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Several tornadoes tear through Texas, leaving at least 4 dead

Rescue efforts are ongoing for people possibly trapped by debris in Matador, Texas.
Several tornadoes tear through Texas, leaving at least 3 dead
Posted at 4:36 AM, Jun 22, 2023
and last updated 2023-06-22 07:59:30-04

For the second time in a week, a destructive round of severe weather swept through northern Texas. At least four people were killed and nine injured Wednesday night in Matador, Texas.

The storms spawned three tornadoes that roared through the Texas panhandle and decimated the small town.

Surrounding areas also got hit with hail the size of softballs and wind gusts of more than 100 miles per hour.

There is significant damage in and around Matador, with dozens of damaged homes, snapped power lines and disrupted infrastructure.

The tornadoes in Texas were among the dozen or so reported in the Western and Central U.S. on Wednesday, including six in Colorado.

The National Weather Service satellite shows the system that dropped those twisters now moving through Central and Eastern Texas and heading south toward Houston.

SEE MORE: Broken tornado sirens will be part of FEMA review in Congress

The satellite is also showing strong storms Thursday morning throughout the southeast and another powerful system over eastern Colorado dropping a lot of rain. There are flash flood watches and warnings from Denver east into parts of Kansas.

Strong storms and severe weather alerts are expected from Wyoming down through eastern Colorado and into the three corners: New Mexico and the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles.

The storms across the High Plains could spin up a few tornadoes and more damaging hail.

The excessive heat warnings are not as bad for Thursday, as these were mostly focused on Corpus Christi west to the Rio Grande. The rest of the state of Texas is still under heat advisories.

In the upper Midwest, they are seeing air quality issues due to heat, Canadian smoke and ground ozone.


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