A severe thunderstorm equipped with multiple tornadoes is expected to impact as many as 30 million people in a massive swath from the northwestern Gulf Coast to the Mississippi Valley and as far north as Indiana, according to AccuWeather. The storm is rolling eastward from the Rocky Mountains, and its effects are expected to be felt the worst in Mississippi and Alabama.
AccuWeather senior meteorologist Bob Larson told Newsweek that as much as half of the storm outbreak will occur in the dark.
Bernie Rayno, a meteorologist with AccuWeather, tweeted on Monday morning that it will be hard to predict the number of tornadoes likely to hit but that “the ingredients are there” for multiple twisters. Other weather-related events will be hail, flash flooding, damaging winds and possibly even snow. Downpours contributing to flash flooding also could hinder sight of a tornado.
Darkness won’t interfere with meteorologists’ abilities to predict tornadoes, but it could shield the tornadoes from the naked eye, which could delay action by residents in affected areas.
Larson said that during the night, it’s imperative to heed meteorologist warnings and take shelter immediately rather than look for the tornado in the night sky. During the daytime, if a person sees a funnel cloud, it could give them enough time to find safety. Extra time isn’t always a luxury for people experiencing a tornado at night and could hide it until it’s “pretty much on top of you,” according to Larson.
Last December, a violent tornado hit western Kentucky during the evening hours, killing at least 74 people and causing catastrophic infrastructure damage, including collapsing a candle factory, during its nearly three-hour duration. Although the time of night didn’t have an impact on the amount of damage the tornado unleashed, it’s possible some of the people injured or killed by the storm had only limited time to prepare because of the dark, leading to more severe injuries or more deaths.
“There’s no way of knowing if darkness added to the death toll, but it makes you wonder,” Larson said.
Tornadoes are commonly seen during the day, but it isn’t a rare occurrence for one to form at night. Spring and summer are the height of tornado season when daylight hours extend longer than in the winter, increasing the chance that a tornado will occur during the day.
Larson said that nothing will make potential Tuesday night tornadoes unique other than the fact they are of the greatest threat during the dark. He expects more than half of those impacted to experience the storm in the dark. Most of the nighttime impacts will occur in Tennessee and the western Mississippi Valley, he said.
