Jessie Perez, and her aunt, Rebecca Aldridge, hid in a closet when a tornado came through Milton, Kentucky, on Thursday, March 14, 2024. A tree now occupies their kitchen but no one was hurt
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A dangerous half mile wide tornado was reported in northern Ohio Thursday night while at least three others were confirmed in Kentucky and Indiana.
“THIS IS A VERY SERIOUS and dangerous tornado on the ground,” the National Weather Service’s Cleveland office wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Forecasters said they were monitoring two tornadic rotations including one in Crawford County Ohio and a stronger one in northern Ashland County.
The weather service warned that the threat of a few tornadoes was “likely.” Forecasters also said scattered wind gusts up to 70 mph and hail the size of tennis balls are also possible.
Several central Ohio counties were also under tornado watches Thursday evening, just over two weeks after nine tornadoes hit the state on Feb. 28, knocking down trees and demolishing buildings.
See photos: Landslide damages multiple homes in posh LA neighborhood, 1 home collapses
Tornadoes cause damage in Indiana, Kentucky
Further southeast, at least three reported tornadoes wreaked havoc in southern Indiana and north-central Kentucky on Thursday.
Two tornadoes were confirmed outside of Madison, Indiana, one in Hanover and another in Switzerland County, according to the Indiana Emergency Management Agency.
No injuries have been reported but at least one home and a trailer were damaged. Nearly 9,000 power outages were reported in the state, USA TODAY’s tracker showed.
In Kentucky, a tornado that touched down in the town of Milton damaged at least 50 structures, including homes, Trimble County Emergency Management Director Andrew Stark confirmed. Fallen trees and downed power lines were also reported.
Over 5,000 outages were reported in the state, according to USA TODAY’s outage map.
Weather service meteorologists earlier warned that tornadoes and large hail could possibly threaten parts of north-central Texas and the Midwest with the greatest overall threat occurring across eastern Oklahoma, Arkansas and southern Missouri.
Hoosiers should continue keeping an eye on the weather into Thursday night as the National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch.
The watch is for most of Indiana and Ohio, including all of Central Indiana, and will be in place until midnight Friday. A tornado watch means the conditions are right for a tornado to form.
The storms expected to move through Indiana and Ohio could bring large hail and wind gusts up to 70 mph in addition to tornados, according to NWS. A line of severe storms already moved through Indiana and Kentucky Thursday afternoon that brought damaging winds and large hail to some areas as well as three tornados.
Two tornadoes touched down outside Madison, Indiana, around 2:30 p.m. Thursday, and a third touched down in Milton, Kentucky, causing damaged to homes, according to the Louisville Courier Journal.
Have power outages been reported?
A few hundred Duke energy customers near Kokomo remained without power as of Thursday at 5:30 p.m., while about 3,000 Duke customers had no power near Louisville and the Indiana-Kentucky boarder due to storms.
The storms did not cause significant power outages in Indianapolis Thursday afternoon.
Read about what to do for internet and power outages and what Central Indiana’s weather is expected going into the weekend
💻 Internet outages and how to track them
🚫 What you should and shouldn’t do when the power is out
☔ A look at the weather forecast going into the weekend
Current Central Indiana forecast from NWS
Friday: Scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 8 a.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 55 degrees. North wind 10 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Friday night: Mostly clear, with a low around 35 degrees. North northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 61 degrees. Southwest wind 6 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.
One video captured what appeared to be a massive tornado in Kansas overnight has circulated online.
Contributing: Christopher Cann, USA TODAY, Leo Bertucci, Louisville Courier Journal, Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tornadoes reported in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky amid severe weather View comments (220)
