A violent weather system wreaked havoc across the Plains and Midwest on Friday evening, resulting in the tragic loss of at least six lives. Communities faced the wrath of fierce tornadoes and enormous hailstones.
This severe weather threat is putting over 63 million people at risk, stretching across a vast area that extends more than 1,500 miles from Texas all the way to Michigan.
In southwestern Michigan, tornadoes unleashed chaos in Union City, leading to four confirmed deaths in two counties.
Meanwhile, central Oklahoma experienced its own devastation, with the Okmulgee County Sheriff’s Office confirming two fatalities due to the violent storms in the region.
In another part of southwestern Michigan, the Branch County Sheriff’s Office reported on Friday evening that at least three individuals lost their lives as a powerful tornado swept through the Union Lake vicinity.
Sheriff Frederick A. Blankenship has called on residents to steer clear of impacted regions, ensuring that emergency teams can carry out their response and recovery missions safely in the storm-ravaged areas.
This comes on the heels of deadly severe storms that rumbled through the Texas Panhandle and western Oklahoma Thursday.
One additional death has been reported in Cass County after a tornado ripped through the southwestern Michigan county, officials announced in a press release.
Cass County Emergency Management reports that multiple large structures — including homes and pole barns — have sustained significant damage, with some suffering major structural impacts and others completely destroyed
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said Friday that a mother and daughter were killed in Major County during Thursday night’s storms. The emergency management department in Fairview, Oklahoma, shared video on social media of a large possible tornado just west of the city late Thursday.
The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Norman confirmed at least three tornadoes by midday Friday, with surveys still ongoing.
FOX Weather Meteorologist Ari Sarsalari tracked a spotter-confirmed tornado Thursday night outside of Quail, Texas.
On Friday, NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center issued a Level 3 out of 5 risk of severe thunderstorms across parts of Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa.
According to the FOX Forecast Center, the first round of storms is expected to develop during the mid-to-late afternoon as an area of low pressure close to the surface moves across Kansas and the Missouri Valley.
The atmosphere will be able to support supercell thunderstorms capable of generating hail larger than 3 inches in diameter, and tornadoes.
Strong tornadoes are possible from Kansas City to Wichita to Oklahoma City during the early evening hours Friday.
Overnight, as a cold front pushes farther east-southeast, damaging wind gusts, hail and tornadoes will be possible from Illinois southward through Oklahoma and northeastern Texas.
