producing tornadoes over the north-central United States on May 10 The event started in Oklahoma on May 7 as an initial low pressure crossed the southern Plains and produced tornadoes across the
Oklahoma City area producing scattered damage throughout the Metro Area including in
Yukon,
Bethany,
Warr Acres and north Oklahoma City.
KOCO-TV recorded a wind gust while Chief Meteorologist Rick Mitchell was reporting on the storm. Widespread tree, fence, and minor property damage was reported throughout much of the area while there was also a gas leak reported in Bethany. Tree damage was also reported just outside the
KFOR and KOCO stations. Similar conditions occurred south and east of
Tulsa, Oklahoma, as the line of thunderstorms raced across the state and caused similar damage although a portions of a storage structure was destroyed by the force of the winds. At least five tornadoes were confirmed throughout the state but all were rated either EF0 or EF1. There were no reports of injuries during the event. Two significant tornado outbreaks affected the southeastern United States on May 8. During the morning hours, tornadoes touched down across northeastern Mississippi including one EF3 tornado in the
Tupelo, Mississippi area which heavily damaged several buildings near the Tupelo Airport. Tornadoes also touched down across northwestern Alabama north and west of
Birmingham and
Huntsville. One particular tornado was caught on tape by a security camera at a business near
Leighton in
Colbert County which overturned cars at a parking lot. Another tornado crossed very near the
ABC 33-40 Sky Cam in
Cullman but the tornado was not seen as very strong winds stopped the video data prior to its passage. Structural damage was also reported to homes across the area. While weak tornadoes touched down north of
Xenia, Ohio, during the early evening hours, the second outbreak of the day produced several strong tornadoes across the western
Carolinas and southwestern Virginia. A line of showers and thunderstorms moved across the Appalachians. CAPE values were at around 1500 J/kg across parts of North Carolina. One tornado hit the
Clemmons, North Carolina area producing EF3 damage to several homes. The same area was hit an F3 tornado on the same date in 1998. Just after 11:00 pm, another tornado from the same
supercell struck the western
Greensboro region, killing one person inside a truck overturned by the tornado. The storm also damaged several buildings including homes, businesses and warehouses. Two
FedEx planes at the
Piedmont Triad International Airport were pitched off the tarmac as the storm lifted near the area. Other tornadoes produced some significant damage north of the
Piedmont Triad region across southern Virginia. On May 10, a new wave of tornadoes from a second system affected portions of the southern Plains and the Lower-Mississippi Valley. Temperatures across the region reached the 80s across portions of the South with mostly upper 70s elsewhere.
CAPE values were between 1000 and 2000 J/kg near the center of the low with reading over 2000 J/kg across Mississippi. Storm relative helicity values were over 250 m2/s2. A moderate risk of severe storms was issued for a large portions of the Mississippi Valley as well as the Eastern Plains. Severe storms began to occur across northwestern Arkansas, southeastern Kansas and eastern Oklahoma during the late afternoon hours. Tornado watches extended from eastern Oklahoma to South Carolina and north to near Kansas City. (NWS Charleston, South Carolina). One violent EF4 tornado killed 15 people in
Missouri and six people in northeastern Oklahoma, with one other death from an EF1 tornado also in Missouri. Moderate to major damage was reported across
Ottawa County, Oklahoma, and
Newton County, Missouri, as well as in
Stuttgart, Arkansas, and near
McAlester, Oklahoma, where a tornado was caught on tape by a television crew from a helicopter. Other tornadoes were reported across
Missouri,
Oklahoma,
Arkansas and
Kansas. In the late evening, after crossing the
Mississippi River, the supercells combined into a
bow echo/
derecho that tracked from the
Memphis Metropolitan Area then across northern
Mississippi,
Alabama,
Georgia and
South Carolina, with widespread wind damage and embedded tornadoes. Two people were killed in
Laurens County, Georgia, and at least 85,000 customers were left without power in the
Atlanta metropolitan area. Additional tornadoes touched down across the southeast and the eastern Ohio Valley from central Ohio to North Carolina but the bulk of the activity took place across central and southern
Georgia where 19 tornadoes were confirmed in that state alone. An EF2 tornado went through the city of
Macon, Georgia, causing extensive damage to buildings and trees at
Macon State College. This forced the closure of the Macon campus for repair. A violent EF4 tornado was also confirmed near
Darien in
McIntosh County where numerous buildings near
Interstate 95 were heavily damaged or destroyed. This was the first violent tornado in Georgia since an F4 tornado hit four counties north of
Atlanta on March 27, 1994. The tornado that occurred during the
1994 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak killed three and injured 20 over a nearly 50-mile path.
Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue declared a state of emergency for at least six counties across the state. In addition to the tornado fatalities, one person was killed due to straight line winds in
Barrow County, Georgia. ==Confirmed tornadoes==