Severe Storms Could Impact Your Friday Night Plans

A storm system brought severe weather across the Central and southeastern US between January 8 and 10, snow across the Northern Tier and strong winds through the Midwest and East.

January Severe Weather Event

This storm began to ramp up on the morning of January 8, where the first storms produced wind gusts to 60 mph and penny size hail in the Oklahoma City metro area.

Then, a tornado was confirmed by Doppler radar near Purcell, Oklahoma, around 7:30 a.m. CT along a line of severe thunderstorms. One semi was blown over on Interstate 35 and some structures were damaged. The National Weather Service ended up confirming that the Purcell tornado was rated an EF2.

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The highest wind gust was a gust to 88 mph in Wynona, Oklahoma, which resulted in roof damage to one home and some shop buildings were also damaged. An 81 mph gust was also recorded near Independence, Kansas, with power lines, poles and several outbuildings downed.

After sending out survey crews, the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma, confirmed four tornadoes, three of which were EF1 and another which was EF0. They noted that there are still other areas of damage that they will continue to investigate.

In total, there were five tornadoes in Oklahoma as the National Weather Service office in Tulsa confirmed an EF1 in Osage County.

There were at least five tornado reports on January 9. This included one in Carson, Mississippi – which caused damage.

There was also an EF1 tornado confirmed in Walthall County, Mississippi and an EF0 tornado confirmed in Leak County, Mississippi.

While severe weather was lower on Saturday, there was one observed tornado southwest of Atlanta.

There was also an EF1 tornado in Coushatta, Louisiana, at 12:04 am on Saturday.

More than 10 high wind reports spread from Mississippi to Georgia on January 10.

(MAPS: Daily US Forecast Rain, Snow Areas)

Heavy Rain And Snow

Locally heavy rain hit the Deep South, where local flash flooding occurred. The map below shows the rainfall, with isolated areas seeing totals over 8 inches.

This storm also brought feet of snowfall to parts of the higher elevations of the Four Corners Region. This area desperately needed the snowfall as much of the West has had a warmer-than-average winter.

(MORE: What You Should Know About Severe Weather)

On Saturday, strong winds gusted over 40 mph throughout parts of the Plains, Midwest, and increasingly the East.

A notable wind gust of 55 mph occurred at Chicago O'Hare Airport early on January 9.

Some colder air was dragged behind the storm into the Midwest, South and East, but it wasn't bitterly cold.

(MAPS: 10-Day US Forecast Highs/Lows)

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.