A powerful and dangerous late season storm system has generated more than 50 tornadoes and killed at least 3 people across the US midwest, and will continue to develop over the evening hours. The town of Washington, Illinois has been effectively flattened, and the National Weather Service is warning that millions remain at risk as the system moves east. Chicago is in the range of the enormous system, which stretches from the middle south into the northern Midwest and is expected to sweep into the mid-Atlantic states within hours.

Stay ahead of the weather with the Unknowncountry Climate Watch section, where violent autumn storms were predicted for the US last summer.

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Jeff Masters, founder of Weather Underground has announced that Super Typhoon Haiyan has made landfall in the Philippines as the most powerful storm in recorded history. It contains sustained winds of 196 miles per hour, far more than the 145 miles per hour expected at landfall. On his blog, Masters said, "this makes Haiyan the strongest tropical cyclone on record to make landfall in world history. The previous record was held by the Atlantic’s Hurricane Camille of 1969, which made landfall in Mississippi with 190 mph winds."
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Rivers across Central Europe rose above flood stage as parts of Prague flooded along banks of the Vltava River. So far, two people have died in flooding in Germany and Switzerland, and two are known dead and one missing in Austria. Declining energy from the Gulf Stream is driving less and less warm water into the waters around the British Isles, leading to cold and unstable weather across the western and central parts of the continent. At the same time, cold fresh water flowing down into the North Sea from Arctic melt has intensified unusually cold spring conditions across central and northern Europe.read more

Tornadoes stalked the Midwest once again last night. At least 17 twisters were reported across five states, with the greatest concentration in Oklahoma and around Oklahoma City in particular. So far, 5 people had been reported killed and 71 injured. There has been extensive property damage both from high winds and from the flooding that accompanied the storms. While tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Indiana and Illinois, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma City in particular, took the brunt of the storms.
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