More than 50 homes were damaged or destroyed when the tornado struck around 7:10 pm, according to the Daily Oklahoman. Image credit: © 2017 Matt Crowther, used with permission.Ī subdivision on the south side of Elk City, Oklahoma, experienced significant tornado damage on Tuesday. Looking west-southwest at an intense supercell thunderstorm near the TX/OK border east of Wellington, TX, about an hour before it produced a deadly tornado in Elk City, OK, on Tuesday evening, May 16, 2017. According to SPC data, 18 of the 32 tornado deaths for 2017 thus far (prior to Tuesday) were associated with mobile homes.įigure 2. Over the past few years, roughly 45% of all tornado deaths have occurred in mobile homes, although only about of 6% of all Americans live in them. Manufactured homes are notoriously unsafe in even weak tornadoes. Another warning was issued at 5:05 pm for southeastern Barron County, including the Chetek area. The first tornado warning for southwest Barron County was issued at 4:39 pm CDT. The supercell thunderstorm that produced the Chetek tornado, and dropped giant hailstones along the way, was clearly tracked through radar and visual reports. At least half of the 50 homes on the park were destroyed, according to reports in the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram. The twister ravaged the Prairie Lake Estates mobile home park, located about 3 miles north of the lakeside community of Chetek and about 60 miles east-northeast of Minneapolis. One person was killed and at least 25 others injured when a tornado struck a mobile home park in Barron County of northwest Wisconsin around 5:30 pm CDT Tuesday. Image credit: Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via AP. A tornado flattened large parts of a trailer park and nearby trees in a mobile home park Tuesday, May 16, 2017, just north of Chetek, Wis., during powerful spring storms that battered an area from the South Plains of Texas to the Great Lakes. At one point Tuesday night, severe thunderstorm watches extended from the Texas-Mexico border to the Great Lakes.įigure 1. Baseball-sized hail was reported in northwest Wisconsin, southwest Kansas, and the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles, with a report of softball-sized hail from western Oklahoma. throughout this week, with an especially worrisome set-up for strong tornadoes lining up for Thursday (see below).Īs of midday Wednesday, the NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center had received 28 preliminary tornado reports from Tuesday, along with 92 reports of severe wind gusts and 108 reports of severe hail.

Severe weather will continue to rake the central U.S.

Storm surveys were under way on Wednesday after tornadoes killed at least two people and injured dozens on Tuesday in Wisconsin and Oklahoma.

Above: Giant hail fell on Sayre, OK, from a supercell thunderstorm that went on to produce a deadly tornado in Elk City, about 110 miles west of Oklahoma City.

Us tornadoes 2017