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| Areas in the red circles are at particular risk of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms today. |
There is now one confirmed death in Ohio from yesterday and last night's tornado outbreak. There are also numerous injuries.
As noted in the previous discussion, though, that's a remarkably low toll considering the strength and long tracks o the tornadoes, and the fact they occurred mostly at night in Ohio.
Nighttime tornadoes are dangerous because people are less likely to be aware of warnings, and they don't see the bad weather coming.
Some of the tornadoes were indeed quite strong. At least two of the tornadoes in the suburbs of Dayton were catagorized as EF-3, with winds of at least 140 mph.
I've added an ABC news report of the tornadoes to the bottom of this post. It gives you a good sense of how terrifying and devastating this was.
Today is proving to be a dangerous day as well. A string of tornado and severe thunderstorm watches extends from Kansas to Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
As of 3:45 p.m., at least three tornado warnings - meaning a tornado has been spotted or radar indicates a tornado - were up in Pennsylvania and there will surely be more.
The Kansas City, Missouri, area is bracing for possibly strong tornadoes later today. Torrential rains this afternoon are worsening flooding in Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma.
For those of us in Vermont who are wondering, we are far removed from any threat of severe storms. We are on the cold side of the storm, so we're just experiencing another cold, drenching rain. Burlington, Vermont had picked up another 0.38 inches of rain as of 3 p.m., contributing to what is turning into a very wet, but not record wet May.
PREVIOUS DISCUSSION
Details are emerging this morning of widespread damage around Dayton, Ohio after a large tornado stayed on the ground, apparently for miles through a populated area in and around Dayton, Ohio.
Last night's Dayton disaster was part of one of the largest tornado outbreaks of the year so far in 2019. There were 60 preliminary reports of tornadoes Monday in an area stretching from Colorado to Ohio.
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| Hard to see at night but you can make out the tornado hitting the Dayton, Ohio area last night in this photo |
So far, there are miraculously no reports of deaths, which is probably because the large and dangerous tornado was well-warned by the National Weather Service and local media outlets.
However, early indications are that many homes, apartments and businesses were destroyed in Ohio. About 5 million people in the state had no electricity. Snowplows were called out to remove tornado debris blocking Interstate 75 around Dayton.
The Dayton tornado was part of a series of storms in the past week that produced destructive tornadoes after dark. They're especially dangerous at night, because people might be in bed sleeping and not hear tornado warnings.
Nightime tornados also caused two deaths and a lot of damage in El Reno, Oklahoma two days ago, and tons of damage in Jefferson City, Missouri last week.
As an aside, the El Reno tornado was weird because it had a very narrow path for a tornado of that strength. It was an EF3, which means it had winds of between 136 to 165 mph, but its width was only about 75 yards wide.
That might be a record for the narrowest strong tornado on record. Ironically, El Reno, Oklahoma is where the nation's widest tornado on record hit. That tornado in 2013 was 2.6 miles wide.
The tornado threat continues today, with twisters a fairly good bet in parts of Kansas, Missouri and Iowa, with maybe a couple more tornadoes in Pennsylvania. There might be a few more tornadoes tomorrow, especially around eastern Oklahoma and Arkansas.
The weather pattern that has brought numerous tornadoes to the middle of the nation is expected to settle down later this week. Although there might be pockets of severe weather after midweek, they won't be as extensive and persistent as they have in recent days.
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