At
least 20 tornadoes have struck a swath of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and
Nebraska, causing damage in at least two of those states as a severe
weather outbreak unfolds across the central and southern Plains.
Officials in Texas said one of the tornadoes destroyed an oil and gas
facility, raising concerns about radioactive material stored there.
(FORECAST: Severe Weather Outbreak)
The
damaging storms are developing on the warm side of Winter Storm Ajax,
which will bring blizzard conditions to the High Plains.
Here is a roundup of damage reports and other storm-related impacts.
Texas
At least seven tornadoes have struck the Texas Panhandle, including a mile-wide tornado just south of Pampa, Texas.
The
storm that spawned the monster tornado first spawned a brief tornado
near Groom, Texas, at 6:11 p.m. CST. That tornado apparently dissipated,
but a new tornado touched down a short time later and struck areas
south and southeast of Pampa. Spotters said it was a mile wide as it
passed about 4 miles southeast of the downtown area of Pampa, a city of
18,000 northeast of Amarillo, around 6:40 p.m.
A second
tornado touched down near Groom, Texas, shortly before 7 p.m. and while
the tornado near Pampa was still on the ground. That tornado struck the
south side of Pampa around 7:08 p.m.
The National Weather Service said one of the
Pampa tornadoes caused unspecified "major damage" as well as gas leaks
and downed power lines on the south side of Pampa. Amarillo television
station KAMR said via Twitter that two Gray County Sheriff deputies were
sickened by the gas leak.
According to Gray County
Emergency Coordinator Sandi Martin, chemical spills and gas leaks are
being contained after the Haliburton plant in Pampa was leveled in the
storm. No injuries were reported. Officials were also tending to a
possible radioactive spill late Monday evening, according to KAMR.
Two
thousand people were without power in southeast Amarillo, KAMR also
reports. Xcel Energy representative Wes Reeves said there were two
transmission lines down in and around the Pampa area. More than 6,500
people were without power in Miami and Canadian, Texas.
A
BNSF Railway train was derailed after a major storm in Roberts County,
Texas, according to KVII. Officials say the storm pushed the train off
its tracks near Miami, Texas. Downed power lines in the area initially prevented emergency crews from reaching the scene of the accident.
The pair of supercell thunderstorms remained tornadic as they moved northeastward together, passing near Miami
and Canadian. Tornadoes were reported near both of those towns. It is
not immediately clear whether the tornadoes had stayed on the ground
continuously since the Pampa area.
Farther north, a
tornado was reported east of Perryton, Texas, at 7:05 p.m. CST. What was
likely the same tornado was reported 4 miles west of Booker, Texas, at
7:12 p.m. CST. Subsequent reports placed the tornado 3 miles northwest
and then 4 miles north of Booker as it crossed the state line into the
Oklahoma Panhandle by 7:24 p.m. Spotters said it was a multiple-vortex
tornado during part of that time, and a satellite tornado touched down
near the larger tornado at least briefly.
Spotters also reported a tornado near White Deer, Texas, at 6:51 p.m. CST.
Another
tornado was reported 12 miles southwest of Wolf Creek Park in the Texas
Panhandle at 8:28 p.m. as it crossed U.S. Highway 70.
Yet
another tornado was reported 8 miles south of Booker at 9:06 p.m., and
was spotted 12 minutes later near Darrouzett before moving northeast
into the Oklahoma Panhandle.
Monday afternoon pea-sized
hail accumulated on the ground in areas of Cochran and Bailey Counties,
according to KTRE. Later that day a storm spotter reported hail
covering the ground northeast of Tulia, Texas.
Tornado Reports
Oklahoma
At least three tornadoes affected Oklahoma; two of them moved into the state from Texas.
As
noted above, a tornado that touched down in the far northern part of
the Texas Panhandle then crossed into the Oklahoma Panhandle shortly
before 7:30 p.m. CST south of Elmwood in Beaver County, according to
spotter reports relayed by the National Weather Service in Amarillo,
Texas.
Another tornado moved into Oklahoma from Texas
about two hours later. Spotters saw the tornado 8 miles southwest of
Slapout in Beaver County at 9:29 p.m. CST.
Around the
same time, spotters reported a tornado 4 miles east of May, Oklahoma,
after the pair of storms that had earlier produced tornadoes near Pampa,
Texas, merged into a single supercell. There were additional tornado
sightings from this cell in Harper County just southwest of Selman,
Oklahoma, before it moved into Kansas.
Kansas
At
least 11 tornadoes have touched down so far in Kansas, and a 12th moved
into the state from Oklahoma, according to our latest analysis of storm
reports from the National Weather Service.
According
to the NWS, storm chaser observed a tornado south of Ulysses, Kansas,
just before 4 p.m. CST. Local schools held their students until the
system passed through.
“The coast is clear and
everyone was sent home, safe and sound. District coordinated with local
emergency management officials, who determined the severe threat was
over,” said superintendent of Ulysses Public Schools Dave Younger. No
injuries or substantial damage were reported.
Emergency management reported a tornado 11 miles north of Pierceville in Finney County at 5:19 p.m. CST.
At
5:20 p.m., a small tornado was reported 4 miles southeast of Grinnell
in northwest Kansas. Several other reports of tornadoes came from that
same cell in the Grainfield and Gove areas of Gove County, along
Interstate 70. Those reports may have been a single tornado. The tornado
damaged roofs, broke windows, destroyed sheds and downed power lines
and trees in the area.
Just before 6 p.m. CST a large
tornado was also reported near Kismet, Kansas, and debris was reported
in the air near Hayne, Kansas, according to the National Weather Service
in Dodge City. A residence and several hog farms were damaged outside
of Kismet, where the tornado was estimated at a quarter-mile wide by a
storm chaser.
At 6:29 p.m., the National Weather
Service said "a large tornado continues and is very well defined from
observers" 8 miles north-northwest of Missler, Kansas, from the same
cell that produced the tornado near Kismet. It is not immediately clear
whether the tornado had been on the ground continuously since hitting
the Kismet area.
A tornado struck a rural area 15 miles
south of Hoxie in northwest Kansas at 6:43 p.m., downing power lines
along Kansas Highway 23. Another tornado was reported by a spotter at
6:44 p.m. just west of Ransom, Kansas. National Weather Service radar
detected a tornado debris signature in the area. That tornado knocked
down 17 or 18 power poles near Arnold, Kansas, and was later spotted
north of Cedar Bluff around 7 p.m.
A tornado was
reported near Tasco at 7:06 p.m. CST. Law enforcement officials said the
tornado damaged a residence and outbuildings.
In
southwest Kansas, a tornado damaged a barn near Montezuma at 6:45 p.m.
It may have been the same tornado later blamed for damaging a residence
near Howell in Ford County. Between those damage incidents, the twister
was spotted by law enforcement just north of Ensign at 7:06 p.m. CST.
At
7:39 p.m. CST, law enforcement and a firefighting unit reported two
"rope" tornadoes in rural Hodgeman County about 11 miles east of
Kalvesta.
A tornado that was spotted in Harper County,
Oklahoma, crossed the state line and damaged two homes in rural Comanche
County, Kansas, around 10:20 p.m., according to law enforcement reports
relayed by the National Weather Service in Dodge City.
There
were numerous reports of quarter-sized hail in western Kansas, as well
as a report of golfball-sized hail near Lakin, NWS also reports.
A
hog farm and mobile home were destroyed by a tornado in Seward County. A
roof was ripped off of a house and a separate garage was damaged in the
same area. The families affected were able to take shelter. No injuries
were reported.
Nebraska
The
National Weather Service in Hastings said a spotter reported a tornado 5
miles southwest of Stamford in rural Furnas County at 7:51 p.m. CST.
MORE: Severe Weather and Tornado
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