The week of April 13–18, 2026 will be remembered as one of the most sustained and damaging severe weather outbreaks of the spring season so far. Nearly five consecutive days of tornadoes, softball-sized hail, catastrophic flash flooding, and record river crests hammered the central United States — from the southern Plains to the Great Lakes — in an event that forecasters had been tracking for days but that still managed to leave a significant mark across multiple states.

Here's the full recap — and a look at what's coming next week.

Monday, April 13: The Outbreak Begins

The week opened with a bang. As an atmospheric cap weakened across the central Plains through the afternoon, supercells erupted along a warm front draped across the Upper Midwest and ahead of a dryline through Kansas. By the time the evening was over, the SPC had received at least 14 preliminary tornado reports spanning four states.

Kansas absorbed the heaviest blow. Multiple tornadoes tracked across eastern Kansas, with the most significant striking Miami County near Hillsdale, where roughly 50 to 60 structures were completely destroyed or significantly damaged. A lake community southeast of Mound City took a direct hit. The Ottawa area also reported structural damage and downed power poles across a wide swath. The Hillsdale tornado was preliminarily rated EF2 with winds up to 115 mph. Kansas Governor Laura Kelly issued a verbal disaster declaration the following day to mobilize recovery resources.

In southern Minnesota, three tornadoes were confirmed near Truman, Amboy, and Matawan — Minnesota's first significant tornado event of the 2026 season. Hail up to 3 inches in diameter was reported across Rice County, with egg and golf-ball-sized stones widespread. In northwest Iowa, tornado reports came in near Emmetsburg, Graettinger, and Webb. No fatalities were reported across the day's events, a remarkable outcome given the scope of the outbreak.

Tuesday, April 14: Wisconsin Takes a Hit

Tuesday brought no relief. Tornado watches covering more than 22 million people were issued across a corridor from the Upper Midwest to the southern Plains. In Wisconsin, a confirmed tornado near Union Center in Juneau County produced a radar-confirmed debris signature — a house on Raese Road was destroyed and significant tree and power pole damage was reported along its path. The NWS La Crosse office issued a rare Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS) tornado warning for the storm.

In Iowa, hail up to 2.75 inches in diameter was reported near Charles City, and multiple storm reports came in across the state through the afternoon and evening. The system that day stretched from the southern Plains to the Great Lakes, with Chicago, Milwaukee, and Des Moines all sitting under an Enhanced Risk. The week's running tornado total climbed past two dozen by Tuesday night, and hail reports were approaching 100.

Wednesday–Thursday, April 15–16: Damaging Winds and Flooding Shift East

Wednesday and Thursday saw the severe weather threat become more wind-dominated as storm clusters consolidated. The primary concern shifted toward damaging wind gusts from Texas through the Chicago area, with large hail remaining possible across parts of Iowa and the Upper Midwest. The tornado threat dropped somewhat, but the flash flood threat was rapidly escalating.

Rivers in Michigan and Wisconsin began to respond violently to the accumulated rainfall. By midweek, more than 20 river gauges across the two states had reached major or record flood stage. The Wolf River in Wisconsin crested nearly a foot above its previous record flood stage — an extraordinary reading that put streets in the village of Shiocton under as much as a foot of water. Shiocton officials ordered evacuations. Residents of neighboring Waupaca and Outagamie Counties were advised to evacuate. In New London, Wisconsin, volunteers were urgently recruited for sandbagging operations. The flooding was being described as one of the wettest starts to spring on record for the region.

Friday, April 17: Three PDS Warnings in One Day

Friday delivered the week's most alarming afternoon. A fresh surge of jet stream energy tapped into the Gulf moisture plume still flooding the region, and the atmosphere responded violently. An Enhanced Risk covered a corridor from Oklahoma through Wisconsin, with the highest tornado concern — including the potential for EF3 or stronger tornadoes — focused from La Crosse, Wisconsin to Davenport, Iowa and Moline, Illinois.

Three separate PDS tornado warnings were issued in a single afternoon — an extraordinary number for any day. One was issued for a storm near Cream, Wisconsin at 3:34 PM CT, another moments later at 3:43 PM CT for Lena, Illinois, and a third as storms continued to organize through the evening. The NWS confirmed more than 20 preliminary tornado reports across Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, and Iowa.

In Marathon County, Wisconsin, approximately 75 homes in the town of Ringle sustained damage after a tornado moved through from Kronenwetter northward. Several homes were completely demolished. In Lena, Illinois, significant structural damage was reported including impacts to school buildings and residential structures — though remarkably, no serious injuries were confirmed. In Minnesota, a tornado near Rochester in Olmsted County damaged homes and prompted a temporary shelter to be established for displaced residents. In Howard County, Iowa, a tornado near Saratoga resulted in one reported injury.

Widespread damaging wind gusts of 60 to 90 mph were also capable of uprooting trees and knocking out power across already storm-battered communities. Flash flooding continued across a region where the ground was long past its capacity to absorb additional rainfall.

The Week in Numbers

By the time Friday's storms cleared, the week's totals were staggering:

• Nearly 50 tornado reports across Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, and surrounding states
• 350+ hail reports, including multiple reports of softball-sized stones
• Record river crests at 20+ gauges across Michigan and Wisconsin
• 3 PDS tornado warnings issued on Friday alone
• Multiple homes and structures completely destroyed; hundreds damaged
• Zero confirmed fatalities — a testament to forecast lead time and public response

The Weekend: One More Round, Then a Break

Saturday brought lingering severe weather potential across the southern Great Lakes and Ohio Valley as the system made its final push eastward, along with a Marginal Excessive Rainfall Risk for portions of the South, lower Mississippi Valley, and Texas as a cold front swept through.

By Sunday, the atmosphere finally begins to take a breath. A strong cold front is pushing a cooler Canadian airmass into the eastern half of the country, effectively shutting off the Gulf moisture tap that fueled this week's repeated outbreak events. The early season heat wave that sent East Coast temperatures into the 80s and 90s mid-week will be replaced by more seasonable conditions as the week progresses.

What's Coming Next Week

The break is real — but it may not last long.

Sunday through Tuesday should be the quietest stretch of weather the central U.S. has seen in nearly two weeks. A Canadian high building across the eastern two-thirds of the country will keep the atmosphere stable and dry. Out west, a new Pacific storm system arrives Sunday and brings rain and mountain snow to the West Coast states — largely beneficial moisture for California and the Northwest.

By midweek (Wednesday–Friday), the pattern begins to wobble again. The SPC's Day 4–8 outlook is already noting that forecast guidance consistently shows mid-60s dewpoints returning to the Plains and Midwest — a clear signal that Gulf moisture will be making another run northward. Multiple shortwave troughs embedded in a developing large-scale western trough are being tracked, and models are beginning to signal severe weather chances increasing from Wednesday through Friday. The ECMWF and GFS are showing different solutions on the details — the GFS more aggressive with a consolidated mid-level trough — but the general trend toward renewed severe weather potential in the mid-to-late week period is consistent across guidance.

The CPC's Day 8–14 hazards outlook adds another concern worth watching: a Moderate Risk of high winds for portions of the Great Plains and Southern Rockies around April 24–25, as lee cyclogenesis is expected ahead of an amplified western trough. With dry soils across parts of the southern Plains and active wildfires in some areas, those winds would carry significant fire weather implications.

Perhaps most sobering: the CPC is also flagging possible flooding for parts of the Great Lakes region and the Upper and Middle Mississippi Valley — a threat that doesn't require new heavy rainfall to materialize. The rivers across Wisconsin and Michigan are already at or above record levels. The soil across the Upper Midwest is saturated. Any meaningful additional precipitation on top of that will have nowhere to go.

Stay Informed

It has been an extraordinary stretch of spring weather, and the pattern shows little sign of settling into a quiet routine. Monitor active NWS alerts for your area in real time at nwsalerts.net — including storm reports sourced from trained spotters via IEM GeoJSON, live SPC convective outlooks for Days 1 through 3, WPC Excessive Rainfall Outlooks, and the new alert history archive going back to 2002.