A roiling storm moving east over Missouri and Illinois late Friday has spurred numerous tornado warnings, according to federal forecasters.
The system of unstable air is showing extreme intensity over St. Louis as it moves into Illinois, with the National Weather Service’s tornado warnings indicating sightings or radar evidence of destructive vortexes.
None have been officially confirmed as touching down, however. Confirmation is often a next-day process for the weather service’s weather experts on the ground, who measure a tornado’s path and assess damage after danger has receded.
The same system is whipping up wildfires in Texas and Oklahoma on Friday as the low pressure system moves east and continues to threaten to produce potent tornadoes in the Plains and beyond.
An estimated 138 million people are at risk of severe storms in the nation’s midsection throughout the weekend. Strong nighttime tornadoes at EF2 on the tornado strength scale, defined by sustained winds of 113 to 157 mph, are possible from southern Iowa to Jackson, Mississippi.
The worst of the system is also threatening damaging winds and hail Friday into Saturday.
The storm on Friday is also churning in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and beyond, and is expected to produce more forceful winds through at least Saturday morning.
Widespread tornado risk
The biggest cities at risk for tornadoes include St. Louis and Memphis, they said. Widespread gusts of 60 to 100 mph and large hail are forecast.
On Friday night, the National Weather Service in the metro St. Louis area as the front moved east and appeared to have a line of tornado-producing, unstable air headed for the city.
The U.S. Storm Prediction Center indicated the front was capable of producing tornadoes at EF3 on the tornado strength scale, a level defined by sustained winds of 158 to 206 mph. The center indicated tornadoes produced by the front near St. Louis could produce maximum sustained winds of 170 mph.
“Tornado potential appears to be becoming focused near and southwest of the greater St. Louis area,” in a short-term discussion on the front.
Multiple short-term warnings of likely tornadoes around St. Louis, in western Illinois and, separately, in parts of Arkansas were in effect during the 10 o’clock hour.
Tornado watches for parts of Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee until at least 3 a.m. CT, with some watches extended until 5 a.m.
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe declared a state of emergency on Friday as the state prepared for the front’s unstable air overnight.
In a statement, he warned Missourians the front will move fast and intensify. They should plan to stay off roads, remain indoors, and figure out beforehand where they can go if a tornado touches down.
“I urge all Missourians to stay alert, monitor weather forecasts, and follow official warnings,” he said.
The declaration will allow state resources to reach local governments quicker, Kehoe’s office said. He also said he’s activating Missouri’s Emergency Operations Center on Friday afternoon.
A tornado outbreak across the central Gulf Coast states into the Tennessee Valley was likely late Saturday. Significant tornadoes were possible in eastern Louisiana, in Mississippi, and in Alabama, they said.
Jackson, Mississippi, and Birmingham, Alabama, were also at high risk for tornadoes.
Strong winds and fires in Texas, Oklahoma
The southern end of the front is stirring up gusts as strong as 62 mph in parts of northern Texas, according to National Weather Service data.
Winds in Texas and Oklahoma on Friday were the source of multiple vehicle accidents, according to social media images and the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma.
Potter County Fire-Rescue reported four roads were restricted or closed after separate incidents in which big-rigs had “flipped.” The county in the Texas Panhandle includes the northern half of Amarillo.
“Visibility is poor at best and zero in places,” on social media. “If you don’t have to be out, please stay where you are.”
The largest of the state’s six active wildfires, the Windmill Fire in Roberts County, grew from 500 to 18,000 acres in less than a day, according to Texas A&M Forest Service. The blaze was 50% contained Friday night.
The Rest Area Fire in Gray County marched across 4,500 acres on Friday, but its expansion stopped by early evening, Texas A&M Forest Service said. Firefighters had achieved 30% containment by the end of the day, it said.
Texas A&M Forest Service said on Thursday conditions may be right for a Southern Great Plains Wildfire Outbreak, a dangerous weather formula based in part on low humidity and gusty wind, though such an outbreak was not officially declared by Friday afternoon.
Gov. Greg Abbott said more than 750 emergency responders were at the ready as he ordered the Texas Division of Emergency Management to activate and prepare emergency response resources, according to a statement.
Multiple fires were burning in Oklahoma on Friday night.
Gov. Kevin Stitt urged residents covered by in Mannford, a city in the northeastern portion of the state were wildfire raged Friday night, to “leave now.”
were also in effect for parts of Norman, where multiple wildfires were burning, according to the Norman Police Department.
Mandatory evacuations in the city of Stillwater were expanding late Friday, with including a Walmart and multiple hotels, and cover “several square miles.”
The winds have apparently also helped fuel multiple structure fires in the city, and firefighting reinforcements are en route,
The National Weather Service said earlier that “a dangerous wildfire outbreak” was underway, later identifying blazes near the city of Chickasha, where voluntary evacuations were canceled after firefighters gained control; near Chandler, Camargo and Leedey; and near Lake Carl Blackwell, where residents were urged to evacuate. There was also one in Lincoln County, where evacuations were ordered north of the town of Meridian.
State officials said in a fire situation report Friday that an outbreak was possible, noting all of the state’s 77 counties are covered Friday night by a red flag warning that warns the elements of dangerous wildfire are at hand.
Weather system to shift east
The low pressure system is affecting the southern and northern reaches of the nation’s midsection as it pushes eastward, promising upheaval into the eastern U.S. through the end of the weekend.
As it moves into the Eastern Seaboard on Sunday, the tornado threat will shift to Virginia and Carolinas.
On the northern side of the front, including the upper Midwest and the northern Plains, blizzard conditions were forecast for the weekend, with 8 inches of snow possible in some regions.
The new week was expected to bring even more winter storm action when at least two more low pressure systems march eastward, the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center said.
The first of the two would likely form a solid, counterclockwise winter storm, a process the weather service calls cyclogenesis, it said. It will likely bring snow to the interior, including the Midwest and Great Lakes, with a second storm likely to bring a fresh wave of snow, rain and thunderstorms to a stretch of the nation from the Rocky Mountains to the Upper Midwest mid- to late-week.
The roiling atmosphere is shaking up the daily routines of millions as the calendar looks forward to the first astronomical day of spring on Thursday.
Thunderstorms and tornadoes are , so the tumult is on time. Spring will make a move Monday and possibly Tuesday in the Central and Eastern United States as warmer days are expected, if only briefly, federal forecasters said. The week’s winter storms were forecast to fight back on Tuesday and possibly Thursday in the same regions, they said.
