Tornadoes Are More Powerful Than We Realize

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A dangerous, multi-day outbreak of severe weather is battering parts of the Midwest and will continue over the next few days. This includes the threat of tornadoes, damaging hail and powerful straight-line winds.

W​hat We Are Tracking Right Now

A low pressure system continues to spin across the Upper Midwest with showers and thunderstorms draped from the Great Lakes to the Ozarks.

Several tornadoes touched down in western Iowa, Tuesday afternoon. One tornado was sighted by multiple spotters in Montgomery County, Iowa, near Red Oak. Another strong to violent tornado hit the town of Greenfield, Iowa, causing widespread damage. Several other tornadoes were reported across the Midwest as far north as Wausau, Wisconsin.

(​LATEST NEWS: Tornadoes, Severe Weather Turns Deadly)

B​elow is a look at the current radar along with any active watches and warnings.

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F​orecast Breakdown

W​ednesday

• A broad area of strong to severe storms will fire up from northern and central Texas to Ohio, western New York and western Pennsylvania on Wednesday. W​ind damage and hail are the primary threats, but an isolated tornado risk can't be ruled out.
• T​he most concentrated severe storms that could pack hail the size of golf balls or larger, damaging winds and a few tornadoes are expected from northern Texas into southeast Oklahoma, northern and central Arkansas, southern Missouri and western Tennessee. That includes Dallas-Forth Worth and Little Rock, Arkansas.

(192-hours: Further beef up your forecast with our detailed, hour-by-hour breakdown for the next 8 days – only available on our Premium Pro experience.)

T​hursday And Beyond

• Severe weather will focus on parts of northern Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, northwest Louisiana, southwest Missouri and southern Kansas on Thursday. Large hail and wind damage are the primary threats, but a couple of tornadoes cannot be ruled out.
• P​arts of the Midwest, South and East may see scattered severe thunderstorms each day from Friday into the Memorial Day holiday weekend. However, details are still uncertain.

O​utbreak Recap

• T​his latest rash of severe weather began in the Plains late Sunday, where it produced over a dozen tornadoes, including at least EF2 damage in both Custer County and Yukon, Oklahoma. The storms also produced wind gusts up to 100 mph in Salina, Kansas, and hail slightly larger than baseballs in parts of Kansas, Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle.
• M​onday night's severe weather produced wind gusts in excess of 90 mph in parts of Nebraska. Hail up to the size of softballs whipped by wind gusts to 62 mph heavily damaged vehicles and the siding of some buildings in Yuma, Colorado. Significant flash flooding was also reported in the town.

Senior m​eteorologists Chris Dolce and Jonathan Erdman contributed to this report.