Record-Breaking Storm System Roars Across US

The powerful storm system that swept through the Plains on Sunday and to the East Coast today, killing at least seven people in the Deep South, spawned over 1,500 reports of severe weather since Sunday, including a record-breaking 1,200-plus reports during one 24-hour period.

The hardest hit regions were the Tennessee Valley, Mississippi Valley and the Southeast, where the majority of the reports piled up from early Monday through early Tuesday. During the 24 hours, more preliminary severe weather reports -- large hail, wind damage and tornadoes -- were tallied than in any other 24-hour period since comparable records began in 2000, according to The Washington Post's weather blog.

(Image courtesy of NOAA)

The number of reports are preliminary and are subject to change -- either with new reports being added or duplicate reports subtracted. The Monday and Monday night reports include 23 tornadoes, the bulk of which occurred in Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

More severe weather broke out today, with 40 additional reports through early this afternoon from New Jersey to Florida. No tornadoes have been reported; most of the action has come from strong winds.

No tornadoes were reported Sunday and Sunday night, either, which is when the storm began to intensify in the Midwest and Plains. However, there were 324 reports of large hail and wind damage, with the bulk of the damage from southern Wisconsin southwestward to eastern Kansas.

The severe weather season has started quickly this year, with 209 preliminary reports of tornadoes since Jan. 1. This number -- although subject to change -- exceeds the number of confirmed reports from January through the entire month of April of last year, when there were 197 confirmed tornadoes.

This week's powerful spring storm system was fueled, in part, by a dramatic temperature contrast between unseasonably warm and humid air in advance of the storm and colder-than-normal air following it. For example, temperatures climbed into the record-breaking 80s in Denver on Saturday, but fell into the 20s with snow by Sunday night.

Dramatic temperature shifts followed the storm system eastward. Temperatures this afternoon were in the upper 30s in Pittsburgh after topping out above 70 on Monday, and temperatures along the mid-Atlantic Coast this afternoon dropped 25 to 35 degrees from Monday's highs.