Powerful storms prompt tornado watches across the central U.S.

More than 125 million people across a large portion of the United States were facing a threat of severe weather that could include heavy rain, tornadoes, strong wind and hail Tuesday afternoon and evening.

By late afternoon, the first tornado watches were in place, and meteorologists were beginning to investigate reports of tornadoes. There were no immediate reports of damage.

One watch covered much of central Oklahoma and parts of Kansas and Texas.

The other included most of Iowa, southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, falling just short of downtown Chicago. That corridor from Des Moines, Iowa, to Milwaukee was where forecasters were most worried about the potential for significant tornadoes later in the evening.

Tuesday’s severe weather was part of a multiday breakout of storms that forecasters expected to last through the weekend.

On Monday night, tornadoes were reported across Kansas, Minnesota and Iowa. One hit the city of Ottawa, Kansas, shortly before 8 p.m. , Adam Weingarten, the police chief, said in an interview with local television station KSHB. The tornado damaged several businesses and homes, he said. On Tuesday, local authorities were still surveying the damage but said no one had been killed.

In Miami County, Kansas, a rural area of 35,000 residents about 30 minutes south of the Kansas City metro area, a tornado touched down for several miles, damaging 100 buildings.

“Somewhere around 50 or 60 are either completely destroyed, or have been found not able to be habitable,” Matthew P. Kelly, an undersheriff, said in a phone interview. He said that there had been one confirmed injury.

The cleanup won’t start until Wednesday, he said, because of the additional storms expected Tuesday night. Kelly said that the county had set up a shelter, staffed by the American Red Cross, and that it was working with electric company Evergy to get power restored by Tuesday night.

The severe weather is being fueled by a steady supply of warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, that is combining with a daily parade of weather systems moving across the country. It is typical for this time of year, said Jared Guyer, a meteorologist at the Storm Prediction Center.

But predicting where, exactly, a typical springtime storm will turn into something more dangerous – by producing a tornado or a torrent of rain that turns into a flash flood – can be difficult.

Tuesday’s forecast includes tornadoes and ‘giant’ hail

On Tuesday, forecasters at the Storm Prediction Center said the most significant risk fell in a bull’s-eye-shaped area of the Upper Midwest, and included the cities of Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Des Moines, Iowa. A separate area is centered over Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma, including Oklahoma City and Wichita, Kansas. Forecasters were also closely watching a part of the Northeast that includes parts of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Numerous thunderstorms were possible across the Midwest. Forecasters said there was a medium probability that the worst storms would likely occur in a corridor between Des Moines and Milwaukee.

If a tornado does form Tuesday, forecasters are most concerned that it could be the strongest in that same corridor north of Chicago, which includes some heavily populated suburbs.

It was not just tornadoes. There was a risk of “giant hail,” forecasters said Tuesday afternoon, both in the Midwest but also in the Southern Plains, including Oklahoma City. That’s about the size of a softball.

But there was some chance of storms across a huge area of the country from southwest Texas up to the Great Lakes and east to New York and Philadelphia.

Forecasters were also concerned that a combination of high rainfall rates and repeated rounds of storms could lead to flash flooding. The Weather Prediction Center said that Tuesday there was an elevated risk of flash flooding around the Great Lakes, including parts of Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois.

In Michigan, authorities were increasingly worried about rising water levels at the Cheboygan Dam near Lake Huron. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency Friday as melting snow and heavy rain sent water levels rising at the dam. And Monday, the Cheboygan County Sheriff’s Office warned residents to be prepared to evacuate. More rain was expected in the area this week.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.