The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: Climate Crisis Influenced Severe Storms/Wildfire Outbreak
Dear Diary. It’s going to be tough for attribution scientists to peg this weekend’s severe outbreak on the climate crisis because the U.S. has seen tornadic activity every month in much colder times. Yet, I guarantee that the storm system currently moving through the U.S. would not have been as deadly or as far north as the southern Midwest had it not been interacting with a record warm airmass. Alabama and Mississippi were particularly hard hit, but those two states traditionally do see a lot of tornadoes in March.
Not only storms, but Dust Bowl type weather occurred over the southern Plains in association with this warm system.
Here is a summary of damage so far from this storm system (For videos that I did not repost, click the following link):
Deadly storm system leaves trail of damage across a swath of the U.S.
The storm threat lingers Sunday as the system shifts east. More than 60 tornadoes as well as wildfires and dust storms have killed at least 34.
March 16, 2025 at 9:47 a.m. EDT
By Ben Noll and Gaya Gupta
A massive storm system has left a trail of damage across a swath of the country, leveling homes, filling streets with rubble and spurring crashes as the system spawned tornadoes and sparked wildfires, killing at least 34 people in at least a half-dozen states.
At least 66 tornadoes have been reported across seven states since Friday. Wildfires broke out, raging fiercely in Oklahoma and Texas. Dust storms wrought havoc, diminishing visibility and leading to deadly vehicle pileups. And as morning broke Sunday, the amount of destruction across the country was becoming clearer still.
Some storm threats will continue through the weekend. The system will push toward the East Coast on Sunday, with a tornado threat for the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. States of emergency continued in Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia as of early Sunday.
In Missouri, at least 12 deaths were reported Saturday afternoon after more than a dozen tornadoes ripped across the state, according to the governor. At least three were killed in Arkansas and at least six in Mississippi.
In Kansas, at least eight people were killed after the weather front brought high winds and a dust storm Friday afternoon, lowering visibility and causing a pileup involving dozens of vehicles, the state’s highway patrol said Saturday afternoon.
Buildings burn during a wildfire in Stillwater, Oklahoma, on Friday. (Nick Oxford/Reuters)
One person died in a car crash after driving through wildfire smoke in Oklahoma, according to the governor. And in the Texas panhandle, four people died in crashes caused by strong winds and dust storms, according to state officials.
Tornado outbreak continues
Since early Friday, 66 tornadoes have been reported across seven states, including 29 in Mississippi. (Ben Noll/The Washington Post/data source: NOAA/SPC)
The strongest confirmed tornadoes so far have occurred in Cave City, Arkansas, and Poplar Bluff, Missouri, both of which were rated a 3 out of 5 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with winds of at least 136 mph.
And the outbreak continues. A cold front and low-pressure system are pushing eastward Sunday, driving strong to severe thunderstorms and a continued tornado risk.
Unseasonably warm and humid air from the Gulf of Mexico is moving northward, providing fuel for the storms.
On Sunday morning, a line of strong to severe thunderstorms is forecast to track from eastern Georgia and northern Florida into the Carolinas, where there is a risk for isolated tornadoes, scattered hail and damaging gusts in excess of 60 mph.
Strong to severe storms may also strike farther north, with cells developing from the Mid-Atlantic to New York, including Washington, D.C., from late Sunday morning through the afternoon.
The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center issued a slight risk (Level 2 out of 5) of severe thunderstorms for 34 million people across most of the East, including cities such as Jacksonville, Florida; Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina; Richmond and Roanoke; and Cleveland and Buffalo.
An enhanced risk (Level 3 out of 5) for severe thunderstorms covers western Pennsylvania, where an organized and potentially damaging line of storms is forecast to develop Sunday afternoon.
On Sunday night and Monday morning, the thunderstorms will move off the Eastern Seaboard as the severe weather risk draws to a close.
A slight risk (Level 2 out of 5) for severe thunderstorms covers much of the East Coast on Sunday. An enhanced risk (Level 3 out of 5) covers western Pennsylvania. (Ben Noll/The Washington Post/data source: NOAA/SPC)
Since early Friday, the atmosphere has been particularly conducive to tornadoes across several central and southern states.
This is because strong, southwesterly winds aloft have clashed with southeasterly winds near the ground. Changing winds with height, known as wind shear, enhances rotation in a thunderstorm.
Furthermore, cold air on the storm’s backside has clashed with unseasonably warm conditions out ahead of it. Early Sunday morning, it was snowing in Milwaukee and in the teens in Minneapolis, while it was in the 60s in Washington and the 70s in South Carolina, the latter more typical of June.
In total, 66 tornadoes have been reported across seven states: 29 in Mississippi; 13 in Missouri; eight in Alabama; eight in Arkansas; four in Illinois; two in Indiana; and two in Louisiana.
Damage surveys undertaken by the National Weather Service will confirm the rating and severity of Saturday’s tornadoes.
Rotating storms will sweep across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic on Sunday, where isolated tornadoes are possible.
Holly Bailey in Atlanta, Victoria Craw in London and Kelly Kasulis Cho in Seoul contributed to this report.
Extreme weather
HAND CURATED
- Massive storm system kills 34 in central U.S. as tornado risk continuesEarlier today
- Severe weather — including high winds — moves through central U.S.March 15, 2025
- Global sea level rose higher than expected last year. Here’s why.March 14, 2025
By Ben Noll Ben Noll is a meteorologist with a passion for communicating the ‘why behind the weather,’ extreme events and climate trends. He has extensive experience working with meteorological data and creating weather graphics on a supercomputer, developing meteorological services in the Pacific Islands, and short, medium and long-range weather prediction. Follow on X@BenNollWeather
By Gaya Gupta Gaya Gupta is a reporter on the General Assignment team at The Washington Post. She came to The Post from The New York Times, where she was a breaking news reporter as part of its fellowship program. She interned at The Post on the Metro desk in 2022. follow on Xgayalgupta
Here are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is More Climate News from Sunday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)