern over flooding in parts of the Midwest and the Great Lakes, areas that have already endured several days of continuous heavy rainfall.
Power outages were reported across Miami, Franklin and Linn counties in eastern Kansas early Tuesday after tornado-warned storms blasted across the region Monday night.
A tornado injured two people and destroyed homes and businesses after ripping through part of Hillsdale, Kansas, shortly after 8 p.m. local time on Monday, the Miami County Sheriff’s Office said.
Several RVs and campers were also overturned and roads to the community were closed as police guarded unsecured homes and buildings. A local school is serving as a shelter for those displaced.
Severe weather also damaged buildings in Ottawa, Kansas, but no injuries have been reported, city officials said.
Severe thunderstorms produced several tornadoes across parts of Minnesota Monday, including one spotted by FOX Weather Meteorologist Haley Meier during live storm coverage outside of Truman, Minnesota. Significant tornado damage has not been reported across the state.
Exclusive FOX Weather Storm Tracker Corey Gerken also confirmed a tornado near Amboy, Minnesota, Monday afternoon.
Storms also produced widespread hail, including golf ball-sized hail in the southern part of the state, along where the warm front set up, south of Minneapolis.
An active spring weather pattern has developed across the Central U.S. with severe thunderstorms likely throughout the week, including another significant tornado threat expected across parts of the Plains and Midwest on Friday.
Tuesday: Tornado threat includes Milwaukee, Chicago and Detroit within 1,500-mile swath of expected storms
The severe weather threat expanded Tuesday, covering more than 130 million people, spanning more than 1,500 miles from the Big Bend of Texas through parts of New England.
The SPC has issued a Level 3 out of 5 severe risk of severe thunderstorms across parts of eastern Iowa, southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, and southern Michigan, including Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit.
A warm front will be re-established across this Level 3 threat area and will amplify storms that cross this boundary. These storms are expected to produce large hail, 2 to 3 inches in diameter, particularly north of where that front set up beginning mid-to-late afternoon.
Conditions are ripe for supercell thunderstorms capable of producing strong EF-3+ tornadoes along or south of the warm front.
In the southern theater of Tuesday’s threat, severe storms capable of producing large hail and tornadoes are firing along the dryline, which set up over Oklahoma and West Texas.
Storms that produced damaging hail across the Midwest on Monday tracked into Upstate New York late Tuesday morning and reached New England Tuesday evening.
A Level 2 severe storm threat includes Burlington, Vermont, Albany, New York and Scranton, Pennsylvania, with damaging wind gusts being the main hazard with the potential for isolated tornadoes.
Wednesday: Third round of storms for Central US; potential for flash flooding
On Wednesday, storms are expected to shift toward the Mississippi River Valleys, with the possibility for damaging wind gusts, hail and tornadoes primarily across a corridor that includes the Plains, the Midwest, the Great Lakes and the Ohio Valley.
In addition to the severe component, thunderstorms will release heavy moisture from the atmosphere, leading to downpours producing 1 to 2 inches of rain.
Localized flooding was reported in Oconto, Kewaunee and Brown counties in Wisconsin Tuesday, when officials said numerous roads were flooded and vehicles were stranded.
A Level 1 out of 4 risk of flash flooding covers that same corridor from Texas to western New York.