The US is experiencing fierce weather this week. On Thursday, the One World Trade Center was struck by lightning after an intense thunderstorm rolled into New York City. And now forecasters are warning of more severe weather that will hit the US on Memorial Day weekend.
Violent tornadoes, extreme wind and hail are forecasted to hit the Plains on Saturday before the severe weather travels east into Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee valleys on Sunday. Hail as large as softballs are expected to come down on western Oklahoma in the late afternoon of Saturday, and will be accompanied by wind gusts over 50 miles per hour.
According to the Storm Prediction Center (SPC), much of the US states of Oklahoma and southern Kansas have been placed under a Level 4 of 5 on the severe weather risk scale.
Oklahoma could be hit hard on Saturday, and has already experienced three separate tornado outbreaks in the last few weeks.
A Tornado Watch has also been issued for parts of Texas, Oklahoma and southern Kansas. Meanwhile, these violent storms will shift into southern Kansas on Saturday, bringing strong to violent tornado threats for the state. Wind gusts over 75 miles per hour are also expected for eastern Kansas and western Missouri as the storm grows into Saturday night.
Severe thunderstorms are also expected to affect the Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio valleys on Sunday.
Then on Monday, a large spread of showers and thunderstorms are expected for much of the eastern US, while the SPC has placed over 27 million people in the mid-Atlantic in a level 2 severe weather threat, including Washington, DC; Baltimore and Charlotte and Raleigh. Damaging wind gusts are predicted for the region, but tornadoes could also be possible.
According to one source, the US has been experiencing severe weather in its forecasts since April 6, and the country is also running far above average for its year-to-date tornado count. There have been at least 705 tornadoes so far, which is the sixth-most on record since 1950.
And so far, more than half of the days in the months of April and May have experienced at least a Level 3 out of 5 risk of severe weather, the source said citing the SPD. On Tuesday, a storm created a harrowing tornado outbreak in southwest Iowa, one of which lifted debris to 40,000 feet and killed four people.