Tornadoes tear through south east of US
Liam Dutton
Weather Presenter
The south east of the US has been hit hard by severe thunderstorms and tornadoes during Sunday night and Monday morning, as an active cold front pushed eastwards.
Arkansas was first to suffer during Sunday night, with storms and tornadoes downing trees and power lines, as well as causing significant damage. Around 13,400 homes were left without power according to Entergy Arkansas, Inc.
The tornado hit close to Fordyce, around 70 miles south of the sate capital Little Rock. There were reports of five other tornadoes touching down in Arkansas, bringing softball-sized hailstones, as well as damaging winds.
By the early hours of Monday morning, the severe storms had pushed eastwards into Alabama. The Birmingham area was hit hard, with three people killed by the severe weather. Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency spokesman Mark Kelly said that the Center Point area had been hit pretty badly.
The severe weather was caused by an active cold front that spanned from an area of low pressure that lay across the Great Lakes, driven along by a fast-moving jet stream high up in the atmosphere.
This, along with cold, arctic air clashing with warm air from the Gulf of Mexico, provided the recipe for an explosive atmosphere.
While the current storms are set to weaken during the next 24 hours, there is a chance of further bad weather affecting the Gulf states at the end of the week – especially Texas and Louisiana.