A day after parts of the Midwest and the South were bombarded with severe thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes, another round of storms — and life-threatening flash flooding — has been forecast for the region.
At least seven people were killed — four in Michigan, two in Indiana and one in Oklahoma — after a severe winter storm brought heavy rain, strong winds and tornadoes to St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, and Maury County, Tennessee, on Monday. The deaths in Indiana include an 84-year-old man who died after a buggy flipped over in heavy winds, according to the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office.
Residents in the Salina, Kansas, area were warned to shelter in place Tuesday night after spotters located a tornado on the ground southwest of the city, the National Weather Service said.
The weather service office in Topeka, about 100 miles east of Salina, warned that a string thunderstorms were possible overnight.
"Storms will move east with time, eventually exiting into Missouri around sunrise," it said on X. "The main severe threat will transition to damaging wind gusts."
In Kay County, Oklahoma, hail the size of hen eggs — about 2 inches in diameter — was reported, the weather service said.
The severe weather Wednesday will include flash flooding, strong tornadoes and hail 2 inches in diameter, putting 71 million people at risk from central Michigan to northern Texas, including Little Rock, Arkansas; Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee; Shreveport, Louisiana; St. Louis; Chicago; Indianapolis; and Louisville, Kentucky. The highest severe threat Wednesday will be to the mid-Mississippi Valley region.
This multi-day flash flood event is likely to last through Sunday. Around 26 million people are already under flood watches stretching from the Ark-La-Tex (where Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas join together) to central Ohio.
Life-threatening and destructive urban flash flooding and river flooding are likely, with some cities expected to get double their average April rainfall in just a matter of days, including Little Rock and Louisville. Any communities near any rivers or streams will be particularly vulnerable to flooding.
On Thursday, 27 million people in the central Plains will be in the risk zone, decreasing to 26 million on Friday and 19 million on Saturday.
According to PowerOutage.us, over 216,000 utility customers were still without power across the Midwest as of Tuesday evening, including almost 178,000 in Michigan, 22,000 in Wisconsin and 16,000 in Indiana.
The National Weather Service says moderate to heavy rainfall is expected in the West, especially along the coast of Northern California. "Heavy higher elevation snow" will also persist as an upper-level trough remains in the region.
The city of South Lake Tahoe said residents should expect 3 to 5 inches of snow.
Snow fell over parts of the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday afternoon and some light to moderate snow accumulated over North Dakota and northern Minnesota.
