Tornadoes, Damaging Wind Gusts Blast Plains Before Severe Weather Shifts East for Easter Weekend
On Thursday night, several storm chasers, including FOX Weather Storm Tracker Brandon Copic, recorded a tornado building rolling across the Missouri Valley, Iowa, fields. In what was predicted to be a severe weather-filled weekend, the first set of severe storms moved over the Plains on Thursday.
According to NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center, Omaha, Nebraska, was in the center of a Level 3 out of 5 risk zone with more than 1 million people. Although the worst storms did not reach the city proper, tornadoes were still observed in neighboring Iowa, and warning sirens continued to sound on the city’s north side.
A video of a tornado building rolling across Missouri Valley, Iowa, fields was taken on Thursday night by several storm chasers, including FOX Weather Storm Tracker Brandon Copic. Baseball-sized hail and gusts above 80 mph created what looked like a dust storm or perhaps a gustnado in the eastern part of Nebraska, near Schuyler.
Corey Gerken and Brandon Copic, FOX Weather Exclusive Storm Trackers, recorded the scenes when the area was under multiple alerts. The dust was so dense that it made travel dangerous and decreased visibility outside Omaha. Despite the sights, no extensive damage was recorded, and the number of consumers experiencing power outages was often less than a few thousand.
Radar data showed that the storms could damage ice and looked like large hailers with considerable quantities of vertically integrated liquid. After sunset, a massive twister was observed near Tabor, Iowa, indicating that the threat of tornadoes persisted well into the night.
The National Weather Service office even considered the occurrence a “hazardous situation.” Videos and Doppler radar showed that a powerful tornado had swept through Fremont County. The twister was moving toward the town of Essex, Iowa, according to the NWS, which raised the warning to a rare tornado emergency.
Although the supercell affected villages for dozens of miles, local officials and storm chasers could not assess the damage’s immediate extent due to the darkness. The tornado was reported as having a cone-to-wedge form by storm spotters, but they could only observe the vortex while lightning was shining in the sky. Power poles were damaged, and some roads were covered in debris, leaving hundreds of customers without power in the Essex area.
On Thursday night, first responders were observed congregating in anticipation of launching a search and rescue operation for any possible casualties buried beneath the rubble.
