Strong storms with damaging winds and hail pounded North Texas Tuesday morning as much of the U.S. recovered from severe weather, including tornadoes, that killed at least 23 people over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
Widespread power outages were reported in areas including Dallas and Fort Worth, where an oppressive, early heat wave added to the misery. Nearly 800,000 customers were without power Tuesday, including 390,000 in Dallas County. PowerOutage.us.
Destructive storms Deaths occurred over the weekend in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri and Kentucky.
Seven people were killed Cook County, Texas, A tornado tore through a mobile home park on Saturday, officials said, and eight deaths were reported across Arkansas.
Two people died in Mays County, Oklahoma, east of Tulsa, authorities said. Among the injured were guests at an outdoor wedding. A Missouri man died Sunday when a log fell on his tent while camping.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said at a news conference Monday that five people had died in his state.
A tornado damaged a high school and half a dozen homes in Pennsylvania on Monday night. There were no injuries, but school was canceled in Mahanoy, Pennsylvania, said David Truskowski, a spokesman for the city’s fire department.
About 160,000 homes and businesses were without power in Kentucky Tuesday following weekend storms. Arkansas, West Virginia and Missouri.
It has been a severe month of cyclones and severe weather in the central part of the country.
A tornado hit Iowa last week At least five people died And dozens were injured. Storms Eight people were killed in Houston This month. It was April The second highest number of hurricanes reported in the country. As the storms come Climate change generally contributes to the intensity of storms around the world.
Late May is the peak of hurricane season, but recent storms have been exceptionally violent, producing very strong tornadoes, said Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gencini.
“Over the weekend, we have a lot of warm and humid air, a lot of gasoline, a lot of fuel for these storms. We have a very strong jet stream. That jet stream helps in shearing the air that these types of hurricanes need,” Gencini said.
Harold Brooks, a senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma, attributed the string of hurricanes over the past two months to a persistent pattern of warm, moist air.
That air is at the northern edge of the heat dome, which typically brings temperatures seen in late May at the height of summer.
The heat index — a combination of air temperature and humidity that indicates how hot it feels to the human body — approached triple digits in parts of South Texas on Monday. San Antonio and Dallas are also forecast to be hotter.
Pierce set new daily records Monday in Florida, Melbourne and Ft. Both hit 98 degrees (36.7 Celsius). Miami hit a record high of 96 (35.5 Celsius) on Sunday.
For more information on the latest tornado reports, see The Associated Press Tornado Tracker.
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Associated Press journalists from around the country contributed to this report, including Jennifer McDermott, Sarah Brumfield, Kathy McCormack, Acacia Coronado, Jeffrey Collins, Bruce Schreiner and Julio Cortes.