Storm Systems to Impact the Central and Eastern U.S. Through the Weekend

Two storm systems will track through the central and eastern U.S. today through this weekend with areas of gusty winds, rain and heavy snow. Severe thunderstorms and heavy to excessive rainfall is forecast today from the Lower Mississippi River Valley to the Tennessee Valley. Damaging winds, a few tornadoes, and areas of flooding are possible. Read More >

May 28th Ottawa County Tornado

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A tornado touched down around 545 pm CDT in southern Ottawa county and proceeded to become very large as it move slowly southeastward to a point just west of highway 81. The tornado then turned north and eventually moved back to the southwest toward the intersection of county road 106 and highway 18. The tornado was on the ground for around one hour and at times was between one quarter and one half mile wide. No serious injuries or fatalities occurred however over 100 head of cattle were lost. Damage to structures within the path yielded EF3 damage however supplemental data provided by mobile doppler radar sampled winds suggest that this could have been a violent tornado. As a result, the preliminary rating for this is a EF3 tornado however we will note that supplemental radar wind data suggest that it could have been stronger. This path is re-constructed off of radar, reports and known damage where evident and is not meant to be precise.