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Thunderstorms bring severe weather and tornadoes to the southern Plains and central US, while the West is under winter weather warnings, advisories, and freeze warnings. Expect similar weather for both regions through midweek. In Hawaii, a pair of major earthquakes caused havoc.
Parts of the central US and southern Plains experienced severe weather late Sunday into Monday affecting Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and Missouri. The National Weather Service (NWS) is forecasting storms to move into portions of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan later on Monday into Tuesday.
Similar weather is forecast for Tuesday, with another round of severe storms potentially affecting Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and the Western regions of Missouri and Iowa.
Multiple reports of tornado damage were reported in Oklahoma and survey crews with the NWS will head out early Monday to assess how many tornadoes struck, NBC reported.
Baseball-sized hail dented cars and shattered windows in Norman Oklahoma.
Mixed precipitation was forecast over most of the West Sunday night into Monday, with at least six states receiving snowfall and heavy snow forecast over portions of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming on Monday. Similar conditions on Tuesday with snowfall moving as far south as central Arizona. The wintry conditions in the West will continue until at least midweek.
The National Weather Service issued the following advisories for Monday:
Winter storm warning: central and southern Montana; southeastern Idaho; northern, western, central, and south-central Wyoming.
Winter weather advisory: central, southeastern and western Montana; southeastern Idaho; western and southeastern Wyoming; western Nebraska; eastern Utah; western Colorado; northern and northeastern Nevada; northern Arizona.
Hard freeze warning: south-central Colorado; north-central New Mexico.
Freeze warning: southeastern Washington; northeastern Oregon; western Nevada; central Arizona; northeastern California; northern and central New Mexico.
Hawaii was struck by two significant earthquakes on Sunday. The first had a magnitude of 6.1, striking the island around noon. The quake occurred roughly 17 miles south of the southern tip of the big island, the US geological survey (USGS) said, USA Today reported.
A second, more powerful earthquake, struck approximately twenty minutes later in the same region, this time with a magnitude of 6.2, the USGS reported. As classified by the USGS, an earthquake must have a magnitude of 6.3 or higher to be officially designated as “strong.”
No injuries were reported, only minor damage. The earthquake follows the eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano, one of the most active on Earth, last month.
