Powerful tornadoes lash US states
Oklahoma and Kansas battered as weather service issues warning over "complete destruction" of homes and businesses.
Last Modified: 20 May 2013 09:36
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Tornadoes have lashed the US states of Oklahoma and Kansas, leaving one person dead, in what experts say is a weather system moving through the central region, stretching from north Texas to Minnesota.
Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Nebraska are all in the path of the storm system, which could produce up to 80 mile per hour winds, baseball-sized hail and violent tornadoes in some areas.
Tornadoes are most likely to develop late in the day or in the first half of the night because they develop from thunderstorms and this is their most popular time of day as well.
Thunderstorms require a lot of energy to get going. They need the heat of the day to provide this energy, but at the same time the top of the cloud must drop to around minus 40C before lightning develops.
This means that it’s often late in the day, or in the first half of the night that thunderstorms to reach their peak, and therefore tornadoes as well.
Obviously tornadoes that strike during the night have that added problem that you often cannot see them coming, or may be asleep so don’t hear the warnings. This is when they are at their most dangerous.
- Steff Gaulter, Al Jazeera's meteorologist
In Shawnee, Oklahoma, a tornado reduced portions of a mobile home park to rubble, killing a 79-year-old man whose body was found out in the open.
As a 0.8km-wide tornado headed for Pink, a town on the edge of Oklahoma City, the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Norman, Oklahoma issued an alert on Twitter which read: "Large tornado west of Pink! Take cover RIGHT NOW in Pink! DO NOT WAIT!"
A general warning from the NWS said: "You could be killed if not underground or in a tornado shelter. Complete destruction of neighbourhoods, businesses and vehicles will occur. Flying debris will be deadly to people and animals."
In northeast Oklahoma, the Lincoln County sheriff's office reported three tornado touchdowns in the region, NBC News said early Sunday evening.
There were no immediate reports of injuries caused by any of the tornadoes.
"Trees blown over, fences gone - it just happened in the bat of an eye," said Paul Duncan, who huddled with his wife and son in their Edmond home's central bathroom as the tornado hit.
"We got in there and as we were going you could hear the whistle of the air, the draft as it was leaving the house. It was full of pressure. And then the lights go out and you hear a big 'thump'," he said. "It was pretty exciting."
For days, forecasters had been warning about the possibility of tornadoes from a weekend storm.
Emergency responders as far north as Minnesota, and as far south as Texas, were also keeping a close eye on the powerful system pushing eastward and northward through the nation's breadbasket.
