LONDON, Ky. – The central U.S. is bracing for more severe storms this week after tornado-related fatalities surpassed two dozen and left Kentucky in tatters.
The National Weather Service has warned of a wide range of hazardous weather conditions likely to hit the nation in the coming days. These include the potential for thunderstorms with baseball-sized hail in the Plains, significant mountain snow in the West, and extreme heat in the South.
Areas at risk of thunderstorms include communities in Kentucky and Missouri that were hit by Friday’s tornadoes.
In London, Kentucky, residents like Zach Wilson are dealing with the aftermath. Many are rushing to cover with tarps whatever can be salvaged, or transport items to safe storage. Zach described his parents’ home as devastated, their possessions strewn about.
“We’re trying the hardest to get anything that looks of value and getting it protected, especially pictures and papers and things like that,” he said.
Here’s the latest on the recent storms, some tornado history and where to look out for the next weather impacts.
Deadly storms claim dozens of lives
At least 19 people were killed and 10 seriously injured in Kentucky, where a tornado on Friday damaged hundreds of homes and tossed vehicles in southeastern Laurel County. 0fficials said the death toll could rise and that three people remained in critical condition Sunday.
Wilson said he raced to his parents’ home in London, Kentucky, after the storm.
“It was dark and still raining but every lightning flash, it was lighting up your nightmares: Everything was gone,” he said. “The thankful thing was me and my brother got here and got them out of where they had barricaded themselves.”
Survey teams were expected on the ground Monday so the state can apply for federal disaster assistance, Gov. Andy Beshear said. Some of the two dozen state roads that had closures could take days to reopen.
In St. Louis, five people died and 38 were injured as the storm system swept through on Friday, according to Mayor Cara Spencer. More than 5,000 homes in the city were affected, she said.
On Sunday, city inspectors were going through damaged areas to condemn unsafe structures, Spencer said. She asked for people not to sightsee in damaged areas.
A tornado that started in the St. Louis suburb of Clayton traveled at least eight miles (13 kilometers), had 150-mph (241-kph) winds and had a maximum width of one mile (1.6 kilometers), according to the weather service. It touched down in the area of Forest Park, home to the St. Louis Zoo and the site of the 1904 World’s Fair and the Olympic Games that same year.
In Scott County, about 130 miles (209 kilometers) south of St. Louis, a tornado killed two people, injured several others and destroyed multiple homes, Sheriff Derick Wheetley wrote on social media.
The weather system spawned tornadoes in Wisconsin and temporarily enveloped parts of Illinois — including Chicago — in a pall of dust.
Two people were killed in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., by falling trees while driving.
The storms hit after the Trump administration cut staffing of National Weather Service offices, with outside experts worrying about how it would affect warnings in disasters such as tornadoes.
A history of tornadoes
The majority of the world’s tornadoes occur in the U.S., which has about 1,200 annually.
Researchers in 2018 found that deadly tornadoes were happening less frequently in the traditional “Tornado Alley” of Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas and more frequently in parts of the more densely populated and tree-filled South.
They can happen any time of day or night, but certain times of the year bring peak “tornado season.” That’s from May into early June for the southern Plains and earlier in the spring on the Gulf Coast.
The deadliest tornado in Kentucky’s history was hundreds of yards wide when it tore through downtown Louisville’s business district in March 1890, collapsing multistory buildings including one with 200 people inside. Seventy-six people were killed.
The last tornado to cause mass fatalities in Kentucky was a December 2021 twister that lasted almost five hours. It traveled some 165 miles (266 kilometers), leaving a path of destruction that included 57 dead and more than 500 injured, according to the weather service. Officials recorded at least 41 tornadoes during that storm, which killed at least 77 people statewide.
On the same day, a deadly tornado struck the St. Louis area, killing six people at an Amazon facility in nearby Illinois.
More storms threaten in coming days
Thunderstorms with potentially damaging winds were forecast for a region stretching from northeast Colorado to central Texas.
And tornadoes will again be a threat particularly from central Kansas to Oklahoma, according to the National Weather Service.
Meanwhile, triple-digit temperatures were forecast for parts of south Texas with the potential to break daily records. The hot, dry air also sets the stage for critical wildfire conditions through early this week in southern New Mexico and West Texas.
Up to a foot of snow was expected in parts of Idaho and western Montana.
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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
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