Urgent tornado warnings dotted the Midwest on Friday evening as powerful storms delivered giant hail and damaging winds across a huge section of the country, from Texas to the Great Lakes.
Emergency responders were responding to dozens of tornado warnings that had been issued by late Friday afternoon, including at least one, in Wisconsin, for a “particularly dangerous situation,” a type of warning the National Weather Service uses only rarely for especially urgent circumstances.
One reported tornado brought down trees and damaged cars in Lena, Ill., according to Brian Lamphere, the village’s police chief. Chief Lamphere said he had also received reports of damage to a school in the area.
The Stephenson County Sheriff’s Office told people to avoid Lena, which is about 42 miles west of Rockford, because there was no way to get into the village because of downed trees and wires.
In Wisconsin, the Buffalo County Sheriff’s Office said that it was working to restore power to the area after severe weather ripped the roof off several houses. The sheriff’s office shared several photos of debris scattered around farmland on social media on Friday evening. There have not been any injuries reported, the sheriff’s office said.
Andrew Moore, a meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said late on Friday afternoon that there were 12 ongoing tornado warnings out of the dozens that had been issued so far.
“We’ve had 10 tornadoes so far reported today, as of 5:30 p.m. this evening,” he said. “Some of those could be duplicates. In the coming days we’ll get a final tally.”
Forecasters with the Weather Service were focusing their attention on two areas of the greatest concern:
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one in the Plains that includes Kansas City, where storms were likely to produce damaging winds and giant hail, and
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one farther north around the intersection of Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin, where the most intense tornadoes could form.
Both areas were under tornado watches. The storms were expected to continue into the evening and overnight.
Friday was the latest in a weeklong streak of stormy days across the Central United States.
On Tuesday, a tornado that was rated a three on the five-point enhanced Fujita scale, carved a nine-mile path of destruction near Hillsboro, Wis., with winds of up to 140 miles per hour.
On Wednesday night, flash flooding in Milwaukee briefly shut down a major highway running through the city, stranding drivers.
Thunderstorms can occur nationwide throughout the year, but they are most common in the late afternoon and evening during the warm months.
Predicting when, exactly, a typical springtime storm will turn into something more dangerous — by producing a tornado or a torrent of heavy rain — can be difficult.
Judson Jones is a meteorologist and reporter for The Times who forecasts and covers extreme weather.
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