Severe Thunderstorms Wreak Havoc Across Southern US

Severe storms pummeled the southern states overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, March 30 to March 31 after a tornado struck Arkansas and caused a path of destruction in some southern states.

In spite of the issuance of several tornado warnings and watches, some communities in the Deep South were caught off guard by the thunderstorms.

Isolated tornadoes and high winds damaged residential and commercial establishments.

The severe weather hazards affected homes and businesses, knocking out power lines and toppling trees in Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas.

Storm Front

On Thursday morning, around 185,000 customers were left without electricity in Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee, according to the poweroutage.us utility tracking site, as cited by ABC News.

The storm front, consisting of a line of severe storms, was strongest at its southern end on Thursday morning.

This is also the same storm system that has been forecasted to bring heavy rain and high winds to the US East Coast from Thursday evening.

The system was also responsible for multiple weather hazards in the Central US during the same time period.

Infrastructural Damage

The passage of thunderstorms mostly caused infrastructural damage, although there were no casualties reported in the Deep South.

Evidence of the destructive capabilities of the severe storms was seen in several areas.

In Tennessee, significant damaged occurred at a nursing home in Jackson and other areas as a tornado warning was in effect over recent days.

A downtown five-storey hotel in Nashville had its paneling collapsed into another building below it, as per ABC News.

In Mississippi, a warehouse roof in Southaven collapsed which prompted the evacuation of the building with no injuries reported.

The Mississippi Senate was also forced to suspend its work on Wednesday after weather sirens were heard. Some of the Senate employees reportedly took shelter in the Capitol basement.

In Arkansas, The New York Times stated a tornado damaged several buildings and caused electricity lines to fall, which led to the injury of at least seven people, including two to be in critical condition.

The storm also destroyed a gymnasium of an elementary school in Springdale. Local officials also confirmed a number of residents were displaced, as cited by The New York Times.

In December 2021, Arkansas was also a site of a tornado outbreak where an elderly man was killed and five other people were injured.

The devastation in the Deep South comes a week after a tornado killed a person in New Orleans, Louisiana, and struck parts of Oklahoma and Texas, causing widespread damage to infrastructure as well. Other tornadoes also spawned in the region due to a storm system, as per ABC7 New York.

What is a Thunderstorm?

According to the Severe Weather 101 report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL), a thunderstorm is a type of natural disaster and weather phenomenon involving a rain shower accompanied by the sound of thunder from lightning.

The US storm agency emphasized all thunderstorms have lightning.

Furthermore, a severe thunderstorm is still the same but the only difference is that it consists of the following: hail larger than one inch, gust winds stronger than 57.5 miles per hour (mph), and a tornado, says the NOAA - NSSL.

In the US, thunderstorms are different from hurricanes and they are often described as a weather disturbance or linked to a storm system.