For the second time in four days, a severe weather outbreak caused tornadoes and hail, with the threat continuing overnight into Wednesday.
Some of the areas facing this dangerous threat of severe storms and tornadoes include those that were just struck by a deadly multi-state tornado outbreak last Friday.
Tuesday’s severe weather was associated with the same storm system that spawned an early-April blizzard across parts of the northern Plains and Upper Midwest.
Storms dropped gigantic hail
A line of severe thunderstorms moved into the Chicago Metro area just after 1 p.m. CDT Tuesday, prompting Severe Thunderstorm Warnings for possible wind gusts to 70 mph and baseball-sized hail, along with heavy rains and frequent lightning. The warning covered nearly 8 million people.
Earlier Tuesday, a supercell tracked across the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois, spawning tennis ball-sized hail in Davenport, Iowa, with one spotter reporting a hailstone the size of a softball.
The same supercell also produced a 90-mph wind gust as it crossed the state border into Moline, Illinois. But these thunderstorms were just the appetizer for what was to come later Tuesday into Tuesday night.
Rope tornado caught on video moving through Iowa
Storm chasers caught video of a narrow, rope-like tornado snaking through the rural countryside of Lacona, Iowa, on Tuesday evening.
The supercell was about 30 miles outside of Des Moines, Iowa, as it moved off to the northeast at 55 mph.
According to the U.S. Census, the community has a population of only around 350 residents, and the National Weather Service had not received any reports of injuries.
PowerOutage.us reported only a few dozen electrical outages in Walker County.
Apparent tornado damage spotted in central Illinois
A farming community in central Illinois was also hit by an apparent tornado after sunset on Tuesday.
The local National Weather Service office declared the observed tornado was a ‘particularly dangerous situation’ and issued several Tornado Warnings through the central part of the state.
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Storm tracker Brandon Ivey tracked the severe weather through Lewistown, Illinois, and spotted numerous farms with damage. At least one roadway was also blocked by debris.
Severe weather, which included large hail and tornadoes, were expected on Tuesday evening, and much of northwestern Illinois was under a Tornado Watch.
FOX Weather viewer Wendy Wilkey took video of what appeared to be a tornado outside the town.
Local authorities have not reported any injuries but said there was damage to farms.
According to PowerOutage.us, there were more than 20,000 outages in the state as of Tuesday evening.
Severe storms slide east into Great Lakes, Ohio Valley and mid-South Wednesday
Another round of severe weather is expected Wednesday as the storm system slides east into the Great Lakes, Ohio Valley and mid-South.
Damaging wind gusts, large hail and at least a few tornadoes are the main threats in those regions. Some EF-2 or stronger tornadoes are not ruled out.
In western portions of the highlighted threat area on the map below, severe storms could be ongoing early Wednesday morning before the severe weather threat spreads east and intensifies throughout the day.
Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Columbus in Ohio and Memphis in Tennessee are among the cities included in Wednesday’s risk of severe storms.
Isolated severe storms could linger Thursday in mid-Atlantic
Isolated strong to severe thunderstorms could linger on Thursday across parts of the mid-Atlantic, including Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. Damaging wind gusts, large hail and an isolated tornado are possible.
A separate risk of severe storms is possible in portions of Deep South Texas, where large hail will be the primary threat.
