Convective storms continue to batter US midwest

Another string of tornadoes pummelled the US Midwest on May 24, 2011, leaving a swath of damage that crossed three states and killed more than a dozen people.
Several tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma City and its suburbs, during evening rush hour, killing at least eight people and injuring at least 70 others, reported the Springfield News-Sun. The storms also killed two people in Kansas, four in Arkansas and possibly one in Texas, the paper added.
The storm system comes on the heels of the May 23, 2011 Joplin, Missouri tornado that was the US’s most deadly storm in 50 years, with a death toll surpassing 120.
The National Weather Service expanded its high risk area for severe thunderstorms to include parts of northeastern Arkansas, western Tennessee, southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois, western and central Kentucky and southern Indiana.
“The storms will be capable of producing very large hail, damaging straight-line winds, frequent cloud-to-ground lightening and torrential rainfall,” the National Weather Service bulletin says.
“Severe thunderstorms and large, damaging tornadoes this afternoon and evening could affect significant population including St. Louis, Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, Cincinnati and Indianopolis.”