Wicked Winds Send BIllboard Flying Into Traffic

A severe weather outbreak spawned tornadoes, damaging hail and winds over the Plains, Midwest and South over six days in late April.

From April 23-28, the National Weather Service received over 1,200 reports of severe thunderstorms from Texas to Minnesota to the Ohio Valley and the Deep South. That included over 500 reports of thunderstorm winds and wind damage, another over 500 reports of large hail, and over 80 reports of tornadoes.

Tornadoes

Among the tornadoes spawned in the outbreak, the strongest was an EF4 that tracked just south and east of Enid, Oklahoma, on the evening of April 23.

The tornado shredded homes and businesses in neighborhoods and damaged parts of Vance Air Force Base. Ten were injured.

The NWS estimated peak winds in the tornado were 170 mph, the first EF4 tornado of 2026 and the first in Garfield County, Oklahoma, since the April 26, 1991 outbreak.

It prompted only the ninth tornado emergency issued by the NWS-Norman office in their history of doing so.

About four hours later, an EF1 tornado struck parts of Joplin, Missouri, just after midnight, damaging a few homes and downing numerous trees.

On Saturday night, April 25, an EF2 tornado tore through parts of Runaway Bay, Texas, northwest of Fort Worth. One person was killed when their double-wide manufactured home was destroyed from the tornado with estimated peak winds of 130 mph.

On Sunday evening, April 26, a pair of tornadoes tore through parts of Montgomery County, Kansas. One of those, rated EF2, injured one in one of two heavily damaged homes near Sycamore.

Finally, on Tuesday, April 28, an EF3 tornado tore through the east side of Mineral Wells, Texas, heavily damaging some homes and businesses. That was one of at least five tornadoes in north Texas that evening, including a pair of tornadoes in Johnson County, south of Fort Worth.

In southwestern Oklahoma, an EF2 tornado heavily damaged homes and bent electrical transmission towers near Caney, Oklahoma.

Other Severe Weather

There were several dozen reports of hail of at least tennis-ball size or larger during the outbreak.

On April 25, baseball-sized hail damaged roofs and vehicles in Welsh, Arkansas. Hail the size of grapefruit (4.5 inches diameter) was recovered in Alpine, Arkansas. Just after midnight, hail the size of baseballs smashed vehicle windshields around Dallas Baptist University.

Then on April 28, a severe thunderstorm around lunch time pelted Springfield, Missouri, with hail up to the size of tennis balls. While Dallas-Ft. Worth was luckier that evening, as an eastern supercell in a line weakened over the metro, the western supercells dumped hail up to the size of grapefruit in Johnson County near Godley.

Among the hundreds of reports of thunderstorm winds and wind damage included:

- A roof was partially peeled back at the police jury building in Rayville, Louisiana, on April 26.

- A roof was damaged at a school in Steele, Missouri, on April 27.

- Wind gusts up to 77 mph downed trees and knocked out power in Milwaukee, and into parts of Lower Michigan on April 27.

- A carport was blown across a road in Lake Village, Arkansas, on April 28.

Flash flooding swamped the Kansas City metro area on the morning of April 27, with numerous water rescues reported.

(UPDATES AS IT HAPPENED: April 26 | April 27)

Jennifer Gray is a weather and climate writer for weather.com. She has been covering some of the world's biggest weather and climate stories for the last two decades.