As communities across the country on Sunday recovered from a powerful storm system that killed at least 27 people in seven states, they have only a couple of days before facing another round of severe weather.
After destructive tornadoes and strong storms barreled through parts of the South, the Midwest and the East on Friday and Saturday, another storm system is expected to develop on Tuesday, forecasters said.
This next one could bring the potential for a “few strong tornadoes,” large hail and damaging wind gusts across from Texas to Illinois, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center said.
Two areas are of great concern on Tuesday: One stretches from northeast Texas through Arkansas and into southern Missouri, and another takes in northern Missouri, southeast Iowa and much of Illinois.
In these regions, where more than 18 million people live, the center said that the risk of severe weather was “enhanced,” the third-highest category on a five-level risk scale.
Marc Chenard, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said that the risks from the storms on Tuesday could be similar to the storm system that tore through several of the same states on Friday and Saturday.
“It looks like, again, there will be the potential for some organized clusters of thunderstorms,” Mr. Chenard said, adding that they could produce damaging winds “and even some strong tornadoes.”
Forecast maps for Tuesday bear a resemblance to those of Friday’s storms system, with higher risks for severe weather centered on portions of Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.
“No two storm systems are going to be identical, but it is a somewhat similar setup, just the way the whole system is evolving,” Mr. Chenard said, adding that the forecast could change.
Ahead of Tuesday’s storm system, forecasters in Texas were eyeing the possibility of severe weather on Sunday over a part of the state that includes the Dallas area.
“All severe hazards are possible,” the Storm Prediction Center said on Twitter, adding that large hail, wind gusts of up to 75 miles per hour and “a strong tornado or two” were possible.
While tornadoes can happen any time of the year, historically, tornado activity in most states tends to peak in the spring. Still, it is uncommon for communities to face such a damaging storm system followed by another just a few days later.
The severe weather of the past two days comes just a week after a destructive storm system ripped through portions of the South, killing at least 26 people and flattening parts of Rolling Fork, Miss.
“It’s not necessarily normal to have potentially higher-end events fall on each other, but it is the time of year where that can happen,” Mr. Chenard said.
After ravaging at least seven states, the storm system that started on Friday continued tracking east on Saturday, producing strong winds and heavy rain and prompting temporary ground stops at airports in New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia.
Videos circulated online of a possible tornado on Saturday in Howell Township, N.J. The National Weather Service said on Sunday it would send out storm survey teams to assess damage there and other portions of New Jersey. Survey teams confirmed on Sunday that a tornado had struck near Jackson Township, N.J.
The Weather Service received more than 300 reports of strong winds on Saturday, including one wind gust of 98 m.p.h. in Sussex County, Del., where officials said one person died in a structure collapse and where the Weather Service said a tornado struck the area on Saturday.
More than 368,000 customers were without power on Sunday from Arkansas to New York, according to poweroutage.us. Pennsylvania, where more than 88,000 customers were without power, appeared to bear the brunt of the outages.
By Sunday, this weekend’s storm system had faded and drifted into the Atlantic Ocean, but several states will still be dealing with aftermath of the severe weather.
President Biden on Sunday approved a disaster declaration for three counties in Arkansas, which will provide federal funding for recovery efforts.
