Editor's note: This page is a summary of severe weather news for Tuesday, May 21. twenty two.
DES MOINES, Iowa — Multiple tornadoes struck Iowa on Tuesday, including one that killed several people and injured at least a dozen others in a small town, after severe weather brought severe damage to the Plains and Midwest. It brought multiple rounds of rain and thunderstorms.
A tornado struck the small town of Greenfield, Iowa, about 60 miles southwest of Des Moines on Tuesday afternoon. According to the “Des Moines Register” of the “USA Today” Network, Iowa police confirmed that the tornado almost completely flattened the town of more than 2,000 people, causing many deaths.
Sgt. Iowa State Patrol spokesman Alex Dinkla said at a news conference Tuesday night that authorities were working to confirm the exact number of people killed or injured but estimated at least a dozen people were hospitalized.
Several more tornadoes were reported to hit Iowa on Tuesday, including a “large and dangerous” tornado near Fontanelle that was moving northeast at 60 mph, the National Weather Service said . The weather service urged people in tornado warning areas to take shelter. “You are in danger of losing your life,” the weather service said.
Overall, more than 25 million people live in the path of the powerful storm system from Nebraska to Michigan and face “possible” tornadoes as well as heavy rain and hail, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center and the threat of damaging winds.
AccuWeather warns that areas between northern Missouri and southern Wisconsin are at high risk for severe thunderstorms Tuesday night.
“We are worried about damaging winds and tornadoes. No weather event is the same, but this does share the same characteristics as the severe weather threat on April 26. More than 100 tornadoes were reported that day,” AccuWeather meteorologists said. Bernie Leno said.
Tornado warnings were issued Tuesday afternoon for much of eastern Nebraska, much of Iowa and parts of Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The Storm Prediction Center said that means weather conditions were perfect for a tornado to form there. Much of Iowa is under a “particularly hazardous conditions” tornado watch, which is used only in the most extreme situations.
Severe thunderstorms caused road flooding in at least seven Iowa counties Tuesday afternoon. The weather service received reports of 3.5 inches of rain in Cerro Gordo County, Mason City, Iowa. Flooding was also reported in Bremer and Grundy counties.
The storm system is expected to reach peak intensity in the afternoon and evening as it reaches the Missouri and Mississippi Valley and Lake Michigan areas, forming the strongest thunderstorm-type supercell.
The latest wave of storms that swept through the central United States over the weekend and early this week spawned tornadoes and dropped damaging hail up to 2.5 inches in diameter. Possible tornadoes were reported in Colorado and Nebraska on Monday, but damage appeared to be limited. A day earlier, storms that swept through the Plains injured at least four people and damaged dozens of buildings in Oklahoma.
Tornadoes move through Iowa amid powerful thunderstorms
Multiple rounds of thunderstorms rolled through Iowa on Tuesday, leading to dangerous tornado outbreaks. By Tuesday evening, residents in communities across western and central Iowa were working to clean up and assess the damage.
Drone footage on social media showed destroyed homes, overturned cars, uprooted trees and downed power lines in Greenfield. Former Iowa Rep. Claire Bowdler said local authorities restricted traffic in and out of Greenfield.
“The ambulance was going north and south like crazy,” Bowdler said. “It’s all rescue and recovery now.”
Adair County Health System hospitals were also damaged and were evacuated, a MercyOne spokesperson told the Des Moines Register. Dinkla said patients already being treated at the hospital have been sent to other hospitals.
Dinkla said Greenfield is under a curfew from 10 p.m. to at least 7 a.m. Wednesday.
MidAmerican Energy spokesman Jeff Greenwood said Tuesday that the Des Moines utility was aware of several wind turbines in Adair County that “received direct hits from large tornadoes” and were damaged or destroyed.
Video posted on social media showed the tornado striking one turbine after another, including one that collapsed and caught fire near Prescott in Adams County.
National Weather Service volunteer weather observers across Iowa also reported infrastructure damage, strong winds and hail in other communities. Governor Kim Reynolds has authorized a disaster emergency declaration for 15 counties: Adair, Adams, Cass, Clay, Hardin, Harrison, Jasper, Kossuth, and Marshall counties , Montgomery County, Page County, Palo Alto County, Pottawattamie County, Tama County and Warren County.
'The house started to explode'
Carl and Valerie Faust lost their Greenfield home in the path of the tornado. After getting wind of the incident and their son's call, they went to the basement.
“I went down five steps to the basement and the house started to explode,” Carl Foster said.
Carl Foster said it took about 40 seconds from start to finish for the tornado to sweep through not just their home, but the entire town. Soon after, neighbors came over to check on the situation.
“We'll get up in the morning,” he said. “We're going to look at all of this with new thinking and new eyes, and we're going to start attacking all of this.”
Tornadoes reported in Wisconsin, many counties remain under tornado watch
Tens of thousands of homes and businesses in central Wisconsin were without power Tuesday night as the storm continued to move eastward across the state. Three storm systems moved across the state, bringing damaging winds of up to 60 to 80 miles per hour.
Many Wisconsin counties remain under tornado watches until midnight. The National Weather Service office in Green Bay said there were “reports of a tornado near Union County” in Clark and Marathon counties.
The tornado was moving northeast at 80 mph about 13 miles east of Abbotsford around 7:50 p.m., according to the weather service. Abbotsford is a city about 34 miles west of Wausau.
Elsewhere, the Milwaukee weather service office said radar showed “strong rotation” on the Wisconsin River near Spring Green around 7 p.m.
Central U.S. faces more severe weather this week
By Wednesday morning, the center of the system will move into southern Canada. However, the weather service warned that a trailing cold front would “become almost stationary over the southern plains with the next phase of severe weather and excess rainfall expected”, adding that the weather threat, including thunderstorms, would extend to Midterm – Mississippi Valley on Wednesday night.
Ongoing storms could bring hail and “a few tornadoes” that could hit parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas on Thursday, the weather service's Storm Prediction Center said. Strong to severe isolated thunderstorms are possible across the central Plains into South Dakota and along the mid-Atlantic and northeastern coasts.
It's already been a rough spring for tornadoes: AccuWeather said there have been more than 830 preliminary reports of tornadoes so far this year, well above the historical average of 626 tornadoes for this time of year.
Death toll from Houston storm rises to 8
A series of storms swept through the Houston area on Thursday, causing widespread damage, including massive power outages amid an intense heat wave that killed an eighth person.
Officials discovered the body of a man who they believe died of carbon monoxide poisoning, multiple media outlets quoted the Houston Fire Department as saying.
On Monday, Fire Chief Samuel Peña called carbon monoxide poisoning a “silent killer” on the X website. He said his department has received 80 poisoning-related calls since last Thursday, including four children hospitalized because generators were operating.
Many schools remain closed due to outages and damage as authorities have struggled to restore power across the city. Officials also warned against travel because of debris from smashed windows and damaged traffic lights in the city center.
Temperatures rise and electricity use hits record highs
At the same time, temperatures rose sharply. The afternoon heat index, or what it feels like, is expected to reach triple digits by Friday, prompting warnings from weather and local authorities, according to the National Weather Service.
More than 136,000 utility customers were still without power as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the USA TODAY outage tracker. That's down from the more than 946,000 customers without service in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi on Friday.
Electricity use in Texas broke a May record on Monday and could reach that high level next week as homes and businesses continue to crank up their air conditioners to escape the spring heat wave.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said electricity demand initially reached 72,261 megawatts on May 20, breaking the previous record of 71,645 megawatts set in May 2022.
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Contributors: Victoria Reyna-Rodriguez and Kate Kealey, The Des Moines Register; David Clarey, Emmett Prosser and Drake Bentley, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Jamie Rokus, USA TODAY Network-Wisconsin; Reuters
