Important Takeaways:

• A deadly tornado outbreak spawned more than 20 reports of twisters across the lower and mid-Mississippi Valley on Wednesday and Wednesday night.
• At least two people have died in Tennessee due to the severe weather, the state’s Department of Health confirmed early Thursday. The storms also injured multiple others and destroyed several homes from Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee through Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana.
• A massive tornado was spotted by FOX Weather Storm Tracker Brandon Copic as it roared near Lake City, Arkansas. Authorities issued a Tornado Emergency – the most dire of tornado alerts – for towns in the path of the storm, such as Leachville and Monette.
• “You need to be underground,” Copic said. “You will not survive this tornado if you are above ground.”
• NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center labeled Wednesday’s event as a “Particularly Dangerous Situation,” with the threat level reaching a Level 5 out of 5 “high risk” on its severe thunderstorm risk scale.
• The high-risk designation marks only the second time this year and the first instance of two such high-risk alerts in a single year since 2021 that a Level 5 threat has been issued. The previous Level 5 alert was issued on March 15 when the National Weather Service confirmed 13 tornadoes, including six powerful EF-3s, which tragically resulted in seven deaths and 12 injuries.
• More severe weather is forecast through the end of the week and into the weekend, as well.
• The deadly severe weather system continues to charge east Thursday and is expected to tear across more than a dozen states, from parts of Texas to the densely populated mid-Atlantic and Northeast, placing over 55 million Americans directly in the path of its destructive forces.
• The numerous rounds of rain and storms will also lead to potentially generational flooding in the Mississippi and Ohio valleys.

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