Catastrophic damage seen in Oklahoma after tornado rips through Barnsdall as storms march across central US

OKLAHOMA CITY – A life-threatening situation unfolded in the central U.S. on Monday night as intense supercell thunderstorms moved across the region, producing tornadoes, giant hail and damaging winds.

A Tornado Emergency, the most dire of tornado alerts, was issued for Osage County, Oklahoma, as what was described by the National Weather Service as a “large and destructive tornado” that was causing catastrophic damage was moving into the town of Barnsdall. Video from FOX Weather storm trackers showed significant damage to buildings in the area. 

A reporter for FOX 23 in Tulsa showed video of a roof in the middle of a street and major damage to trees. He said there was also a strong smell of natural gas in the area and police were keeping people away from the scene. He also said that emergency crews are going house to house to see if anyone has been injured or killed by the storm.

“I can only imagine what this is going to look like in the morning,” the reporter said during a live simulcast on FOX Weather.

The storm continued to cause damage as it moved north into Bartlesville.

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The town of Minden, Iowa, which was hit hard by a tornado during the late April severe weather outbreak, appeared to have gotten this again Monday night. According to storm reports from the NWS, a tornado was reported a few miles northeast of the town with damage to a house and power poles being reported.

According to a storm report, possible tornado damage was reported near Lacey, Oklahoma, where power poles were knocked down, and a home was damaged by wind. Flash flooding was also a problem in Oklahoma. According to an NWS storm report, several cars hydroplaned into a ditch near the town of Waukomis.

Damage and giant hail have been reported in Kansas. Power poles were snapped by thunderstorm winds near McPherson. Hail up to the size of softballs was reported near Dickinson.

In Nebraska, barns were reportedly damaged by wind near Pauline and an outbuilding was damaged near Wymore.

Powerful storms continue to move across the nation’s heartland, with the potential for tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds continuing into the overnight hours through Tuesday morning. Tornado Watches are expected to continue for several parts of the country.

NIGHTTIME TORNADOES FAR MORE LIKELY TO TURN DEADLY THAN DAYTIME ONES

Oklahoma, Kansas included in ‘High Risk’ of severe weather Monday

The SPC said a regional outbreak of severe weather will continue through the overnight hours Monday into Tuesday morning across parts of the central and southern Plains. Multiple intense, long-track tornadoes – especially from southern Kansas into Oklahoma – very large to giant hail between 2 and 4 inches and damaging wind gusts as high as 80 mph are all expected.

There is no hard definition of a long-track tornado, but many forecasters believe it’s a tornado that’s on the ground for 15-20 miles or more.

Monday’s High Risk of severe weather was the first issued by the SPC since March 31, 2023, when an EF-4 tornado struck the community of Keota, Iowa, during a dayslong tornado outbreak that killed 31 people across six states. That was the last EF-4 tornado in the U.S. until the late-April tornado outbreak that produced a deadly EF-4 tornado in Marietta, Oklahoma.

This is now the first High Risk in Oklahoma since May 20, 2019, and the first High Risk in Kansas since May 18, 2017.

Severe weather threat expands east on Tuesday, Wednesday

The multiday severe weather threat will shift east on Tuesday and Wednesday, putting tens of millions of people at risk of seeing strong to severe thunderstorms.

The SPC placed more than 20 million people from the mid-South to the Ohio Valley in a Level 2 out of 5 risk on Tuesday, including major cities such as Indianapolis in Indiana, as well as Nashville in Tennessee.

According to the SPC, a line of thunderstorms is expected Tuesday morning over portions of the Midwest and mid-Mississippi Valley.

That line of storms early Tuesday is expected to weaken some during the morning hours but could still bring high wind gusts to those areas.

As the day continues, scattered strong to severe thunderstorms will push off into the Ohio Valley during the afternoon hours.

The main threats from those storms will be hail and damaging wind gusts, according to the SPC.

The severe weather threat will ramp up again on Wednesday, with the SPC placing more than 21 million people from Texas to Ohio in a Level 3 out of 5 risk of severe weather.

This includes the cities of Indianapolis, Memphis in Tennessee, St. Louis in Missouri and Cincinnati in Ohio.