ATLANTA — An intense storm system is poised to unleash powerful tornadoes and substantial hail, leading to a “high risk” designation of severe weather—a classification that is infrequently awarded by meteorologists. On Friday, sections of Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois experienced some of the most severe conditions, and it is anticipated that the storm system will extend to the southern states like Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama on Saturday.
The federal Storm Prediction Center has indicated that on Saturday afternoon and evening, they anticipate “numerous significant tornadoes, with some potentially being long-track and violent.”
The agency employs a five-tier warning system for severe weather, starting from marginal to high risk. These categories are depicted in a color-coded format on their forecast maps, with green marking the lowest risk and magenta representing the highest. Mississippi and Alabama are marked in magenta for Saturday, showcasing their vulnerability to extreme weather.
The “high risk” label signifies conditions likely to produce “numerous intense and long-tracked tornadoes,” or storms with hurricane-level wind gusts, leading to widespread destruction. Historical data suggests that whenever this designation has been used recently, the forecasts commonly align with actual events.
An example of a previous “high risk” situation occurred on May 6, 2024, when the Storm Prediction Center flagged areas in Kansas and Oklahoma as high-risk zones, highlighting the likelihood of “multiple significant tornadoes across potentially lengthy paths.” As forecasted, numerous tornadoes ravaged these regions, including a devastating twister in Barnsdall, Oklahoma, leaving homes completely destroyed and resulting in numerous rescues from collapsed structures.
Another incident transpired on March 31, 2023, when high-risk alerts were issued along the Mississippi River Valley. Not long after, a series of tornadoes caused a theater roof to cave in during a concert in Illinois, and severely damaged homes and commercial zones in Arkansas. The roof collapse at the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere, Illinois, resulted in one fatality and injuries to over two dozen individuals, with around 260 people inside during the incident.
