Starship Asterisk*

http://www.kshb.com/dpp/weather/weather_news/nws-high-tornado-risk-in-kan-okla-on-saturday wrote:OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Baseball-sized hail is tearing the siding off homes in northeast Nebraska, a tornado has touched down in Kansas and forecasters are warning residents across the nation's midsection to brace for "life threatening" storms.

The National Weather Service says a rain-wrapped tornado touched down in southwest Kansas on Saturday afternoon, while at least three possible tornadoes were reported earlier in central Oklahoma.

No injuries were immediately reported. But forecasters are expecting the most dangerous weather later in the day and are warning residents across the region of possible fast-moving tornadoes overnight.

Officials say a large area spanning from Minnesota to Texas could be at risk.

In Nebraska, Boone County Sheriff David Spiegel says large hail also damaged vehicles and shattered windows in and around Petersburg, about 140 miles northwest of Omaha.

TNT wrote:
So far over one hundred tornado reports! Wow! And these storms have not made it here yet but are expected to by around three o'clock. Hopefully they will weaken by the time they get here!

Ann wrote:
How are you doing, TNT?

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57414275/midwest-tornadoes-5-dead-29-hurt-in-okla/ wrote:

[b][color=#0000FF]A tornado moves on the ground north of Solomon, Kan. Saturday evening, April 14, 2012, with I-70 seen in the foreground. (AP Photo/The Hutchinson News, Sandra J. Milburn)[/color][/b]

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Midwest tornadoes: 5 dead, 29 hurt in Okla.
CBS News, April 15, 2012 7:21 AM

<<(CBS/AP) OKLAHOMA CITY - Residents were scouring through damaged homes across the Midwest on Sunday after a violent storm system unleashed tornadoes that left five people dead and at least 29 injured in Oklahoma, damaging a hospital, homes and other buildings.

Oklahoma emergency officials said five people died after a tornado touched down at 12:18 a.m. Sunday in and around the northwest Oklahoma town of Woodward, the high winds damaging homes, toppling trees and downing power lines about 140 miles northwest of Oklahoma City. The brunt of the damage was reported on the west side of the town of about 12,000 and its outskirts, where search teams scoured the rubble for hours for any still trapped or injured.

Storms also were reported in Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska as a wide-ranging storm system lumbered its way across the nation's midsection Saturday and Sunday. Lightning, large hail and heavy downpours accompanied the system, which was so large that it still posed a severe weather threat from Minnnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan in the north to eastern Texas and Louisiana hundreds of miles to the south.

More than 100 tornadoes had been reported across the region by daybreak, according to the National Weather Service. Although the storms were weakening and additional tornadoes were unlikely, forecasters warned that strong thunderstorms were expected as far east as Michigan.

Five people were killed and more than two dozen were injured when a suspected tornado ripped through a mobile home park in Woodward, Okla., about 140 miles northwest of Oklahoma City. Streets in the 12,000-resident town were left dotted with mangled vehicles, toppled power lines and leveled buildings.

The outbreak began when tornado sirens went off before dawn in Oklahoma City on Saturday. As the wide-ranging storm system lumbered across the nation, storms also were reported in Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. Lightning, large hail and heavy downpours accompanied the system.

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., which specializes in tornado forecasting, had warned of a "high-end, life-threatening event" nearly two days before the bad weather hit. It was just the second time in U.S. history that the center issued a high-risk warning more than 24 hours in advance. The first was in April 2006, when nearly 100 tornadoes tore across the southeastern U.S., killing a dozen people and damaging more than 1,000 homes in Tennessee.

The center's spokesman, Chris Vaccaro, said the weather service had received at least 97 reports of tornadoes by dawn Sunday and survey teams would be heading out to investigate and determine the number of actual tornadoes, their highest winds, and the width and length of their destructive paths. Several large funnel clouds and tornadoes were photographed and videographed during the outbreak.>>

Chris Peterson wrote:
We're hoping for more,
but I guess the storm is running out of steam.

Looks to me like you'll get it.

rstevenson wrote:That's actually the first time in my life I've ever heard someone say they were hoping for more snow!