Deadly tornadoes and severe thunderstorms erupted Wednesday across a wide swath of the eastern United States, causing damage in at least a dozen states from Missouri to the Carolinas. The most intense storms tore through the area from the Ozarks to Middle Tennessee on Wednesday evening, producing multiple strong tornadoes, large hail, damaging straight-line winds and flooding rain.
The Associated Press reported at least three storm-related deaths from the outbreak. Trees falling on cars killed a man in northeastern Tennessee and another person in western North Carolina. A third person was killed as a powerful tornado tore through Middle Tennessee.
The “large and extremely dangerous” twister, according to the Weather Service, passed through areas about 40 miles south of Nashville in Maury County. It prompted the agency to issue a tornado emergency, its most dire storm alert, for the third day in a row. The twister caused damage in the towns of Columbia and Spring Hill before crossing Interstate 65 around 5:52 p.m. Central time.
“Maury County EMA has reported there are several structures damaged and they are responding to emergency calls,” NewsChannel 5, a Nashville television affiliate, wrote on X. The local affiliate and the AP reported multiple storm-related injuries and the one fatality.
The twister lifted debris 20,000 feet into the air, suggesting it was very strong. It may have temporarily lifted before touching down again at times as the storm shifted northeast toward areas south of Murfreesboro. It traveled mainly through rural areas.
Damage was also reported in the area around Prospect and Elkton in south-central Tennessee, near the border with Alabama, around the time (8:20 p.m. Central) that the Weather Service issued a “particularly dangerous situation” tornado warning for the area just to its east.
Tornadoes then began to spin up in northern Alabama. Near Huntsville, local officials reported damage in the city’s downtown region and areas near it, and warned of downed trees and power lines.
To the south, another tornado emergency was declared in Henagar in far northeastern Alabama, where a destructive twister swept through around 11 p.m. Central time. Alabama.com reported “major damage” in the small city and noted that five people were evaluated for minor injuries. A warning was issued for a possible second tornado that passed just south of the city in DeKalb County about an hour later.
The storms unloaded tremendous rainfall, prompting numerous flash flood warnings from Missouri to Tennessee. A flash flood emergency, the Weather Service’s most severe flood alert, was issued for Robertson and Sumner counties in north-central Tennessee until 10 a.m. Thursday Central time. The agency noted water rescues and very dangerous flash flooding were ongoing in the region.
Tornado watches stretched from northeastern Texas to the western Carolinas Wednesday and included Dallas and Nashville, and the Weather Service issued hundreds of warnings for storms in that swath. Wednesday afternoon storms cut power to more than 130,000 customers in western North Carolina, including Charlotte; over 80,000 were still in the dark as of Thursday morning.
More than 85,000 customers were without power in Tennessee on Thursday morning, along with about 35,000 each in South Carolina and Georgia.
Storms erupted since Wednesday morning between central Missouri and the Carolinas, and the Weather Service received more than 220 reports of damaging winds and logged nearly 350 instances of large hail. Some of the hail in Missouri and North Carolina reached the size of baseballs and tennis balls.
At least 13 tornadoes were reported scattered across Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Texas, Tennessee and Alabama, and additional twister activity was suspected in northwestern Georgia.
Wednesday marked the 14th day in a row that tornadoes have carved paths in the Lower 48 states.
Tuesday featured a prelude to Wednesday’s event, delivering more than 20 tornadoes that tore through Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Arkansas and West Virginia. A twister in Portage, Mich., trapped workers in a heavily damaged FedEx facility, the first of two to hit the area. A tornado also destroyed structures in Kalamazoo, Mich., and leveled part of a mobile home community in Pavilion Township, leaving 15 to 20 people injured.
A tornado emergency was hoisted for Union City in south-central Michigan as a long-track tornado caused damage. For its first time on record, the Weather Service declared a tornado emergency in Michigan.
Thursday could bring more severe weather as the storm risk shifts south and east. Large, destructive hail is expected across the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area, while an elevated risk of severe storms also covers much of the South and Mid-Atlantic.
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Storm threat shifts to Mid-Atlantic and South on Thursday
Thursday’s threat covers much of Texas, the Gulf Coast, the Southeast and the Mid-Atlantic. As the cold front sags south and east, it will squeeze warm, moist air toward the coastline, maximizing the chance of thunderstorms there.
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Hazards
In the Dallas-Fort Worth area and south toward Austin, a few rotating thunderstorms or supercells may form in the afternoon. They could bring large, baseball-size hail, but the tornado risk will probably remain minimal because of weak winds near the ground.
A very small chance of tornadoes will affect parts of Georgia, as well as in the Mid-Atlantic from south of Washington to the Delmarva Peninsula. Otherwise, gusty to locally damaging winds and hail are the main concerns.
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