Tornado devastates Texas town on sixth straight day of severe storms

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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 South.

The tornado ripped through Mineral Wells, about 80 miles west of Dallas, around 5 p.m. Tuesday evening, city officials said. Five people went to the hospital due to their injuries, including two who were taken by ambulance, Mineral Wells Fire Chief Ryan Dunn said at a news conference Wednesday. Several people were also treated for minor injuries on the scene, but refused transport.

None of the injuries were critical or life threatening and everyone is accounted for, city spokesperson Brittany Brown told CNN Wednesday. No deaths have been reported, Mayor Regan Wallace Johnson said at the news conference.

Two to three miles of the city, including residential areas and a wide swath of the industrial area, were severely damaged, Brown said, adding a full assessment is ongoing. Two manufacturing companies that are major area employers lost buildings, she noted.

The impacted area had a 10 p.m. curfew Tuesday night to prevent people from going into the damage zone, Mineral Wells Police Chief Tim Denison said. The city has issued both a disaster declaration and declaration of emergency powers.

Forecasters from the National Weather Service in Fort Worth have preliminarily found the Mineral Wells twister caused EF3 damage and packed winds up to 145 mph. The same storm also produced at least three weaker tornadoes after it raced south into Johnson County.

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.

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.

In southern Oklahoma, a possible tornado shredded buildings – including some mobile homes – and significantly damaged powerlines. Aerial footage shows a series of transmission towers bent to the ground near the town of Caney.

The storm impacted several areas across Oklahoma’s Atoka County, but no injuries had been reported as of Tuesday night, the sheriff’s office said.

The cold front that was responsible for much of this week’s severe weather will make its way to the East Coast Wednesday and usher in a cooler, calmer weather pattern for much of the US. Before that happens, isolated severe storms are possible in the South and Mid-Atlantic on Wednesday. The area with the greatest chance of storms that could produce large hail and damaging winds extends from central Texas to southwest Alabama.

The front will also bring some beneficial rain to the South, where drought has reached extreme levels in every state.

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, Sarah Dewberry and Kate S. Petersen contributed to this report.