Southern Tornadoes Claim Over 300 Lives; Obama to Tour Damage

Alex Stone/ABC News(RAINSVILLE, Al.) -- President Obama and the first lady will travel to the South Friday morning, following the deadly storms Wednesday and early Thursday that left more than 300 dead across six states.

Obama will visit the hardest-hit state, Alabama, where at least 210 people were killed.

Elsewhere in the region, Mississippi reported 32 fatalities, Tennessee had 34, Georgia reported at least 15, Virginia had five and Arkansas had 13.

"In a matter of hours, these deadly tornadoes...took mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, friends and neighbors, even entire communities," Obama said Thursday.

Obama is expected to tour the wreckage while on his way to Cape Canaveral for the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour in Florida.

He pledged full federal government support for all those affected by the storms and signed a disaster declaration for Alabama to assist in recovery and clean-up efforts.

"We can't control when or where a terrible storm may strike, but we can control how we respond to it," Obama said during a press conference Thursday at the White House.

About 2,000 national guard members have been deployed to help in search and rescue efforts.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated there were 173 tornadoes Wednesday, setting a new record for one storm system.

The twisters leveled cities like Tuscaloosa, Alabama and forced some nuclear plants to go offline.  Thousands were left and more than a million people without power.

It was the worst tornado outbreak since 1974, when storms killed 315 people, according to NOAA.  The death toll from this week's storms is expected to exceed that number.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Storms Lead to More Deaths in the South

Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Thunderstorms and severe winds slamming the South on Wednesday claimed the lives of at least 10 more people.

In Alabama, three people were reported dead after strong thunderstorms, tornadoes and severe winds hit the state.

In Mississippi, a police officer was killed in a state park when a tree limb fell on his tent. Also, a man was crushed in his mobile home when a tree fell during a storm, and a truck driver was killed when he crashed into a downed tree on a state highway.

And in Arkansas, the Department of Emergency Management said Wednesday that one person died in a storm in Sharp County.

The death toll from the severe weather during the last two days is now at 19 -- three in Alabama, 12 in Arkansas and four in Mississippi. A three-year-old Mississippi girl died Tuesday after a tree crashed into her family home in a storm, authorities said.

A high-risk severe weather warning by the National Weather Service continued for areas northeast of Memphis to Dallas and parts of Arkansas, where about 58,000 homes and businesses are without electricity.

There have been more than 600 reports of tornadoes nationwide for the month of April.

The latest storm pattern has brought in about 40 reports of tornadoes in five states: Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Kentucky.

Forecasters predict more flooding for Wednesday with three-to-seven inches of rain expected from Arkansas to Ohio, while areas such as Memphis, Tenn., and Louisville, Ky., could see heavy rain at times.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Apparent Tornado Rips Through St. Louis Airport

ABC News/File(ST. LOUIS) -- Lambert-St. Louis International Airport remained closed Saturday morning after an apparent tornado swept through parts of St. Louis and severely damaged the airport Friday.

Officials say a total of four people had to be taken to a local hospital for treatment to minor injuries after storms pummeled the airport and surrounding areas on Friday evening. While the injuries to individuals were said to be minor, the damage to the airport was major.

Airport officials say Terminal 1 and Concourse C suffered the majority of the damage, with 50 percent of the windows and parts of the roof being wrecked by the storm. Vehicles and other equipment at the airport were reportedly tossed around as the storm hit the area, leaving behind damaged roadways and considerable ruin to airport entrances. However, officials say it appears that planes were spared the wrath of the storms.

“We are working with all the airlines to assess damage, at this time we do not believe any aircraft was damaged,” Lambert- St. Louis Int’l Airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge said in a statement.

Officials say the airport remained closed indefinitely as crews worked to clean up the mess left by the severe weather conditions.

Thousands of residents in the surrounding areas and in other parts of Missouri were also left in the dark Friday, after storms knocked out power. Several homes and other structures sustained damage, while trees and power lines came tumbling down as a result of high winds.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Cold Temps, Snow: Just How Harsh Was this Winter?

Comstock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Between the extreme cold temperatures and a set of punishing snowstorms that repeatedly brought havoc to a good chunk of the eastern United States, it was a tough winter for some.

Take Nowata, Oklahoma, for example, where temperatures in February dropped to a record 31 degrees below zero.  When December lows dipped to just 31 degrees above zero, Sarasota, Florida broke a cold-temperature record that had stood for 82 years.  And in February, an Arctic blast drove Laramie, Wyoming temperatures down to a bone-chilling minus 61 degrees.

In terms of long-term temperature trends, however, just how much did winter's wrath hit this time?  Apparently, not so much.

"The last two winters being a bit colder than normal has generated a lot of headlines.  But in the longer historical perspective, they're really not very exceptional," said James Hurrell, a senior climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.

Hurrell has just completed a new temperature analysis that shows the winter of 2010-2011 was, on average, warmer than you might think -- it ranked as only the 39th-coldest winter in the U.S. since 1895.

"It was colder than normal," in some places, Hurrell said.  "But those cold regions were balanced by some very warm regions in other parts of the country."

Areas of the southwestern U.S., for example, along with parts of Alaska recorded warmer-than-average winter temperatures, according to the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina.

A vast majority of climate scientists say that -- despite natural short-term weather events that can bring wild swings of cold and warm -- long-term climate trends continue to show a gradual warming currently taking place globally, consistent with human-caused climate change.

"We are in a warming climate," said Richard Somerville, a climate scientist and distinguished professor emeritus at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography who also has served as a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  "The long-term trend is about a third of a degree Fahrenheit increase per decade."

Perceptions that the past winter was colder than normal were driven partly by the fact that record amounts of troublemaking snowfall were recorded across parts of the Midwest and Northeast.  New York City, for example, was hit by eight snowstorms that dumped at least 36 record-breaking inches of snow.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Floods to Wreak Havoc On Parts of Midwest

Photo Courtesy - Getty Images(MINNEAPOLIS) -- Whether you loved all the snow this winter or hated it, one thing you can count on is that all of it is going to melt. And if you live in the Midwest, you’re probably in for a very wet spring.

For the third straight year, forecasters are predicting moderate to major flooding in the Midwest, stretching from Missouri to North Dakota. The cities of Minneapolis, Sioux Falls, S.D., and Fargo, N.D., are at the highest risk for floods.

Residents have already begun filling sandbags in anticipation of a flood season that could be aggravated by more than five feet of snowfall and frigid temperatures that held the snow in place.

For the first time, researchers say there is evidence that the huge amounts of precipitation this past season may not be all Mother Nature’s doing. Global temperature has been increasing over the past 50 years due to human emission of heat trapping gases.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

California Storm: Evacuations Ordered, State of Emergency Declared

Photo Courtesy - Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- Southern California authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders for residents in mudslide-prone areas Tuesday night ahead of more heavy rain Wednesday.

The extreme weather conditions prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a state of emergency for six counties in the Greater Los Angeles region.  The counties affected are Kern, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo and Tulare.

Officials went door to door telling more than 200 homeowners in the foothill areas of La Canada Flintridge and La Cresenta that it was not safe to remain there.

If residents refuse the mandatory evacuation, officials make them sign papers acknowledging they are on their own.

Southern California has been hit hard by heavy rains since the weekend, creating scores of accidents and prompting residents to evacuate.

Weather forecasters predict the strongest in the series of storms will hit Southern California early Wednesday morning.

Los Angeles can expect three to six more inches of rain through Wednesday.

Copyright 2010 ABC News Radio

California Braces for More Rain, Possible Mudslides

Photo Courtesy - ABC News/Google Earth/NOAA(LOS ANGELES) -- From the mountains to the foothills, California residents are bracing for another round of heavy rain and threats of mudslides. For the past week, residents faced relentless rainfall along with snow and high winds.

In the northern part of the state, the storm knocked out power to thousands of customers, according to local utility companies. Southern California has been hit hard by heavy rains since the weekend, creating scores of accidents and forcing residents to prepare to evacuate.

The Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu has been blocked with mudslides and rocks.

Los Angeles can expect three-to-six more inches of rain through Wednesday.

Over the weekend in Anaheim, Disneyland received about four inches of rain and Hollywood received more than five inches of rain -- the most since the 1920s. Lake Tahoe reported nearly nine feet of snow.

While California was pounded with rain, there were pileups in Spokane, Washington, as one car after another skidded helplessly into the snow mess on Monday. Las Vegas and southern Utah are expected to receive another one to two inches of rain on Tuesday.

Forecasters say the storm is moving east, bringing a white Christmas to places like Fargo, North Dakota and much of Minnesota.

Copyright 2010 ABC News Radio

West Coast Braces for Heavy Rain, Snow

Photo Courtesy - ABC News/KABC-TV Los Angeles(LOS ANGELES) -- The west coast is getting hit with the first of what is predicted to be a series of strong storms over the next four to five days. California is forecast to get heavy rains and strong winds, with significant snow totals in parts.

Mudslides are of concern in the Los Angeles area where K-rail concrete barriers have been assembled in parts to defend homes from the flow of water. Areas east and west of the city are expecting a foot or more of rain.

Snow could reach up to 10 feet in parts of the Sierra, while it's expected to total nearly a half-foot around Tahoe, an area which could see 15 inches by the middle of next week.

Copyright 2010 ABC News Radio

Hurricane Season Ends as One of the Busiest, Yet Mildest on Record

Photo Courtesy - Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- The 2010 hurricane season officially ends Tuesday, and although 19 storms in all were named, the season was one of the mildest on record.

"It was one of the busier ones that we've observed since our records began back in the 1800s, mid-1800s," says National Hurricane Center meteorologist Todd Kimberlain.  "We had 19 named storms, 12 of those became hurricanes, five of those were major hurricanes."

Of those named storms, only one made landfall in the U.S.: Tropical Storm Bonnie.  Bonnie moved over south Florida in late July, but only for a brief period of time.

Kimberlain says, "For the sheer amount of tropical cyclone activity that we had, to not observe one U.S. landfall is kind of unusual.  We would have expected something."

A few factors may have led to the storms' relatively gentle natures.  According to Kimberlain, "We had a very persistent trough of low pressure offshore the U.S. east coast and that directed a lot of storms north and then northeast out to sea.  There were other storms that formed down in the western Caribbean and they primarily affected Central America and Mexico because of a very strong ridge of high pressure over that area."

Copyright 2010 ABC News Radio

Fierce Winds Continue to Tear Through the Midwest

Photo Courtesy - ABC News, WLS-TV(NEW YORK) -- Violent winds continued to rip through the Midwest Tuesday.

Residents living in Midwestern states have experienced winds upwards of 70 mph, according to local media reports.

The National Weather Service now predicts "the development of widespread winds and a few tornadoes" for regions spanning the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys as well as the Great Lakes region throughout Wednesday.  Storms are also expected to reach the Lower Mississippi Valley and parts of the Appalachians.

Copyright 2010 ABC News Radio