FOX Weather Storm Trackers are in the Lone Star State tracking the threat for storms with large hail and tornadoes on Wednesday.
DALLAS – Following a deadly EF-3 tornado in Kansas on Tuesday, another round of severe thunderstorms struck the central and southern Plains on Wednesday.
More than 700,000 people in cities such as Abilene, San Angelo, Big Spring and Brownwood in Texas and Altus in Oklahoma were at a Level 3 out of 5 risk for severe weather on Wednesday. Nearly 23 million people were at a Level 2 risk that stretched from southern Nebraska into much of Texas.
RELENTLESS SEVERE STORMS CONTINUE TO TORTURE AREAS FROM TEXAS TO UPPER MIDWEST ON THURSDAY
Grapefruit-sized hail (4.5 inches in diameter) was reported in portions of western Kansas, while softball-sized hail (4 inches) was reported in parts of the Texas Panhandle. The storms also packed wind gusts as high as 83 mph near Plainville, Kansas. Additionally, more than a dozen brief tornadoes were reported, but there have been no reports of any significant damage across the region.
At least one landspout was spotted in West Texas on Wednesday outside of Fort Stockton.
Perhaps the most impactful aspect of the storms was the heavy rain, which was expected to further ruin any items left strewn about by the recent tornado outbreak’s destruction.
A large flash flood threat returned on Wednesday and Thursday when nearly a foot of rain soaked parts of East Texas.
(FOX Weather)
It has been nearly a week of severe weather across the central U.S. The streak started last Thursday and culminated in a tornado outbreak that killed at least five people across two states. Another person was killed and several more injured in Kansas after a tornado destroyed homes outside of Topeka, Kansas, on Tuesday.