Tornado, Severe Weather Alerts for the South: National Weather Service
Severe weather alerts have been issued, with tornado warnings and possible hail the size of golf balls in some areas. The National Weather Service warned that much of the southern plains were under a “severe weather threat” for Tuesday, including Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and parts of Arkansas, Louisiana and northern Mexico.
Tornadoes were reported in central Oklahoma and Texas on Monday, prompting responses from local authorities that closed schools and ordered some people to evacuate. The warnings could extend into the Midwest on Tuesday, including parts of Illinois and Indiana and spreading as far east as Kentucky and the Upper Ohio Valley.
Outside of Guthrie, Okla., where several buildings and vehicles were reportedly damaged, there were no reports of serious injuries or deaths in the severe weather Monday, according to the NWS. According to the Guthrie police department at least one person was injured by debris.
The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management canceled the agency’s “tornado warning protocol” allowing each area to issue warnings on their own, Kim Pearson, a spokeswoman for the department, said via email.
On Monday afternoon, county alert systems in Logan County, Okla., warned residents of possible severe weather.
Gov. Kevin Stitt declared a state of emergency in Logan County Monday, according to his office. Seventy-four homes in the county had been reported damaged Monday evening by the Logan County Emergency Management office.
The company Ekologik reported several transformers in the Guthrie area were damaged on Monday. Tom Lawall, executive director for the Logan County Emergency Management Association, said a union hall in Guthrie was also damaged, but he did not have details immediately available.
The likelihood of more intense weather was a concern, said Matt Stanford, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norman, Okla.
“Potentially some of that instability will increase as we go through the night and Tuesday morning,” Stanford said. “Depending on who gets hit again tonight, some of the same areas that got hit today could get hit again and actually get a worse situation due to the probability of severe weather.”
Agency officials said Tuesday, severe weather could touch areas that were not impacted by the tornadoes on Monday.
Just before 7 p.m. local time in Oklahoma City, the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning until 7:30 p.m. for parts of Oklahoma City, including the city and Oklahoma State University.
According to a report from the Weather Channel, tornadoes were spotted west of Lubbock, Texas, at 10:53 p.m. EST Monday. The Lubbock County Sheriff’s Department in Texas confirmed on Twitter that a probable tornado damaged homes and overturned vehicles west of Lubbock. At least one person was injured, according to the sheriff’s department.
More than half an inch of ice was reported in parts Texas, according to the Weather Channel. By Tuesday morning, ice was causing hazardous road conditions and a chain reaction crash on Texas 130 in San Antonio.
A day earlier in Dallas, two people were injured, one seriously, by the side-walls of a garage collapsing during a storm, according to Garmon Sutterfield, a spokesman for the Dallas fire department. A 95-year old Vietnamese immigrant was found covered in debris under the collapsed sidewalls, said Chief Sidney P. Coleman.
“We found a lady trapped and pinned beneath the wall and the wall was on top of her,” Coleman said. “We initially deduced a door was on top of her so if it weren’t for our firefighters doing what they do, we probably wouldn’t have been able to save her life.”
During heavy thunderstorms in Fort Worth, the roof of a warehouse and a tractor trailer roof blew off and settled into a truck on a busy highway causing traffic to be rerouted by police.
Much of the Southern Plains, central and southern Appalachians, the mid-Mississippi River Valley and the Ohio Valley will experience severe weather Monday and into Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center.
Temperatures are expected to hit 70 degrees in parts of the south and Midwest on Tuesday, warmer than normal at that time of year. Storms will primarily move eastward, though they may stay isolated in some areas, said Greg Koch, a warning coordination meteorologist at the center.
The combination of a low pressure system moving across the central Plains and warm moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will lead to the possibility of severe weather in the southern and central states, Koch said in a statement.
“We urge everyone to be prepared for severe weather tonight into Tuesday morning and to stay tuned to their local forecast and warnings,” said Greg Koch, a warning coordination meteorologist at the center.
The Indiana Department of Homeland Security, the National Weather Service and state emergency management officials planned to host a tornado drill for state groups on Tuesday at 10:15 a.m. local time. When the sirens sound, the’ll have people shelter in place at the Indiana Emergency Operations Center in Indianapolis and simulate responding to an emergency shelter situation.
The severe storms falling closer together can make it difficult to perceive a warning as separate incidents, said Diana Lancellotti, director of operations for the American Red Cross in Chicago.
“I think just the frequency itself is incredibly overwhelming for those directly in the path of these storms,” she said.
Could you paraphrase the safety warning canceled by the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management?
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