A tornado outbreak is bringing large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes to the Plains on Sunday.
The storms are developing along a front stretching from the mid-Mississippi Valley to the central High Plains.
A confirmed tornado outbreak broke out in southern Illinois on Sunday.
Approximately 1.5 million are under a Tornado Watch as severe storms could bring EF-2+ tornadoes and wind gusts topping 70 mph.
In addition to the severe storms, a Flood Watch has been issued through Sunday night across the region.
An increased Level 3 out of 4 flash flood threat is in place. This is for multiple rounds of thunderstorms that could drop 1 to 3 inches of rain, with localized totals of 5 to 8 inches possible where storms repeatedly track over the same areas.
What spawned the outbreak was leftover from Sunday morning’s rain and thunderstorms.
Early in the day, a large, organized complex of storms moved through the region and began to fall apart, but it left behind a spinning, compact swirl of low pressure known as a mesoscale convective vortex, on MCV.
A MCV is a very robust area of low pressure with its own warm and cold fronts, according to the FOX Forecast Center.
An expansive storm system tracked eastward across Missouri and Illinois Sunday morning, leaving a residual outflow boundary in its wake.
As the atmosphere warmed throughout the afternoon, severe weather ingredients rebounded.
The leftover swirl of the MCV provided turning of the winds to produce rotation. This, combined with storm energy, provided a big boost to the tornado potential from 4 p.m. through the evening hours.
As new storms fired up, they started to rotate, transforming into mini-supercells. These compact, highly organized storms tracked directly across southern Illinois and into Indiana, prompting a wave of tornado warnings, according to the FOX Forecast Center.
Nearly one out of every three tornado warnings were confirmed, prompting this to be a tornado outbreak.
On radar, each confirmed tornado warning immediately produced a debris ball, but then quickly fell apart minutes later. This would go on to be a common theme of very short-lived tornado warnings.
As of now, there haven’t been any substantial damage reports due to the short-lived nature of the tornadoes.
Sunday’s outbreak further cements a unique weather trend that has completely rewritten the history books for Illinois.
The state has already reached a staggering 173 tornado reports, shattering its previous yearly record. This does not include Sunday’s tornado reports. Illinois only averages 54 tornadoes per year.
Normally, by this point in June, classic Tornado Alley states like Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas dominate the charts, while Illinois would typically sit around just 45 reports.
By Monday, the low pressure system will track eastward, spreading heavy rain into the Midwest and eventually the East.
More severe storms are expected to develop, producing another round of large hail, damaging winds and possibly tornadoes.
