More tornadoes and flooding for the Midwest

Wild spring-like severe weather continued Tuesday, with eight tornadoes reported in Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee. One Arkansas man died in Appleton when a tornado rolled his mobile home. The same tornado gave a cow a wild ride of 3/4 mile before setting it down unharmed. A total of 48 tornadoes have been reported for the two day severe weather outbreak that has affected much of the Midwest. Two people were killed and three critically injured in southern Missouri on Monday near the town of Marshfield, northeast of Springfield, when a tornado rated EF3 with winds of 136-165 mph smashed through a mobile home park. In Wheatland, Wisconsin, just north of the Illinois border, another EF3 tornado damaged or destroyed 55 buildings and injured 13 people. Twelve homes were demolished down to their foundations. The Wheatland tornado was only the second January tornado on record in Wisconsin. The only other one was a long-track F3 in Green and Rock counties on 24 January 1967. Detailed imagery and analysis of this tornado are available from the National Weather Service in Milwaukee and the CIMSS Satellite Blog.


Figure 1. Storm reports for Tuesday compiled by the Storm Prediction Center.

In north central Indiana, heavy rains of up to eight inches triggered floods along the Wabash and Tippicanoe rivers that killed three people and forced the evacuation of hundreds. No further rain or severe weather is expected in the Midwest today. A new storm system on Thursday may bring the risk of severe weather to Alabama and surrounding states on Thursday.


Figure 2. Heavy rains of up to eight inches hit portions of Indiana and Illinois this week. Image credit: NOAA.

Jeff Masters