Strong storms with damaging winds and baseball-sized hail killed at least 25 people over the Memorial Day holiday weekend as much of the U.S. recovered on Tuesday from severe weather, including tornadoes.
Widespread power outages were reported in areas including Dallas and Fort Worth, where an oppressive, early heat wave added to the misery. About 800,000 customers were without power on Tuesday PowerOutage.us.
Voters in the state Second election Some polling booths were without electricity. About 100 voting sites were knocked offline in Dallas County. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins declared a disaster area, noting that some nursing homes were using generators. “This will ultimately be a multi-day outage situation,” Jenkins said Tuesday.
More severe weather and heavy rain is forecast for the Dallas area Tuesday night. Severe thunderstorms were headed toward Houston, where officials warned that damage could occur within two weeks with winds of up to 70 mph. Hurricane wind More than 800,000 homes and businesses were without power.
Destructive storms Over the weekend, deaths occurred in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia. Meanwhile, in the Midwest, an unusual weather event a “tasted” Looks like a small hurricane brought some dramatic moments to West Lake Michigan over the weekend.
Seven people were killed Cook County, Texas, A tornado tore through a mobile home park on Saturday, officials said, and eight deaths were reported across Arkansas.
Two people died in Mays County, Oklahoma, east of Tulsa, authorities said. Among the injured were guests at an outdoor wedding. A Missouri man died Sunday when a log fell on his tent while camping.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said at a news conference Monday that five people had died in his state.
A tornado damaged a high school and half a dozen homes in Pennsylvania on Monday night. There were no injuries, but school was canceled in Mahanoy, Pennsylvania, said David Truskowski, a spokesman for the city’s fire department.
About 160,000 homes and businesses were without power in Kentucky Tuesday following weekend storms. Arkansas, West Virginia and Missouri.
It has been a severe month of cyclones and severe weather in the central part of the country.
A tornado hit Iowa last week At least five people died And dozens were injured. Storms Eight people were killed in Houston This month. It was April The second highest number of hurricanes reported in the country. As the storms come Climate change generally contributes to the intensity of storms around the world.
Late May is the peak of hurricane season, but recent storms have been exceptionally violent, producing very strong tornadoes, said Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gencini.
“Over the weekend, we have a lot of warm and humid air, a lot of gasoline, a lot of fuel for these storms. We have a very strong jet stream. That jet stream helps in shearing the air that these types of hurricanes need,” Gencini said.
Harold Brooks, a senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma, attributed the string of hurricanes over the past two months to a persistent pattern of warm, moist air.
That air is at the northern edge of the heat dome, which usually brings temperatures seen in late May at the height of summer.
The heat index — a combination of air temperature and humidity that indicates how hot it feels to the human body — reached triple digits in parts of South Texas and was expected to remain there for several days.
For more information on the latest tornado reports, see The Associated Press Tornado Tracker.
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Associated Press journalists from around the country contributed to this report, including Ken Miller, Jennifer McDermott, Sarah Brumfield, Kathy McCormack, Acacia Coronado, Jeffrey Collins, Bruce Schreiner and Julio Cortez.
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