The deadly system is spawning tornadoes, causing damage across the central US and could bring widespread power outages along with heavy snow
At least two deaths in Arkansas were attributed to the wave of tornadoes.
One person was killed and several injured in Monette, Arkansas, after a tornado struck a nursing home, according to Craighead County Judge Marvin Day.
Local officials had previously said two people died, but Day said the local coroner has since determined there was only one death.
“Everyone has been taken out of the nursing home and is accounted for,” the town’s mayor Bob Blankenship said. “We have a triage center set up at the local school where people are being treated and others have been transported to local hospitals.”
Eight miles away in Leachville, one person was killed, Mississippi County Sheriff Dale Cook told CNN.
An adult female was “in a Dollar General store when the storm hit and they could not get out,” he said.
In Tennessee, several structures were damaged and an unknown number of people were trapped in Samburg, according to Union City Police Chief Karl Ullrich.
“It’s just a small community. It’s pretty well flattened,” Obion County Sheriff’s Office Dispatcher Judy Faulkner told CNN. Samburg is in the northwest portion of the state, north of Memphis.
In Illinois, an Amazon warehouse was damaged in Edwardsville, which is 24 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri.
Fillback said police did not know how many people were in the building at the time of the collapse, nor how many people may still be trapped inside.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said he’d reached out to the Edwardsville mayor to offer assistance.
Power outages across several states
Tornadoes were reported in Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center.
Overall, more than 55 million people nationwide were at risk for severe storms Friday.
“This dynamic, sprawling storm will impact more than half the country. It’s a classic clash of air masses,” said CNN meteorologist Gene Norman.
Earlier, tornado watches were issued for central and eastern Arkansas, southeastern Missouri, northwestern Mississippi, western Tennessee, western Kentucky, southern Illinois and southwestern Indiana, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
The watch was in effect until 11 p.m. CST and included Memphis, Tennessee; Little Rock, Arkansas; Paducah, Kentucky; and Evansville, Indiana.
A second tornado watch was issued Friday evening for portions of Missouri and Illinois. The watch is also in effect until 11 p.m. CST and includes St. Louis, Jefferson City and Springfield in Missouri and Springfield and Quincy in Illinois
By mid-evening Friday, five tornado watches stretched from northeastern Texas and eastern Oklahoma to central Tennessee and Kentucky. One of the newest watches includes Nashville and Louisville, Kentucky, and was in effect until 2 a.m. CST.
Winter returns for a large section of the US
Meanwhile, to the north of the weather system, snow was forecast for a large part of the country from the Intermountain West to the Upper Great Lakes through Saturday. Over 10 million Americans are under some form of winter weather alerts from this system.
The Minnesota State Patrol responded to 136 crashes prior to 4 p.m. on Friday, according to a tweet by the agency. Eight of those accidents were jackknifed semi-trucks. Thirteen were injury accidents.
The Twin Cities area is currently under a snow emergency.
Light snow fell Friday morning at Denver’s International Airport, meaning the area finally recorded its first measurable snow of the season, defined as a 10th of an inch or greater.
This brings an end to the record snow drought the city had been experiencing. Since 1882, the city had never made it into December without measurable snow. The previous record for latest measurable snow was November 21, 1934.
The city also went 232 consecutive days without measurable snow, the second-longest streak in recorded history. The record is 235 days: from March 5 to October 25, 1887.
The snow is expected to be light in Denver, with the forecast calling for around 1 inch of accumulation today, with higher tallies in the mountains to the West.
CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen contributed to this story.
