A powerful storm system swept across the midwestern United States on Friday, bringing strong winds, tornadoes, large hail, and flash flooding that damaged dozens of homes, obstructed roads, and placed roughly 26 million people under tornado watches stretching from Wisconsin to Oklahoma. No deaths were directly attributed to Friday's storms, though officials warned residents in some rural communities to prepare for a lengthy recovery.
The states of Wisconsin and Minnesota bore the brunt of the damage. In Wisconsin, homes lost their roofs and residents were forced to shelter in basements, with photographs showing wooden debris scattered across lawns. In Minnesota, at least 30 homes were damaged, with videos circulating on social media showing blown-out windows and caved-in garage doors in the town of Stewartville. The National Weather Service also warned of severe thunderstorm risk stretching from north-west Oklahoma through western Missouri, with hailstones roughly the size of a baseball — capable of falling at speeds of up to 107mph (172km/h) — reported across the region. Residents were advised to stay indoors and away from windows.
The scale of the threat prompted meteorological authorities to assign a rare "particularly dangerous situation" designation to several tornadoes — one in Illinois and two in Wisconsin — a classification reserved for the most severe storm events. Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers had already declared a state of emergency earlier in the week, mobilising law enforcement, fire services, and emergency response agencies.
Friday's destruction followed days of severe weather that had already strained the region. Earlier in the week, flash flooding engulfed a freeway in Milwaukee, Wisconsin's largest city, stranding drivers and forcing road closures. In Waukesha, a city west of Milwaukee, a man died after being struck by lightning during a separate thunderstorm.
The breadth of the storm system underscores the vulnerability of the Midwest's flat, open terrain to severe weather, particularly during spring. With communities still assessing the full extent of the damage and forecasters continuing to monitor developing conditions, emergency services across multiple states remained on high alert.