Tornado devastates Texas town on sixth straight day of severe storms

By Meteorologist Briana Waxman, Taylor Romine, CNN

(CNN) — Several people are injured after a tornado in Mineral Wells, Texas, flattened a portion of the town Tuesday night, the sixth day of a severe storm outbreak that has terrorized the midwest and continues to wreak havoc in the South.

The tornado ripped through Mineral Wells, about 80 miles west of Dallas, around 5 p.m. Tuesday evening, city officials said. Two people were transported to the hospital and several people were treated for minor injuries on the scene, but there are no reported deaths or active missing persons cases, said Mineral Wells Fire Chief Ryan Dunn. He didn’t know the extent of the injuries of the two people taken to the hospital.

Multiple homes and a wide swath of the industrial area were damaged, but a full assessment will need to be done in the morning, officials said. The impacted area will have a 10 p.m. curfew Tuesday night to prevent people from going into the damage, Mineral Wells Police Chief Tim Denison said.

The local high school is being used as a reunification center and the Red Cross is there to help provide services, he added, saying people have already been trying to figure out how to help.

“There is a lot of hope out there, and we’ve had an outpouring of support from not only the first responding agencies but the community,” Denison said.

Tuesday’s storms also brought massive hail up to grapefruit size near Godley, Texas, while stones up to tennis ball and baseball size pummeled Springfield, Missouri, damaging vehicles and knocking down power poles.

Storm chaser Matt Jones was in the car in Springfield when hail bigger than golf balls picked up in intensity, cracking his windshield repeatedly. “This is insane, oh my God, I gotta get out of here,” Jones exclaimed.

An emu at Springfield’s Dickerson Park Zoo was killed during the hail storm and a rhea, a large bird similar to an emu, was injured, the zoo posted on social media. The zoo was significantly damaged by the hail and will be closed Wednesday, the post said.

Footage from Springfield-Branson National Airport showed wind-driven hail lashing the airport and crews covering damaged vehicles with tarps. Airport officials said aid groups distributed tarps within hours as recovery efforts began.

A Level 3 of 5 risk of severe thunderstorms remains in place through early Wednesday morning for much of Arkansas and parts of southern Missouri, northeast Texas, northern Louisiana and central and northern Mississippi. Damaging winds, large hail and a few tornadoes threaten millions Tuesday across a broader zone from the lower Mississippi Valley to the Tennessee Valley.

A tornado watch is in effect for parts of northern Mississippi, southeastern Arkansas and extreme northern Louisiana until 4 a.m. CT, according to the Storm Prediction Center. Besides potential tornadoes, damaging wind gusts and isolated large hail are also possible.

Monday’s storms packed a punch

Monday evening, a tornado moved through several towns in Clinton County, Illinois, including Germantown and Carlyle. This storm damaged homes, knocked down trees and power lines and blocked roads, according to Clinton County Emergency Management Director Timothy Schleper. The American Red Cross was responding to help displaced residents. No injuries or deaths were reported, and damage assessments were expected to continue Tuesday.

Just before 11 p.m. CT, the National Weather Service in Little Rock, Arkansas, issued a Particularly Dangerous Situation tornado warning for an observed, destructive tornado moving through Hanover and surrounding communities in Stone County. The tornado appeared to stay on the ground in Arkansas for about 10 miles, with debris lofted high into the air and wrapped around the back side of the storm.

The Stone County Sheriff’s Office reported damaged homes and vehicles, downed power lines and fallen trees blocking roads as emergency crews responded across the area overnight. No injuries or deaths have been reported.

Some areas in Michigan and Wisconsin saw damage from a weather phenomenon called a wake low, which is a relatively small weather system that contains a potent line of high winds. Wake lows form behind showers or thunderstorms, as one did after rain moved through the Upper Midwest on Monday morning.

A 39-year-old man was killed in Kent County in western Michigan after a tree fell on him during strong winds Monday evening, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. Friends of the man told authorities he warned them of the falling tree, an action they said saved lives, the release said.

The northern part of the county has seen downed trees and power lines but no other injuries, said Scott Dietrich, public information officer with the Kent County Sheriff’s Office.

Some structures and a trailer were also damaged after trees fell in Calhoun County in south-central Michigan, but there are no injuries reported, said Dispatch Director Michael Armitage.

Some of those high winds also caused a tree to fall on Carson Kellogg’s home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was sitting on his couch when he heard a loud crack.

“I ran off the couch because I thought it would hit me. I was really shaken up,” he told CNN.

Relentless storms battered the central US last week

A violent tornado tore through Enid, Oklahoma, last Thursday, triggering a rare tornado emergency and causing EF4 damage in parts of the city, with some areas flattened.

The Enid tornado, with winds estimated at 170 to 175 mph, was the strongest in the US since June 2025. At least 10 people were injured and about 40 homes were damaged, though officials said no deaths were reported.

Deadly tornadoes struck North Texas Saturday, including an EF2 tornado near Runaway Bay, about 80 miles northwest of Dallas. At least two people were killed and homes and infrastructure were damaged, displacing dozens of residents and expanding the toll of the multiday severe weather outbreak.

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Meteorologists Mary Gilbert, Chris Dolce, Linda Lam and Dakota Smith and CNN’s Jillian Sykes, Diego Mendoza, Hanna Park and Sarah Dewberry contributed to this report.