Early reports suggest that much - but not all - of Oklahoma escaped the wrath of expected powerful tornadoes yesterday and last night, but some towns there were devastated.
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| Awful scene from tornado ravaged Barnsdall, Oklahoma last night. Photo from Aaron Rigsby, @AaronRigsbyOSC |
Details are just emerging, but it sounds like two communities in particular - Barnsdall and Bartlesville in northeast Oklahoma took terrible hits from one nighttime tornado.
The smaller of the town towns, Barnsdall, population about 1,000 appeared to suffer catastrophic damage, with leveled houses and debris scattered everywhere.
Radar images at the time of the tornado showed debris from Barnsdall lifted up to 30,000 feet into the air.
At least one person was reported dead in Barnsdall, and numerous people were injured, CNN is reporting. The tornado took a path very similar to another twister that hit the town about a month ago.
The tornado moved on to the larger city of Bartlesville, population around 38,000. Details are still sketchy early this morning but there appears to be a lot of damage there, too. Video shows frightened people taking cover as the tornado slams into a Hampton Inn. It looks like the people staying there escaped injury, but the roof is gone and hallways were littered with debris.
In all, we so far have 17 reports of tornadoes yesterday and last night, mostly in Oklahoma. The state overall fared better than expected, as some forecasters feared more widespread damage. The Oklahoma City metro area was largely spared, though thunderstorm gusts to at least 64 mph were reported there.
MORE THREATS
Like in most tornado outbreaks, Day 1 is just the start. We have at least two more days, possibly three this week to go before the threat of severe weather diminishes at least temporarily.
Today, it's Indiana and Ohio's turn. For some reason Ohio has been the most frequent target of tornadoes so far this year. That's despite the fact their tornado season usually peaks in May and June.
A couple of the tornadoes could be strong in Indiana and Ohio today, so it's definitely eye to the skies.
On Wednesday, the threat area is even broader. The main area of concern extend from northeast Texas through the mid-Mississippi Valley on through Kentucky and, yes, southern Ohio again.
A marginal risk of severe storms extends northeastward Wednesday all the way to southern Vermont. Here in Vermont, no tornadoes are expected, but there could be a couple isolated reports of damaging wind or hail, roughly along and south of Route 4. Definitely iffy for us, and nothing nearly as widespread as in the Midwest.
Northern Vermont will definitely see showers and maybe a rumble of thunder, but nothing severe.
On Thursday, the severe storm and tornado threat shifts south, with a band of severe storms and possible tornadoes extending from Texas, through the Gulf Coast states, then up the Eastern Seaboard as far north as Washington DC.
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