A gathering tornado outbreak in Texas and Oklahoma is sowing chaos across Texas and Oklahoma, wrecking homes and shutting down highways and airports.
The US National Weather Service (NWS) warned on Monday evening that a severe storm system over the two southern states had already spawned several tornadoes and had the potential to create more.
Twisters have already touched down in the Texan towns of Jacksboro, Luling, and Round Rock, as well as Kingston in Oklahoma, damaging multiple homes and buildings, including a school and an animal shelter.
About 350 flights at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, roughly one-fifth of all flights both inbound and outbound, were reportedly cancelled on Monday, while state officials in Texas closed multiple highways due to debris.
Videos shot by citizens, news reporters, and storm chasers showed tornadoes touching down throughout Texas and leaving a trail of destruction through car parks, fields, mobile homes, and houses.
“Several tornadoes, including the potential for a few strong tornadoes, along with very large hail and damaging winds, are expected this evening through tonight, especially across parts of central and east Texas into western Louisiana,” said the NWS on Monday evening.
It said the tornado risk would continue until at least Wednesday, with the area of storm danger moving up the Gulf of Mexico coast through Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South and North Carolina.
The weather forecasting company AccuWeather said there was a high likelihood of severe storms, and potential for “strong and long-lived tornadoes”, calling it “perhaps one of the most volatile [storm] events so far in 2022”.
AccuWeather’s chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter said: “We are watching a potentially dangerous severe weather situation early this week that could cause widespread flooding, large hail, the threat of tornadoes, high winds and power outages.
“This is a volatile weather pattern, and we’ve seen these types of storm systems previously produce damaging, dangerous and highly impactful severe weather and flooding.”
The firm added that tornadoes would be masked by thick rain, thunderstorms, and night-time darkness, meaning residents may struggle to spot them in time to get to safety.
One tornado moved into the town of Madisonville, Texas, around 9.40pm Texas time, felling trees and causing damage, according to storm chasers live streaming to YouTube.
“It just planted on top of us. It just planted all on top of us,” said one storm chaser outside Madisonville, Texas, broadcasting live to YouTube weather analyst Ryan Hall just before the tornado entered town.
“Holy smoke. We got debris, we got pieces of the trees hitting us as it came across the road. The power lines exploded right above our head.”
Another storm chaser responded: “We got to get these people warned. This is ridiculous. No sirens.”
Mr Hall said the tornado was “riding” US highway 190 right into downtown Madisonville.
