Current Weather Situation latest forecast cyclone reports, and hurricane,flood images.

The reports said atleast 12 people were killed when tornadoes struck the south-western states of Oklahoma and Arkansas overnight Wednesday. Several tornadoes struck during rush hour on Tuesday, killing at least eight people in Oklahoma, two in Kansas and three more in Arkansas.

The National Weather Service said that the tornado 'destroyed the full town' of Denning, Arkansas, which has a population of 270 and is about 160 miles south of Joplin. Rescue crews began the frantic search for the missing on Wednesday, which included a three-year-old boy, after a tornado destroyed his home in Piedmont, northwest of Oklahoma City, injuring his mother and siblings.

The high-powered storms arrived just two days after a massive tornado tore through the southwest Missouri town of Joplin and killed 122 people. The other fatalities were reported in the neighboring state of Arkansas. The newest deaths came as meanwhile the death toll from the massive killer tornado in Joplin, Missouri rose to 125, according to the television news network CNN. Hundreds of people in the city were still missing.

A heavy rain with scattered thunderstorms is streamlining off of the Atlantic Ocean and gradually moves towards northward into northern New Jersey. Isolated thunderstorms are also expected Friday and Saturday yet Sunday promises to be sunny with only a 10 percent chance of rain and a high of almost 80 degrees. A chance remains over the next few days for some locally heavy downpours to initiate some flash flooding of roadways and streams.

The threat of showers and thunderstorms, especially in the afternoons, will remain and high temps will reach near and exceed 70º. A few breaks of sunshine will become more possible as well especially on Friday. Saturday will definitely see a return to at least partial sunshine, however, there is still probably going to be afternoon scattered showers/T-storms developing with highs in the mid-upper 70s. Hopefully by Sunday we can eliminate the threat of afternoon showers/storms. I'm calling for mostly sunny skies with highs in the mid-upper 70s at this moment.

The Mississippi River is flooding with increasing frequency. The mighty Mississippi River flows covers over 2,300 miles from Minnesota down into the Gulf of Mexico with 159 cities situated along its banks. The increased flooding along the Mississippi is due to climate change. This latest flooding of the Mississippi River, brought about by record April rainfall in the Ohio River Valley and very high levels in other states, killing at least 18 people, flooding millions of acres of farmland. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the Morganza Spillway in an effort to prevent flood waters from effecting larger cities like New Orleans and Baton Rouge by intentionally flooding surrounding areas. It is the first time the spillway has been opened in 40 years.
The fact is we had a tremendous amount of snow over the winter and all that started melting about the same time all this rain started falling a few weeks ago. To be plagued with too much rain will destroy property and lives. It swells the rivers and creeks. Large bodies of water at the ocean shores lines will be made to swell with unusually high waves, dumping billions of tons of water over the now seashore line.
Rain weakens and destroys railroads, truck line beds and bridges. Rain undermines foundations of all types of buildings. Rain makes the atmosphere too heavy with moisture causing sickness. Wind with rain can bring destruction to towns and cities, bringing various germs, causing sickness to the people. It produces unclean water by the swelling of streams and destroying reservoirs of pure drinking water used for the health of the people. Rain is a destructive army within itself. Hail stones are also a property and life destroyer. The weather calamities would increase, taking both a physical and economic toll on a country. Millions of acres of land andcity infrastructure have been destroyed or damaged.

Mississippi's and Louisiana's governors announced flood warnings said on Thursday and declared states of emergency. The authorities along the river in both states are warning residents to brace for the possibility of floods and thunderstorms that caused widespread damage in several southern U.S. states in recent days.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency expects the river to reach its flood stage this weekend and continue to rise over the coming two weeks. River boat casinos in Mississippi are closed and levee managers are readying sand bags to fight the rising river along hundreds of levees in both states where the river crosses en route to the Gulf of Mexico. Barbour said during a news conference that this is one disaster we can prepare for ahead of time.

The floods would be the most recent natural disaster to hit the U.S. Southeast, already they are affected by tornadoes and violent storms that killed more than 280 people this week, including at least 32 in Mississippi. The Mississippi River is predicted to rise almost 3 feet higher than it did during severe flooding in 2008, when local levees failed after months of rain and many homes were ruined by water damage.

The river is forecast to hit the highest point at 53.5 feet on May 18 at Vicksburg. That is the uppermost river stage recorded at Vicksburg since the catastrophic flooding of 1927 when the river reached 56.6 feet and would have kept on rising if levees hadn't given way, causing enormous flooding and killing hundreds. After that calamity, the nation undertook an aggressive $13 billion plan to build levees and flood ways that would avert such a scale of flooding again. Barbour said residents should review their flood insurance policies with their insurance agents and move important property to safer locations.