Another major tornado outbreak takes aim at the Southeast this week

For the second time in two weeks, a major tornado outbreak is forecast to threaten the Southeast on Thursday. Early indications are this has just as much potential as last week's outbreak, which resulted in 73 tornado reports in 3 days.

Despite the large number of tornadoes last week, only two injuries and no deaths were reported, largely due to the fact that most of the tornadoes hit less populated areas. Since the exact location in which a tornado hits is pure chance, we simply can not count on another major outbreak having minimal impact again.  This threat comes as a new study shows tornadoes are often much stronger and wider than typically estimated by the National Weather Service — estimating that over 20% of tornadoes are capable of causing catastrophic damage, equal to the highest intensity EF4 to EF5 ratings.