More dangerous weather, spawning baseball-sized hail and tornadoes, was predicted for Oklahoma and parts of the Ozarks on Friday after more than a dozen reported twisters in Oklahoma and Arkansas on Thursday, U.S. forecasters said.
“The atmosphere will become extremely unstable this afternoon, especially in Oklahoma, while winds in the atmosphere will be favorable for organized severe storms, including a few supercell thunderstorms,” the National Weather Service said in an advisory.
Large, long-lasting thunderstorms known as supercells are responsible for producing the strongest tornadoes, along with large hail and other dangerous winds.
“Very large hail to the size of baseballs or larger can be expected with the most intense storms late this afternoon and evening,” the Weather Service advisory said.
Oklahoma City; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Springfield, Missouri may all be buffeted by Friday’s severe weather and possible tornado touchdowns, said Rich Thompson, a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
The danger zone also included Joplin, Missouri, he added. Joplin was hit by a monster tornado, one of the most catastrophic in U.S. history, that killed 161 people and destroyed about 7,500 homes two years ago.
On Friday, “the focus is going to be from southwest Missouri back into, along and just north, of the I-44 corridor in Missouri and Oklahoma,” Thompson said, referring to the interstate highway that cuts through much of what is often referred to as “Tornado Alley.”
He said at least five people were injured when as many as 15 tornadoes swirled over Arkansas and Oklahoma on Thursday. The twisters sent residents, including people in one Tulsa suburb, scrambling for cover 10 days after a deadly EF-5 tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, and killed 24 people.
The May 20 tornado that hit Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City, damaged or destroyed about 13,000 homes.
