A massive weather system swept across the midwest Friday, forcing forecasters to issue severe thunderstorm warnings stretching from northwestern Oklahoma through western Missouri as tornadoes continued battering the region and destroying homes.
The National Weather Service cautioned residents that the storms could produce hail the size of baseballs, with individual stones capable of reaching speeds up to 107 mph as they plummet earthward. Officials urged people in affected areas to remain indoors and away from windows during the heaviest weather.
Roughly 26 million people across a corridor from Wisconsin to Oklahoma found themselves under tornado watches Friday. The threat level reached rare intensity in parts of Illinois and Wisconsin, where forecasters assigned a "particularly dangerous situation" designation to individual tornado cells.
Social media quickly filled with damage reports and videos from impacted communities. In Stewartville, Minnesota, residents documented homes with blown-out windows and crushed garage doors. The Buffalo County Sheriff's Office in Wisconsin shared photographs of roofs torn away and debris scattered across yards.
The severe weather capped days of relentless storm activity that had already hammered the midwest with tornadoes, hail and flooding. Milwaukee experienced flash flooding that swallowed portions of a freeway, leaving drivers stranded as authorities closed roadways. Waukesha, Wisconsin, recorded a fatality when a man was struck by lightning during thunderstorms earlier in the week.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers declared a state of emergency Wednesday, mobilizing law enforcement, fire departments, state agencies and emergency response teams across the state to manage the cascading weather disasters.
Author James Rodriguez: "The midwest faces a relentless battering from nature right now, and this Friday system could rival anything the region has endured all week."
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