Five tornadoes touched down over the past two days in a storm system stretching from Texas’s Hill Country to central North Dakota, the Storm Prediction Center confirmed, and forecasters said the same system remained capable of producing more severe weather.
Four of the confirmed twisters hit north-central North Dakota, near Wolford, Knox, Maddock and Bremen. The fifth touched down in Shavano Park, Texas, part of the same rotating storm complex that prompted tornado warnings across Bandera, Real, Edwards and Uvalde counties on Wednesday as it tracked north through the Hill Country.
Beyond the tornadoes, the Storm Prediction Center logged 91 reports of damaging wind and 16 reports of large hail nationwide over the past 48 hours, evidence of a broad severe-weather outbreak accompanying the tornado-producing storms.
The National Weather Service had five alerts active covering parts of North Dakota and Texas, a sign the threat from this storm system had not fully passed even as forecasters shift to surveying damage from the confirmed twisters.
The North Dakota tornadoes mark a new front in a severe-weather pattern that began in Texas earlier in the week. Wednesday’s warnings in the Hill Country were the second consecutive day rotating storms triggered tornado warnings in South-Central Texas; the confirmed tornado near Shavano Park shows that system delivered on the rotation radar had detected as storms moved north.
The National Weather Service urges residents under active alerts to have a way to receive warnings, identify a safe shelter location in advance, and avoid driving through flooded roads that often accompany these storm systems. Sheltering in an interior room on the lowest floor, away from windows, remains the standard guidance during a tornado warning.
Forecasters will continue watching the corridor from the southern Plains into the Upper Midwest for renewed storm development as unstable air and wind shear persist. Residents in both North Dakota and Texas should keep monitoring forecasts through the week, as the confirmed tornado, hail and wind totals could still grow as damage surveys continue.