Tornado Update: At Least Nine Dead, Dozens Injured In Big Tornado Outbreak

Severe damage from a tornado Friday in Wynne, Arkansas.
Photo by Ray Sharp, via Facebook and CNN

 The death toll from swarms of tornadoes and intense thunderstorms on Friday is at least nine with dozens injured.

The storms caused damage even more widespread than the tornadoes that afflicted Mississippi last week.  

Nine or more deaths is of course terrible news, but the fact that it wasn't worse is a blessing. 

One factor that probably reduced the death toll was the dire tone of the alerts and warnings issued on Friday. A rare "high risk" alert for tornadoes was issued in parts of the South and Midwest.  As the tornadoes developed, it became clear that some of them, as forecast were quite strong and long lasting. 

Warnings for the tornadoes carried "particularly dangerous situation" alerts which tends to wake up people to the danger even more. 

Another, probably somewhat lesser factor in the could-have-been-worse death toll is many of the tornadoes happened during the day.  Even though we're told not to wait for visual cues when a tornado warning is issued, humans are humans. We instinctive need that jolt to take cover when we see that menacing funnel bearing down on us. 

It appears some of the worst damage was around Little Rock Arkansas and points north and east of there.  The report of 600 injured around Little Rock that I saw turned out to be an exaggeration, but dozens of people were sent to hospitals with tornado injuries in the Little Rock metro area. 

The same supercell thunderstorm that unleashed the tornado in the Little Rock area dropped another powerful twister well to the northeast on the city of Wynne, Arkansas. Two deaths were reported there, along with extensive damage to the community. 

Several tornadoes later roamed the area around Memphis, Tennessee, causing more widespread damage. The twisters avoided the center of Memphis, and instead struck its northern and southern suburbs. 

AccuWeather reported two additional deaths from a likely tornado or tornadoes in Sullivan, Indiana. Widespread damage was also reported in this region, as you might expect. 

In Belvidere, Illinois, a tornado or intense thunderstorm caused much of the roof of the Apollo Theater to collapse during a concert. One of the 260 people inside died and 28 others were injured. 

In Iowa, several large tornadoes roared across the flat landscape. One of the tornadoes caused a lot of damage in Coralville, Iowa, according to the Des Moines Register.

Luckily, though, many of the largest tornadoes threaded the needle and just missed larger Iowa cities such as Ottawa, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Marshalltown and Waterloo. 

Overall, there were 65 preliminary reports of tornadoes in the U.S. on Friday. The number will change as National Weather Service investigators probe the damage swaths. 

Today, the tornado threat is less, but a few twisters could pop up in the Northeast, especially around New Jersey, Delaware and eastern Pennsylvania. 

Signs are pointing toward another possible big tornado and severe weather outbreak early next week in the Midwest and South. 

After that, the weather pattern seems to want to calm down, at least temporarily, so there might be a week or so starting about Wednesday or Thursday in which there won't be many tornadoes, hailstorms or severe thunderstorms. This being April, though, you never know.