COLUMBUS, Ohio – Dangerous storms tore across the South and Midwest on Thursday, spawning tornadoes and injuring several people.
During the severe weather outbreak, Tornado Watches stretched from the Lone Star State to the Buckeye State, a distance of more than 1,000 miles.
The FOX Forecast Center said due to the high amounts of energy and moderate wind shear – the change in wind speed and/or direction with height – supercells were capable of all severe weather hazards – including tornadoes, damaging winds and very large hail.
WATCH VS. WARNING: HERE ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THESE WEATHER TERMS THAT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE
Witness accounts of at least five tornadoes were reported to the Storm Prediction Center on Thursday evening from Ohio.
The communities of Wapakoneta and Indian Lakes appeared to be the hardest hit, with Mercer County emergency management reporting at least 3 injuries.
PowerOutage.us reported nearly 20,000 electrical outages in the Buckeye State with many occurring between the I-70 and I-90 corridors.
Local authorities said the extent of the damage will likely be unknown until the Sun’s first daylight but were using snowplows to remove debris from roadways.
A spokesperson for the Indiana State Police said they are working with authorities in Winchester, Indiana, to confirm how many people were injured or are missing Randolph County. The agency said that they have heard of many injuries and are working to determine the needs of the community during the recovery process.
Randolph County Coroner Darin James told FOX Weather he knew of no immediate reports of fatalities in the Winchester-area.
Randolph County sits along the border of Ohio and Indiana and had more than 5,000 reported power outages.
Winchester Community High School was not damaged during the storms and was opened for victims.
Nearby Delaware County reported that at least 50% of structures in the town of Selma were damaged, but there were no reports of life-threatening injuries.
“Janet & I send our deepest condolences & prayers to the loved ones of those impacted by tonight’s storms & the Hoosiers in the path of destruction. The people of Winchester are resilient & should know the state will walk alongside & support them as we pick up the pieces & rebuild,” Governor Eric Holcomb said in a statement.
The governor is expected to visit eastern Indiana on Friday to survey the damage and NWS meteorologists are expected to survey damage.
A supercell that rolled through southern Indiana and northern Kentucky produced at least one tornado that was caught on video as it crossed the Ohio River near the town of Madison, Indiana.
Local National Weather Service offices issued Tornado Warnings for the thunderstorm. According to PowerOutage.us, at least 5,000 customers in the immediate area lost electricity.
Photos and video from the region showed debris being lofted by the twister. Damage was reported in the towns of Milton and Carrollton along the Ohio River in Kentucky.
The NWS office in Louisville has already dispatched a team of meteorologists to Milton, Kentucky, to assess damage and determine how strong the tornado was on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.
According to the team, some damage was consistent with an EF-2 tornado with winds greater than 110 mph, but the surveyors had many more hours of work left.
Indiana State Police deployed to Jefferson County in the southern part of the state said multiple homes were damaged between Hanover and Madison and encouraged drivers to avoid the region.
Several patrol cars were also said to have been damaged by hailstones the size of baseballs.
On Wednesday, around 100 reports of severe weather were recorded by the National Weather Service, making it the fourth most active day of 2024. In Alma, Kansas, a report of softball-sized hail (4 inches in diameter) tied the largest hail report of the year so far.
FOX Weather Storm Trackers were also in the right place at the right time and captured video of a supercell producing a large tornado outside of the town of Alta Vista in northeastern Kansas. There were no reports of significant damage, but about 200 customers in the rural area experienced a power outage.
THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD DO IF YOU ARE DRIVING AND THERE IS A TORNADO ON THE GROUND
As the system drops into the Southeast and southern Plains on Friday, the severe weather threat will decrease as the available atmospheric energy drops compared to the days prior.
Only a few severe storms will be possible during the afternoon from Texas to the Southeast.
Be sure to download the free FOX Weather app and enable notifications to be alerted to any major changes in the forecast or severe weather alerts issued in your area.