A destructive tornado outbreak is underway in the middle of the nation, and it could turn out to be among the more significant ones in the past few decades.
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| Tornado near Lincoln, Nebraska Friday. image from X @LNKScanner |
Nebraska and Iowa took the brunt of Friday's tornadoes. Dozens of homes and businesses in the two states were destroyed. Amazing, so far I haven't seen reports of any deaths. It helped greatly that these storms were very well warned.
The worst affected area Friday seems to be on a straight line from just north of Lincoln, Nebraska to the western suburbs of Omaha into western Iowa above Omaha. Dramatic video captured a large tornado crossing Interstate 80 near Lincoln.
A manufacturing plant in Lincoln with 70 people inside collapsed in the tornado but only three people suffered non-life threatening injuries.
The western Omaha suburbs of Elkhorn and Bennington were hit hard, with at least 50 homes destroyed. But again, casualties were light. Only two injuries were reported.
That so far no deaths and only a smattering of injuries have been reported is testimony to the great tornado warnings issued ahead of the storms. The National Weather Service declared a tornado emergency for the western and northern Omaha metro region as it became apparent a tornado would approach that area.
This "hair on fire" type warning surely prompted lots of people to hide in basements and tornado shelters, and that prevented deaths.
A tornado emergency was also declared in southwestern Iowa, where a huge tornado destroyed a large chunk of Minden. Aerial views show entire neighborhoods there flattened.
It's possible a tornado was on the ground that entire distance from Lincoln into Iowa, But far more likely is the parent supercell dropped several twisters along that path.
Typically, a tornadic supercell will produce a tornado that might travel several miles before dissipating. The supercell takes a brief breather, then drops another twister that goes several more miles. Rinse and repeat.
Yet another supercell seems to have produced some occasionally large, violent tornadoes east of Omaha well into Iowa. Between those two lines, a tornado touched down at Eppley Field, which is Omaha's airport. Some buildings on the east end of the airport were damaged, but the storm didn't affect the main terminal.
Later at night, tornadoes approached the Des Moines, Iowa area, with damage reported in the southern and eastern parts of the city and its suburbs.
In all, there were about 100 reports of tornadoes Friday. Many of those reports are probably duplicates, with multiple people reporting the same, highly visible twisters.
TORNADOES TODAY
If anything, today could be even worse in terms of tornadoes.
A moderate risk - the second highest in a six-point scale of severe weather risk is up for central Oklahoma, southeastern Kansas and a part of northern Texas.
The Oklahoma City area, especially its suburbs of Moore and Newcastle, seem to be tornado bait for some reason and have been repeatedly hit by large, deadly tornadoes in recent decades. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center says several large, powerful and long-tracked tornadoes are likely today.
Flooding is also likely in many of the same areas that are under the greatest tornado threat.
Grew up in Vermont and read your articles as a kid, now reading from Oklahoma City. Looks like it’s going to be a rough day!
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