Baseball-Sized Hail Blasts Hotel
A four-day severe weather event unfolded across the Plains,Midwest and Central U.S. during Easter weekend,April 17-20,2025,killing at least three people.
The National Weather Service confirmed 60 tornadoes touched down from Iowa and Nebraska to Texas during this Easter weekend rash of severe weather. There were also over 400 reports of large hail and damaging thunderstorm winds,according to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.
Here's a recap of the storms and the damage that was caused.
Supercells On April 17
A pair of supercell thunderstorms raked across eastern Nebraska into western Iowa Thursday,spawning six tornadoes,damaging hail and destructive winds.
The northern supercell first produced wind gusts to 82 mph in Dodge County,Nebraska. Hail up to the size of baseballs,driven by those intense winds,damaged the siding of homes in Fremont,Nebraska.
That supercell went on to spawn an EF3 tornado in the far northern Omaha metro area near the Douglas and Washington County line around 7 p.m CT. Damage was reported near Bennington and Fort Calhoun,about 10 to 15 miles north and northwest of downtown Omaha. Though it passed safely north,the tornado could be seen from Omaha's Eppley Airfield.
That supercell also produced hail up to the size of softballs (4 inch diameter) just east of Council Bluffs near McClelland,Iowa.
The southern supercell lasted about 6.5 hours from when it first dropped hail larger than quarters in Grand Island,Nebraska,late Thursday afternoon to its final hail report in Clarke County,Iowa,just after 11 p.m. CT.,almost 230 miles away from that first hail report.
It spawned five separate tornadoes. Three of those in Cass County,Nebraska,were rated either EF0 or EFU (meaning it did not produce any damage).
In southwest Iowa,this supercell spawned EF0 and EF1 tornadoes in Fremont and Page Counties,producing some minor damage to homes,downed trees and powerlines near the town of Essex.
April 18
Severe thunderstorms moved through southern Wisconsin dumped hail up to the size of baseballs,accompanied by wind gusts up to 68 mph early Friday morning. Vehicles and roofs of homes were damaged by hail in Edgerton and Evansville,south of Madison.
There were many other reports of hail ranging in size from golf ball to tennis ball.
High winds also resulted in many trees and powerlines down across Illinois,Indiana and Iowa. Interstate 69 was forced to close for a period of time near Pendleton,Indiana,due to winds knocking down power lines onto the interstate.
April 19 Storms
Supercells developed for a third day on Saturday,producing large hail and several tornadoes from west-central Texas near San Angelo northeastward into southern Oklahoma. Communities near Ardmore,Oklahoma,experienced wind gusts as high as 80 mph and golf ball to tennis ball size hail Saturday evening.
An EF1 tornado caused damage to several buildings in Ada,Oklahoma.
Two people,including a child,were killed in Moore,Oklahoma,after their vehicle was swept away in high water.
Another person died after an EF1 tornado touched down about 80 miles away in Spaulding. Hughes County Emergency Management said two others were injured as the twister destroyed at least two homes and several other small structures.
EF2 tornadoes touched down near Courtney and Little City,Oklahoma.
In Texas,12 tornadoes were confirmed by the National Weather Service,including an EF2 tornado in Hood County which "blew a 125-year old farm house off its foundation",according to the NWS-Fort Worth damage survey. Miraculously,a woman inside the home wasn't injured,according to the NWS survey.
Easter Sunday's Storms
The storms continued to march eastward on Sunday,bringing damaging winds,large hail and tornadoes for a fourth day in a row.
The NWS confirmed 30 tornadoes touched down from Arkansas to Illinois. That included an EF2 tornado new New Bloomfield,Missouri,and an EF1 tornado that tracked across the north side of Columbia,Missouri.
Flash flooding was also a problem,as areas that were already saturated from days of rain and storms,continued to receive more heavy rainfall. Multiple high water rescues took place from Texas to Missouri. In Montague County,Texas,multiple roads and even bridges were washed out from the flooding rains.
As the storm system pushed eastward late Sunday evening,the storms began to finally lose some steam.
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at www.weathernow24.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky,X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
