A storm system stretching up the midsection of the United States had people in several states — including southern Minnesota — bracing Tuesday for the possibility of tornadoes.
By Tuesday evening there were tornado watches or warnings covering parts of Texas, Iowa, and Minnesota. One apparent tornado struck in Central Texas. Temple Fire-Rescue Chief Mitch Randles said a twister hit south Bell County, near the city of Salado. “Reports of trees down and damaged homes,” he told CNN in an email.
Forecasters also said there was a possibility of up to 3 feet of snow in the northern Plains. One storm prompted the closure of an interstate through North Dakota and Montana. After dumping the first-ever measurable snowfall in April on Monday in Portland, Oregon, the storm system’s severe threat broadened Tuesday.
Close to 100 million Americans will be at risk for all forms of severe weather that including tornadoes on Wednesday and Wednesday night as a dangerous severe weather threat persists, AccuWeather meteorologists warn. The severe weather is a continuation of violent storms that targeted locations from Texas to Minnesota on Tuesday and part of the same massive storm system responsible for an ongoing blizzard over the northern Plains and high winds over the southern Plains.
Predictions made by AccuWeather as early as the middle of last week about a significant multi-day severe weather outbreak were being realized on Monday and Tuesday as preliminary severe weather incidents ranging from high winds and tornadoes to large hail have already numbered in the hundreds.
The storms are primarily targeting a 1,000-mile-long swath of the country from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes, but areas farther east will face some impacts as well. Severe weather began impacting parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri on Sunday night with multiple incidents of hail and strong winds.
On Monday and Monday night, more storms erupted from Oklahoma to Arkansas and Missouri and included a half dozen preliminary reports of tornadoes, including a tornado emergency around the Little Rock, Arkansas, area.
