Storm in United States

Tornadoes feared as severe storm tears through Plains, heads for South

The National Weather Service issued tornado watches and severe thunderstorm warnings for parts of Oklahoma and Texas early Tuesday as a line of severe weather marched from the Southern Plains toward the southern Ohio Valley.

NBC,

29 January, 2013

Dangerous lightning, hail up to an inch in diameter and wind gusts of 70 mph were considered most likely in the tornado-watch area, which extended from Hardeman County, Texas, to Osage County, Okla.

About 6:30 a.m. ET, the NWS was monitoring a severe thunderstorm moving at about 55 mph through Oklahoma, issuing warnings for people to take cover as it approached.

Additionally, the weather service said there was the potential for a “significant, severe weather event” from Louisiana and Arkansas to Mississippi and southwest Tennessee.

Tornadoes, some of them strong, were also possible in Arkansas, northern Louisiana, southeastern Missouri, western Mississippi and southwestern Tennessee, the NWS added.

Weather.com meteorologist Kevin Roth said that “severe thunderstorms are expected to develop in central Oklahoma … during the morning and form into a squall line and march toward the middle and lower Mississippi Valley.”

“Tuesday night the squall line is expected to stretch from the mid-Ohio Valley to the central Gulf Coast,” he added.

Roth said that on Wednesday the threat area was expected to include the upper Ohio Valley, Tennessee Valley, Southeast and Mid-Atlantic.

“Damaging wind gusts are the primary threat, but isolated tornadoes and hail are also possible,” he said.

Meanwhile, the same storm was bringing heavy rain to the Midwest and Great Lakes, Roth added.

“Rainfall of 1 to 3 inches is possible from Missouri to Michigan and could cause some flooding,” he said, noting flood watches had been posted from eastern Illinois to southern Michigan.