More severe weather to follow deadly tornadoes in Plains
Pastor Dale Morgan
More severe weather to follow deadly tornadoes in Plains*
By Patrick O'Driscoll, USA TODAY
DENVER — More violent thunderstorms and potential flooding are forecast
today from a slow, deadly storm that slammed the Plains with dozens of
tornadoes, a blizzard in Wyoming and a half-foot of snow in Colorado's
capital.
"We're expecting another round of severe weather," said Dan McCarthy,
warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service's
Storm Prediction Center. "People really need to brush up on their safety
procedures."
65 tornadoes spotted in 5 states
Rain in the Plains makes rivers run red
McCarthy said 2007 has been a busy tornado year already, with 300
reported, about 50% more than average by late March. Fatalities also are
high: at least 48 so far this year, compared with 66 in all of 2006.
The weather center, in Norman, Okla., this week recorded at least 68
tornado sightings and 162 reports of large hail, some as big as
baseballs. Violent storms moved slowly across Texas and Oklahoma on
Thursday. Oklahoma City TV station KWTV aired live footage of a funnel
cloud apparently touching down.
"This storm ... is not going to move very quickly," said Tom Moore, a
meteorologist for The Weather Channel. "It's going to lose some of its
oomph Friday but there will be a lot of rain" and possible flooding from
the Red River in Minnesota and North Dakota to the Rio Grande in Texas.
This week's tornadoes were not a record for March. On March 12 last
year, at least 110 twisters were sighted, nearly twice the previous
single-day record. Tornadoes can strike in any month, but they are most
common in April, May and June. "We're really just ramping up now,"
McCarthy said.
At least four people were killed when tornadoes ripped through six
states Wednesday night. Three died in two huge twisters that struck a
southeastern Colorado town and a rural part of the Oklahoma Panhandle.
The fourth fatality was a man found in a tractor-trailer wreck in a
Texas Panhandle oil field.
The blizzard dumped up to 5 feet of snow in parts of Wyoming, still
suffering a multiyear drought. It caused at least 175 traffic accidents
as hundreds of miles of Wyoming's three interstate highways were shut
down. Heavy snow also hit parts of Colorado, Utah, Montana and the Dakotas.
In tiny Holly, Colo., near the Kansas border, Rosemary Rosales, 28, died
after a 600-foot-wide tornado blew her home into a tree. Her husband,
Gustavo Puga, and their daughter, Noelia, 3, were thrown into another
tree and survived. Nine others were injured.