Tornadoes and a Foot of Rain

More than three dozen tornadoes, baseball-sized hail and a foot of rain were reported from last night's severe weather outbreak. One person was killed in Arkansas when her boat was struck by lightning. Consult the StormMatrix for specific tornado, hail and wind reports; see CNN's or other articles for more information. Below, you can see a map where the tornadoes occurred (click here for a map that includes hail and wind). Click here for an archive of radar maps and loops from the storm. I will add more later today.

Doppler-estimates show 6-12 inches of rain in a wide swath from southern Ohio through Kentucky, Tennessee, southern Missouri, and into northern Arkansas. Officially, rain gauge reports are hard to come by but Boston, KY did report 7.34" overnight. To quote our Breaking Weather News Page:

"In addition to tornadoes, hail and damaging winds, the storms wrecked havoc along the Missouri/Arkansas border and across the Ohio River Valley with flooding rainfall. These areas were not only plagued with one thunderstorm cell moving through, but numerous thunderstorms, each with rich Gulf of Mexico moisture to unload, passing overhead caused the ground to quickly become over saturated. With roads and bridges already flooded, Flash Flood Watches and Warnings are in effect from the Arkansas/Missouri border to the West Virginia/Ohio border as the rain and severe thunderstorms will continue to pour down today. Evacuations have already occurred across parts of Kentucky, Friday night."

PHOTO AT RIGHT: Missouri Tornado Damage - Sept. 22, 2006 - A rainbow is seen behind a convenience store damaged during a storm Friday, Sept. 22, 2006, in St. James, Mo. Two tornadoes swept through south-central Missouri Friday afternoon, damaging more than 100 homes and tearing off part of a roof at a middle school moments after a tornado drill. (AP Photo/ Kelley McCall)

Incredibly, today's severe weather outbreak will cover some of the same areas.