Severe weather churns up tornadoes, unleashes powerful winds across central US
Parts of Kingfisher County, Oklahoma, got a scare when what could have been multiple tornadoes started appearing in the sky on June, 16.
Another round of tornadoes struck the central United States from North Dakota and Oklahoma to Indiana during the weekend.
Saturday held 26 preliminary tornado reports from the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center, but there have been no reported injuries or fatalities as of Monday.
Severe storms produced three tornadoes, two of which were confirmed EF2 tornadoes in Des Moines County, Iowa, that downed trees, power lines, destroyed outbuildings and "severely damaged a house off its foundation," according to an NWS storm survey. The third tornado was a confirmed EF0 west of Mediapolis.
The two EF2 tornadoes struck Oakville, Iowa, where one reached peak wind speeds of 120 mph. It destroyed a farm building, threw farm equipment 40 yards and moved a pickup truck about 20 yards, according to the NWS storm survey.
The second EF2 tornado destroyed a big farm. The survey photos from both tornadoes show wooden beams torn asunder and scattered across a field, a windshield impaled by a wooden pole and farm equipment flipped on its side.
Not much earlier that day, two tornadoes hit in Indiana. The first was possibly rain-wrapped according to the NWS report, and it struck a farmer's field in Newbern, Indiana at 7:33 p.m. CDT. The second blew through Rushville, Indiana, around 7:51 p.m. CDT, causing significant damage.
Farther south, hail almost the size of tennis balls fell over Deaf Smith County, Texas, around 5 p.m. local time. A tornado hit Castro County, Texas, one county over, just a few minutes before the hail had hit. Areas near Childress, Texas, experienced a wind gust of 87 mph around 8:11 p.m. CDT.
A thin tornado tracked north of Sawyerville, Illinois, around 2:47 p.m., downed a tree into a home and wrecked power lines, according to the NWS report. A social media user was able to catch a photo of it as it churned through the area.
In Ellettsville, Indiana, a social media user caught a tornado churning behind a line of homes on video. The tornado, which had a maximum path width of 400 yards and packed winds up to 130 mph, was given a preliminary EF2 rating on Sunday. No injuries or fatalities were reported.
A second EF2 tornado was confirmed in Greene County, Indiana. No injuries or fatalities were reported. -
Severe weather also blasted through the southern Plains, with wind gusts as high as 70 mph reported in parts of Oklahoma.
There was a report of blown-out windows in a house near Custer City, Oklahoma, as a fierce line of severe storms rolled through.
To the north of the severe weather, flooding downpours inundated southern Kansas and southwestern Missouri.
On Father's Day, a line of severe storms moved through the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, causing damage to homes and leaving over 90,000 without power, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport canceled over 600 flights and delayed over 700. The Houston Bush International Airport delayed over 600 flights.
Wind speeds of up to 66 mph were recorded in Fort Worth, Texas, and to the west, hail larger than golf balls plagued Irion County, Texas.
Following the over two dozen tornado reports on Saturday, there were only nine Sunday. Sunday's tornadoes occurred in Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
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