A whopping total of 81 tornadoes slammed the Midwest on Sunday, ABC News reports, hitting states including Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana and Ohio, with Illinois being hit the hardest with a total of 43 twisters in the latest outbreak of storms.
At least six people were killed in Illinois on Sunday as severe thunderstorms and tornadoes ripped through the state, flattening neighborhoods, toppling trees and sent cars flying into the air, The Associated Press reports, Gov. Pat Quinn having declared a disaster in seven counties.
Michigan, Wisconsin and Tennessee also suffered damage, while two people suffered minor injuries in Ohio, three dozen were injured in Indiana, and at least two people were found dead in Michigan after the storms.
The entire U.S. gets an average of 35 tornadoes in November, but after "one of the quietest tornado seasons in 40 years," five states were hit Sunday with twisters of unusual force for this time of year, as the peak of severe weather typically occurs in April and May. It is however, not unheard of for a severe weather season to occur in late fall.
"The peak of the secondary season for the United States as a whole is rather diffuse, but is centered over the middle of November," Harold Brooks, senior research scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla., told MSN Local.
The "perfect atmospheric soup" on Sunday of a strong jet stream aloft of more than 100mph helped blow and lift moist air from the surface coming from the Gulf of Mexico from the southwest to the northeast and across the Midwest, according to ABC News, local warm and humid weather conditions also contributing to the "twist" in the atmosphere and creation of dozens of violent, large and powerful tornadoes.
On Sunday, "winds aloft over the regionstrengthened rapidly from 70 mph to 140 mph," according to Greg Carbin, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center, adding that such conditions are relatively rare.
"During November there is a tornado outbreak about once every seven to eight years," Carbin told MSN Local.
