Weekly Wrap-Up: Late-Week Tornadoes Mark Violent Peak of Incessant Rounds of Severe Storms in Central US

By Katy Galimberti, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

April 4,2015; 10:54PM,EDT

 

 

Multiple rounds of severe weather slammed the Central U.S. this week with tornadoes touching down in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri on Thursday evening and early Friday morning.
Severe weather spanned several days starting Tuesday. The strongest storms dropped golf ball-sized hail from Oklahoma to Georgia early in the week. Violent storms developed late Thursday night in the Tennessee Valley and as severe storms erupted father west, some of them spawned tornadoes were Thursday evening and early Friday morning.
A Kentucky woman was killed early Friday morning after a tree fell on her tent during a thunderstorm at a campground in the Natural Bridge State Resort Park in Powell County, Kentucky. A second person was killed Friday after they ran into a fallen tree on an Alabama highway.
In Labette County, Kansas, a reported tornado invaded the area near 8 p.m. CDT Thursday, damaging local property.
More than 44,000 customers across Kansas were without power early Friday morning according to Westar Energy.
Emergency management reported two injuries after strong winds destroyed a mobile home in Douglass, Kansas, Friday morning.
A mobile home was destroyed in Douglass, Ky., with two injuries reported. (Photo/Butler County Emergency Management)
Strong winds blasted Afton, Oklahoma, forcing two tractor-trailers to overturn on Interstate-44. A funnel cloud was reported with strong evidence of a tornado touching down according to the National Weather Service. Nearby in Welch, Oklahoma, 72-mph winds tore the roof off a house early Friday morning.
Early Friday morning, winds overturned two tractor-trailers in Craig County, Okla. (Photo/Twitter/OWxPhotography)
Earlier in the week, a round of severe storms ignited across the southern Plains with gusty winds that damaged property from Oklahoma to Georgia on Tuesday as large hail battered parts of the region.
In Labanon, Missouri, strong winds tore shingles off a farm house, local emergency management reported on Wednesday. Winds sent a tree crashing onto a car early Thursday morning in Wakefield, Michigan.
In the parts of the Northeast, winter had yet another sighting as snow fell across Pennsylvania and New York on Tuesday. Some areas in Central Pennsylvania recorded up to 6 inches of snow as massive flakes coated roadways in higher elevation areas.
The snow melted as milder air surged into the Northeast on Thursday and Friday with some areas reaching into the 60s. For cities across the Northeast such as New York and Philadelphia, Thursday offered the highest temperatures since Christmas Day.
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Meanwhile, drought-stricken California would have gladly taken any snowfall as drought concerns escalated to a historic level.
After a staggering report on Wednesday by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) regarding snowpack in the Sierra, Gov. Jerry Brown called for historic water-use restrictions.
"The California Department of Water Resources found no snow whatsoever today during its manual survey for the media at 6,800 feet in the Sierra Nevada," the report, released Wednesday, reads. "This was the first time in 75 years of early-April measurements at the Phillips snow course that no snow was found there."
Maysak's eye as seen from space. (Twitter Photo/Astronaut Terry Virts)
A once-Super Typhoon, Maysak hit peak intensity when March transitioned to April with maximum sustained winds of 260 kph (160 mph), which is the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane.
The system was one of the strongest cyclones in history during the months of January, February and March.
Several AccuWeather.com Staff Writers contributed to this story.