A tornado watch has been issued for three states as the US’ winter storms rage on (Image: WXCHARTS / GETTY)
Tornado warnings have been issued across southern America as more freak weather leaves the public locked down at home. Heavy snowfall and flooding has caused chaos over the festive period and now another deadly weather phenomenon threatens disaster.
One of the tornado watches was issued for eastern Oklahoma, southeast Kansas and northwest Arkansas until 10pm CT, according to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center.
The centre also issued an enhanced risk warning for severe thunderstorms for East Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia through Tuesday morning.
A third watch is also in effect for southeastern Arkansas, northeastern Louisiana and western Mississippi until 3am CT on Wednesday.
AccuWeather said a dip in the jet stream will bring strong upper-level winds into the southern US.
Combined with moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and substantially above-average temperatures, severe weather is likely.
The National Weather Service has issued its first tornado watch of 2023 as storms hit (Image: TWITTER)
Eastern Oklahoma, southeast Kansas and northwest Arkansas have a watch until 10pm (Image: NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE)
“The extent of the tornado threat will depend on whether storms can remain separated, which would allow for a few intense, large tornadoes to form,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Haley Taylor said.
“If this does not occur, and storms form into a line, damaging winds would become the primary hazard.”
The main threats from the storms on Tuesday will be powerful wind gusts and flash flooding.
However, he noted that a few of the strongest thunderstorms can produce tornadoes.
On Tuesday, Accuweather’s Andrew Johnson-Levine suggested the risk of severe thunderstorms will be greatest in, but not limited to, the area from southeastern Louisiana through much of central and southern Mississippi to central Alabama.
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AccuWeather said a dip in the jet stream will bring strong upper-level winds into the south (Image: NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE)
Three tornadoes were already reported on Monday, including one near Jessieville, Arkansas, causing damage to at least 14 homes, multiple commercial buildings and several buildings, including a local high school.
The storms began to form from a pressure system which brought flash floods in California, leaving two dead.
About seven million people are now under flood alerts across the Mississippi River Valley as the California storm continues to head east.
Flood watches spread from the Texas-Louisiana border north along the Mississippi River Valley into southern Indiana and Illinois.
Widespread radar estimated totals across the area range from one to three inches, but isolated areas where storms have trained over the same location have seen estimated totals as high as five inches.
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Three tornadoes were already reported on Monday, including one near Jessieville, Arkansas (Image: WXCHARTS)
Anyone in areas at risk of tornadoes should seek safe shelter immediately, said Brad Bryant, meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service office in Shreveport, Louisiana.
“If you wait around for a warning to be issued, it is too late,” Bryant said Monday.
“You need to have a safe shelter plan in place in advance of these storms.”
He urged anyone needing help – especially those living in mobile homes – to contact law enforcement for sheltering options, adding: “Since mid-November we’ve had three rounds of severe weather and we have had fatalities, most of which have occurred in mobile homes.”
The Weather Channel said ‘this storm system is expected to weaken some by Wednesday’ (Image: WXCHARTS)
The Weather Channel’s forecast noted tornadoes and damaging thunderstorm winds are possible, along with hail, in areas from Montgomery and Mobile in Alabama over to the side of Lafayette in Louisiana.
They added: “This storm system is expected to weaken some by Wednesday.
“However, there could be a lingering threat of a few severe storms from parts of the Carolinas into middle and south Georgia and northern Florida.
“Damaging wind gusts would be the primary threat then, but a couple of tornadoes are possible.”
