Deadly Tornadoes Strike Southern US, Some Risk Of More Today

A tornado destroyed this post office in Polk County, Tenn.

The wildfire disaster in and near Gatlinburg, Tennessee stole most of the weather headlines over the past couple of days, but a deadly tornado outbreak made things even worse in the American South. 

There were at least 26 reports of tornadoes yesterday, and some of them turned deadly.

It's been a fairly slow tornado year, and we'd gone from May 9 without a tornado death in the United States.

Until yesterday.

Tornadoes killed 5 people in Alabama and Tennessee. As if Tennessee needed more tragedies after the Gatlinburg fire. In fact, Gatlinburg was under severe storm alerts during this tornado outbreak.

The worst hit area in this latest tornado outbreak was in Alabama, where three people died when a tornado crushed a mobile home. Four children were critically injured when another tornado roared through a 24-hour day care center.

As bad as this storm outbreak was and is, the number of tornado deaths so far this year in the United States is below average.

More tornadoes are possible today in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states. I'm guessing the tornadoes won't be as strong or widespread as those Tuesday and Tuesday night. But people in the alert area should be on the lookout for threatening skies, and take shelter if any warnings go up.