Tornado hits Mississippi as storm moves through parts of Southeast
Another storm system on Tuesday moved into parts of the South recently hit by deadly tornadoes, where residents now are dealing with the impacts of coronavirus.
A tornado touched down in northeast Mississippi on Tuesday afternoon near Tishomingo, the National Weather Service said. Tornado warnings were in effect for south central Tennessee and north Alabama.
Tishomingo police reported minor injuries, in addition to damage to buildings and several trees down, CNN affiliate WTVA reported.
The storm system will move east Tuesday evening, CNN meteorologist Taylor Ward said, but it should taper off toward midnight.
4 tornado tips that could save your life >>>
Coronavirus — and efforts to keep people apart to stem its spread — brings a new challenge to storm safety in the risk areas.
“In the case of a weather event necessitating storm shelters Alabama, Public Health recommends that your first priority should be to protect yourself from the storm,” tweeted the city of Tuscaloosa.
Inside storm shelters, officials will try to maintain 6 feet of space between people, officials added.
Track the storms with CNN’s storm tracker>>>
Severe thunderstorms are also possible into Tuesday night across eastern Arkansas, northern Mississippi, northern Alabama and northwest Georgia.
Atlanta is in the marginal risk area — level 1 of 5 — indicating that while it’s less likely to experience a dangerous severe storm, it cannot be ruled out.
Flash flooding likely for the same region
In addition to strong thunderstorms, heavy rainfall could lead to flooding across many of the same areas.
Moisture from the Gulf of Mexico feeding into the storms will fuel a large stripe of heavy rains, stretching from the lower Mississippi Valley, across the Tennessee Valley, southern Appalachians and southern Mid-Atlantic, according to the Weather Prediction Center.
“The greatest risk of flash flooding with this storm will be across portions of the Upper Tennessee Valley into the Southern Appalachians where soils are saturated from heavy rains over the past few weeks,” the prediction center stated.
Get more weather news from around the world >>>
The risk level is 3 of 4 for flash flooding across a zone that includes the cities of Huntsville, Alabama; Chattanooga and the northern Atlanta suburbs. Two to 4 inches of rain could fall in this region, only a day after widespread rainfall of 1 to 3 inches fell there.
By Wednesday, this storm will bring rain across the Mid-Atlantic into southern New England. There are no threats of flash flooding and only the lowest threat — 1 of 5 — for severe storms across the eastern Carolinas.
