04-14-2012, 04:18 PM
Tornado, Severe Storm Warnings in Effect for Portions of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa
As many as 19 tornadoes have reportedly touched down; forecasters warn residents across the nation's midsection to brace for 'life threatening' storms late into the night.
![[Image: lg.02.jpg]](http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2012/images/04/13/stormchaser/lg.02.jpg)
sat. 4/14/12
OKLAHOMA CITY – The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for sections of north central Kansas Saturday afternoon after earlier reports of ripe conditions for storms across the heart of the country.
The counties included in the warning are western Jewell County, Mitchell Couonty, Osborne County and Smith County, all in north central Kansas, according to the National Weather Service. The warning will last until 12:45 CDT.
Earlier, for only the second time in U.S. history, the Storm Prediction Center issued a high-risk warning more than 24 hours in advance, said Russ Schneider, director of the center, which is part of the National Weather Service. The first time was in April 2006, when nearly 100 tornadoes tore across the southeastern U.S., killing a dozen people and damaging more than 1,000 homes.
Storms were already kicking off in Oklahoma, where a twister whizzed by the nation's tornado forecasting headquarters but caused little damage.
The strongly worded message came after the National Weather Service announced last month that it would start using terms like "mass devastation," `'unsurvivable" and "catastrophic" in warnings in an effort to get more people to pay attention. It said it would test the new warnings in Kansas and Missouri before deciding whether to expand them to other parts of the country.
The worst weather is expected to develop late Saturday afternoon in Oklahoma and Kansas, but other areas also could see severe storms, forecasters said.
As many as 19 tornadoes have reportedly touched down; forecasters warn residents across the nation's midsection to brace for 'life threatening' storms late into the night.
sat. 4/14/12
OKLAHOMA CITY – The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for sections of north central Kansas Saturday afternoon after earlier reports of ripe conditions for storms across the heart of the country.
The counties included in the warning are western Jewell County, Mitchell Couonty, Osborne County and Smith County, all in north central Kansas, according to the National Weather Service. The warning will last until 12:45 CDT.
Earlier, for only the second time in U.S. history, the Storm Prediction Center issued a high-risk warning more than 24 hours in advance, said Russ Schneider, director of the center, which is part of the National Weather Service. The first time was in April 2006, when nearly 100 tornadoes tore across the southeastern U.S., killing a dozen people and damaging more than 1,000 homes.
Storms were already kicking off in Oklahoma, where a twister whizzed by the nation's tornado forecasting headquarters but caused little damage.
The strongly worded message came after the National Weather Service announced last month that it would start using terms like "mass devastation," `'unsurvivable" and "catastrophic" in warnings in an effort to get more people to pay attention. It said it would test the new warnings in Kansas and Missouri before deciding whether to expand them to other parts of the country.
The worst weather is expected to develop late Saturday afternoon in Oklahoma and Kansas, but other areas also could see severe storms, forecasters said.