There are at least 70 dead in Kentucky alone, and it is one of the worst December tornadoes in recent memory. The roof of a nursing home was torn off by the storms. The tornado that caused the damage in four states flew debris up to 30,000 feet in the air. The light of day will reveal more.
Chris Jackson, a storm chaser who tracked the storms from Arkansas to Kentucky, told the Washington Post that everything around them was destroyed. I have been chasing storms for seven years and this is the worst tornado I have ever seen.
Catastrophic Damage is from Arkansas to Illinois.
The first responders in the states hit by tornadoes have been busy. At least one person has died at the nursing home in Monette, Arkansas, where search and rescue operations are ongoing.
Bob Blankenship, the mayor of Monette, told CNN that it was a lot of devastation.
Police, firefighters, and EMTs have fanned out across the region. A candle factory is a major search and rescue site. The factory caved in, trapping over 100 people, and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear estimated it would be a mass casualty site. Michael Gordon, who is on the scene, told CNN that it looked like a war zone. The town is almost completely destroyed in the daybreak video and photos. The firefighters in Mayfield had to dig their way out of their firehouse.
Beshear said at the news conference that he would be surprised if there weren't at least five counties with deaths. He estimated that there could be more than 100 dead, making this Kentucky's deadliest tornado.
Monette is without power, according to Blankenship. More than 300,000 households in states hit by the tornadoes and another 100,000 in other parts of the Midwest are also affected.
A record-setting tornado caused a lot of the damage.
There were multiple tornadoes that touched down on Friday night. The tornado that caused most of the damage could be a record-setting tornado.
The tornado ripped through a stretch that included both Monette to Mayfield. National Weather Service investigators will look to see if it stayed on the ground the whole time. It would be the longest tornado track ever recorded.
Beshear said this was the most severe tornado event in Kentucky history. The NWS investigators will do a formal analysis to officially rate the tornadoes, but radar data captured on Friday night shows that the storm could have been an Enhanced Fujita Scale tornado. That would make it a tornado with winds between 166 and 200 mph. There have only been three December tornadoes.
The weather set the stage for the tornado outbreak.
Tornadoes need atmospheric instability to form. Cold fronts from the West and warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico are what usually bring storms to the U.S. That gives both the energy needed for violent winds to whip up and the wind shear to cause storms to twist when the front heads east. The winter season is usually quieter because the air over the Gulf isn't warm enough to provide the fuel for tornadoes.
The Gulf has maintained warmth and sent it up to the east as a cold front brought snow to Colorado. The temperature in Memphis was 27 degrees Celsius and in Minneapolis was minus-1 degree Celsius. The storms were caused by clashing mass of air.
The climate conditions are behind the weather.
Climate factors are likely to play a part. La Nia formed this fall. The natural climate pattern in the tropical Pacific can change weather around the world, including increasing the odds of winter twisters in the exact region that saw an outbreak Friday night.
Climate change is having an effect on tornadoes, though it is difficult to say if it is having an effect on the number of twisters. It is an active area of research.
It is impossible to talk about it without mentioning the influence of burning fossil fuels. freak heat has become more common because of the rise in the global average temperature. It is impossible to talk about abnormal warmth without mentioning climate change. The warm air currently flooding the South will push north and bring spring-like conditions to the Northeast next week.
The story will be updated.
