Severe storms glow green over the central US, turn deadly in Missouri
The first full week of May kicked off with rounds of severe weather in the central United States, with one storm turning deadly in Missouri.
Some of the worst storms of the day struck on Monday morning as a line of severe storms swept across Kansas and Missouri. Intense wind gusts over 70 mph were common with Plaza, Kansas, clocking a wind gust as high as 80 mph.
Ominous shelf clouds hung low on the horizon on the leading edge of these morning storms, and in some cases, appearing as if they were glowing green or turquoise.
More than 50,000 power outages were reported between Missouri and Kansas as the winds brought down trees and power lines. Part of Interstate 70 was shut down between Manhattan and Wamego, Kansas, for hours due to power lines across the highway, according to a Kansas State Trooper.
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Storms may be to blame for one death after a tree fell over onto a house in Butler, Missouri.
"On May 4th, at approximately 10:30 a.m., the Bates County Sheriffs Office received a call in reference to the storm damaging a house. The storm had downed a tree into a home in rural Butler," the Bates Country Sheeriff's Office posted on Facebook. "Unfortunately the incident resulted in one death."
While intense winds were the primary concern across Kansas and Missouri, damaging hail hammered northern Arkansas. There were numerous reports of hailstones as large as golf balls pelting the region, but chunks of ice as large as grapefruits pounded one neighborhood just north of Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Vehicles were dented, windshields were shattered and even roofs were damaged in Shady Grove, Arkansas, from the hailstorm.
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By the late afternoon, a new round of severe weather began to develop over Oklahoma and into southern Missouri. While the primary threats from the morning storms were strong winds and damaging hail, the afternoon storms brought the added danger of tornadoes.
One of the stronger storms of the afternoon erupted just southeast of Oklahoma City with hail larger than baseballs.
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