Severe storms, tornadoes, hail for U.S. Midwest and South

More severe storms for the Midwest

If this map looks familiar to you, it’s because the same parts of the U.S. that were hit by severe storms and tornadoes on Friday, March 31, 2023 – killing 32 people – are under the gun again this week. The National Weather Service (NWS) Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma said on Tuesday (April 4, 2023) that there’s an enhanced risk of damaging weather – beginning on Tuesday, and extending into Wednesday – across much of the lower Great Lakes region and Ohio Valley. NWS called for:

Scattered severe storms posing a risk for strong tornadoes and large hail are expected in a corridor across eastern Illinois through Lower Michigan Wednesday, with organizing clusters or lines of storms accompanied by potentially damaging wind gusts, and perhaps a couple of tornadoes, across the Ohio Valley vicinity.

In addition to Illinois through Lower Michigan, and the Ohio Valley, NWS also specifically called out the Lower Mississippi Valley, but said:

South of the Ohio Valley, weakening low-level flow seems likely to result in more limited severe weather …

Go to this page – and reload at times – for weather updates from NWS

Tennessee tornado survivors say they regret not having a severe weather plan.

Do you and your family have a severe weather preparedness plan? If not, now is the time to make one as more dangerous storms are in the forecast. #TNwx #tornado pic.twitter.com/hexPggobAl

— WeatherNation (@WeatherNation) April 3, 2023

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Stormy déjà vu

The areas that suffered from tornadoes less than a week ago will have to face a renewed threat even as they are still rebuilding. Last Friday’s storms continued all the way across the eastern United States into Saturday, bringing tornadoes to areas that rarely experience such severe weather, including Delaware and New Jersey. Fortunately, after the coming storms on this Tuesday and Wednesday, a quieter weather pattern should settle in for a while.

I need someone to calculate the odds of this. pic.twitter.com/VyIkcShNkL

— Deran Hall ?? (@Deranphoto) April 3, 2023

Fire weather

West of the storms in the Plains and Midwest, areas of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Kansas are dealing with fire weather. These regions have an extreme risk of fire due to low humidity and high winds. Some of these areas are also experiencing exceptional drought, which adds to the problem. Wildfire has already broken out here in recent days following the last system that brought severe weather to the Midwest.

2:35pm CDT #SPC Day2 #FireWX Extremely Critical: east-central new mexico across the tx/ok panhandles and northwest oklahoma and into southwest and south-central kansas https://t.co/LEoXKVkNcs pic.twitter.com/hsQOJFavYZ

— NWS Storm Prediction Center (@NWSSPC) April 3, 2023

Footage of the wildfire in Taylor County, Texas from @KTXS_News. The fire is near the community of Trent adjacent to a wind farm. The fire is very active. #wildfire #fire #texas #txfire #trent pic.twitter.com/nYN4iPVbvl

— TheHotshotWakeUp.Substack.com (@HotshotWake) April 3, 2023

Bottom line: The same areas of the Midwest and Mississippi Valley hit late last week by tornadoes will be facing more severe storms this week.

Read more: Severe weather pummels U.S. Midwest and South, 21 dead