chad myers is checking on the storms. hi, there, and welcome back to our special cnn coverage live in boston. i'm brooke baldwin. huge tribute concert in the building behind me, this is the td garden. in terms of the timeline, it has been just about six weeks since those two bombs detonated at the finish line on boylston street of the boston marathon, and the city, i mean, i was here for three weeks. pretty quickly you could tell these folks here were beginning to heal. it's a tough, tough city. and tonight, a star-studded affair to help in that healing and in that recovery process here at the td garden in town. if you have seen the lineup, if you have not seen the lineup, these are huge names hitting the stage for this benefit concert benefitting the one fund, which is set up by mayor menino. i am talking aerosmith, new kids on the block, carole king, boston, james taylor, just to name a few. we're also told there may be some special guests and a couple of comedians, as well, rocking out to the one fund this evening. now

also watching this play out is our meteorologist chad myers. and chad, you know this area very well, you used to work and live in this area. we saw a tornado rip through a neighborhood live earlier here on cnn and it was nothing, nothing but -- nothing less than anything incredible. >> yeah. you know, don, when you see this live, it really brings home what people live through when they're in their own homes. you tell everyone to shelter, to get inside, but i don't think anyone has a feeling for what it is like. when we have pictures of things like this of things torn out of the ground, roof trusses, walls getting knocked down, it really brings to light how much you have to prepare for situations like this if you live in an area that's prone for tornadoes. we're talking about the noaa weather radio. pictures here you see, just homes leveled. this is an ef-3 to an ef-4 tornado. probably a 3 at this point. the pictures you see here. now we're talking 140 to 170 miles per hour when you talk about damage like that, don. >> chad myers, apologize that

chad myers. we have you covered. chad myers, our meteorologist here in atlanta also our affiliates there. a number of affiliates. you see one on the air reporting live in koc oechlt. they've got you covered as well, they've got our backs we've got yours and we're watching and our meteorologist in-house, jennifer delgado. new information on the path of these tornadoes in the system. what do you have for us? >> update everybody. this tornado warnings we're watching and looking at in parts of oklahoma. this is going to last until 5:30. we're talking central time. now, since the last hour, a lot of these have changed over from the tornado warnings now to thunderstorm warnings. this is some new development. as chad just said for oklahoma city, yes. you can start to relax a bit, because we're looking at severe thunderstorms right now, but no warning indicating tornadoes. that's good, but the area that we're watching to the north, west of chandler, that is still an area we're looking at with a tornado w

chad myers, stand by.e'll be getting back to you, and as we continue on with our coverage tonight, they are searching the debris for two people who are missing in one oklahoma county, and we have learned from our nick valencia that one person has died, according to to an official in pottawatomie county, and that's where the video you're looking at now, shawnee, oklahoma there. we'll continue on with our coverage. a very short break. don't go anywhere. Ñe >>> all right. i'm don lemon. you're watching breaking news here on cnn, and we're looking at several disaster areas in the american midwest tonight. sunday started normally enough in kansas and oklahoma, and then this. >> tornadoes, lots of them, in edmond, oklahoma and then in a straight line to luther, then to carney. they ripped up trees and tore up houses in a wide path. >> whoa, that thing is huge. >> the same storm system sent tornadoes into towns around wichita, kansas. here's what we know about the people and the storm zone. one person is dead. at

all right, we'll go back to chad myers. that was a storm chaser on the ground near oklahoma city, population of 600,000. we're watching a tornado that has touched down right outside oklahoma city. chad, how did this storm event happen? what exactly was going on in oklahoma city to create this tornado? >> about two hours ago there wasn't a cloud in the sky. that sounds like a great thing, but in fact it's not, jake. when you don't have clouds in the sky, the sun heats the ground rather quickly. there was humidity everywhere from yesterday's storms and just from the gulf of mexico. that humidity and hot air wants to rise. as it rises you get the towering cumulus. that was all the way down to duncan and northwest texas. now as the storms continue to develop, this is a supercell storm we call them. all by itself, not in a big line, one supercell storm with a very large we'll call it a wedge tornado on the ground, we're seeing power flashes left and right now. this is north of new castle, crossing the h.e. bailey, eventually cros

chad myers who tracks the storms for us, chad, where are you? what are you seeing where you are? >> i would say we're five miles southeast of el reno. we're directly behind us. we watched it spin up. i watched it as my driver drove as straight as he could in the wind that was 80 to 90 miles per hour. watching the tornado spin up in a wheat field. i saw dirt and debris being sucked up along with the roots of the wheat crop. so we stopped at the corner. we took a couple pictures. now the storm redeveloped. it's just a funnel cloud. i don't believe it's on the ground. i'm looking straight north at it. i have great definition. we're in no danger whatsoever. it looks like it's going to recycle. it's going to lose power for a while and then all of this moisture, still 80 degrees outside, 85 degrees where we are, all of this moisture, all of the humidity will be sucked back into this storm. it will regenerate. what i'm concerned with now, now we're only 30, maybe less miles into a major metropolitan area. now we're probably 15 miles. five miles into the suburbs of oklahoma city. and thi

chad myers is in norman, oklahoma chasing some of these storms even as we speak right now. ery latest, chad? >> i think the latest, wolf, is that there was a very early rush hour today. i think people are taking this very seriously. i know we're all shell shocked between how many tornadoes we've had the past couple of weeks but people heard about this and they said i think we're going home early. because i have not seen so many cars on the road at ten after 3:00 as we were driving from edmund down to norman. now we're back on the road headed toward mustang into i-40. we'll travel i-40 west a little bit. this is where the storms are going to fire. the reason why this is important is because these are going to be large tornadoes today. they are firing west of oklahoma city. oklahoma city runs from almost guthrie nowadays which is edmund north. i believe some 40 mile populated stretch from north to south between edmund and moore. there's very little that a tornado could go through without hitting a populated place. the storms are going to fire to the west of this populated plac

chad myers, you know, chad myers, our cnn meteorologist, guess where he is? hern kansas right now. he is imbedded with this team of storm chasers. we're going to see what they're seeing. chad will take us through of course beginning in just one short moment. but first let me just walk you back to yesterday. you see this? this giant twister. look at this thing. this was on the ground for half an hour. it skirted this small town of corning, kansas, thank goodness, didn't do too much damage despite these pictures you're looking at. again, this was yesterday. flash forward to today, simply stated, red -- see the map, red means danger. more than 3 million people are under the gun right now including chad. chad myers, you're on the phone with me. tell me where you are. and i hear you are chasing storms as i speak to you. >> well, you know, brooke, they couldn't let us together more than one day in a row. that would be a new record. so here i am out in kansas. we'll be in the oklahoma panhandle soon and eventually into the texas panhandle where the town of boerger ha

cnn's chad myers and tom saider will join me now. had, you're storm chasing in oklahoma and have been there for a day now, what are you seeing and seeing now? >> reporter: although the storms die off in the evening hours, the storms tonight seem to have held a lot of punch. we just rolled through the valley, a string of hail, an awful lot of hail, probably

so is our own chad myers.ll over the latest tornado warnings and actual tornadoes right now in oklahoma. i missed a payment. aw, shoot. shoot! this is bad. no! we're good! this is your first time missing a payment. and you've got the it card, so we won't hike up your apr for paying late. that's great! it is great! thank you. at discover, we treat you like you'd treat you. get the it card with late payment forgiveness. where over seventy-five percent of store management started as i'm the next american success story. working for a company hourly associates. there's opportunity here. i can use walmart's education benefits to get a degree, maybe work in it, or be an engineer, helping walmart conserve energy. even today, when our store does well, i earn quarterly bonuses. when people look at me, i hope they see someone working their way up. vo: opportunity, that's the real walmart. all stations come over to mithis is for real this time. step seven point two one two. verify and lock. command is locked. five seconds

our very own chad myers is en route there. >> unbelievable. tom, thank you, appreciate that.and business bulletin for you. tonight, new questions about the new athletic director hired to turn around rutgers troubled athletic program. julie herman was named a senior athletics administrator. this comes just days after a report that volleyball players accused her of verbal abuse when she coached them back in the 19 9d 0s. president obama returned to the jersey shore today seven months after season day caused billions of dollars. the president walked on the board walk and said, yes, the jersey shore is open for business. >> and i saw what thousands of americans saw you are stronger than the storm. after all you've dealt with, after all you've been through, the jersey shore is back and it is open for business, and they want all americans to know that they're ready to welcome you here. >>> also this. passengers are arriving back home on charter flights from the bahamas after a fire on the royal caribbean's "grandeur of the seas" cruise ship canceled the trip for more than 2200 peop

the meteorologist that we love when it comes to this situation is chad myers.oklahoma where the worst weather's expected. it doesn't look bad behind you right now, but is it always sort of the calm before the storm there? >> you know what, ashleigh, it looks very bad to a weather man behind me. because you don't want the sun out. you don't want that blue sky. you don't want it to be six degrees warmer where i'm standing today than it was right here yesterday. and you certainly don't want blue skies for the rest of this afternoon because that makes a lot worse weather than we had yesterday. i know we had our share of tornadoes, most of them up in nebraska. but today, because we're not going to see the cloud cover we saw yesterday, the severe weather will be right back here in oklahoma city, back here into guthrie, maybe on up toward el reno, into piedmont, it's that right there, it's that sunshine that's really going to make a severe weather day for us here in oklahoma. we'll be out with storm chasers today. we'll be out with professionals. now, i don't have tha

joining us on the phone right now is cnn meteorologist chad myers, who is in the area where the storms could hit. chad, where exactly are you and what is the latest? >> reporter: i'm about ten miles east of chickasha, oklahoma now on the road up toward blanchard where i believe the storm is heading. this storm is headed to the areas that were hit so very hard, jake, and even if we don't get a tornado and hopefully we do not, because this storm did lose some organization just in the past 15 minutes. that's why we're on the move going a little bit farther to the east to get a little bit better look at this tornado or potential tornadic storm. right now it is just a severe thunderstorm warning. think about winds of 60 or so miles per hour and hail falling on those people trying to pick up their lives in moore. that's what we're seeing. this is the hail core of the storm almost turning into more than the rotation. certainly the storm can reinvigorate itself. we have a tornado warning for the area up near perkins, oklahoma north of oklahoma city. we will keep you advised on this. right now

i have chad myers who has been watching this. and, look at this smoke.see black smoke, we have seen white smoke, but you have seen, what, a truck in addition to this train. this train. >> i believe just up the track greater baltimore and how high and huge this black plume of smoke is above this scene. from maryland to illinois we go to chicago and an arrest in the case that symbolized a new low for the violence overtaking that city street. janae watkins was 6 months old in her father's lap, in a car, when a gunman shot and killed her and wounded her father back in march. chicago police say this is the guy this is the gunman, 33-year-old colin willis turned himself in to investigators and police say he took the life of one of chicago's smallest victims because her father stole from willis. they also acknowledge despite the many, many shootings they faced, this one hit too close to home. >> this was a real hard one for the team. everybody up here, i'm almost without a doubt we all have our own kids, especially when it is a young child like this, the guys p

meteorologist chad myers is tracking winds and fires for us. chad, how unusual are these weather conditions this time of year? >> this is not fire season. fire season doesn't happen until august and september. we should not have these fires. let me back you up two years. over the past two years if you add up all the rainfall on average, l.a. should have had 29 inches. they've had 14. that's half of what they should have had. so now these shrub, all the stuff up in the mountains, that should be green from the winter rain that didn't get any winter rain. it's already brown like it's september. so the fire season has already started three months early. now, this storm, this fire event here, i mean, i'm talking the winds yesterday 45, 50 miles per hour, it was a big event. but overall from a scale from one to ten, this fire's a two compared to what we are going to see this fire season. millions of acres of wild land fires this season because the drought in the west is still in full swing. now, today, around this fire winds die down to about 20. that

i'm now going to go to chad myers in atlanta. chad chad?

chad myers we just mentioned will be in wichita throughout the day tomorrow. >> looks like it will be bad tomorrow. wichita, once again, tell us about oklahoma city, because we all know what they went through last week in moore, oklahoma, which is right outside. >> well, the biggest threat there is going to be obviously just debris. any winds that will kick up even from what we call an outflow boundary, even if these super cells are well to the west of oklahoma city or moore, those outflow boundaries can obviously stir up the debris, which is going to be quite dangerous. anyone living in this area really knows now of course to heed the warnings or make the precautions now, but some of these, we could reach in the range of ef-3, ef-4 so again, it's a moderate risk which is fairly high on the scale of our threat. >> everybody's got to be really, really careful out there and take all of the precautions. tom, thanks very much. we'll check back with you if anything new breaks in this hour. >>> we're continuing the breaking news, though, with a storm chaser who got very, very close to one o

also, chad myers on what made this such a powerful and destructive storm. years ago, my doctor told me to take a centrum silver multivitamin every day. i told him, sure. can't hurt, right? and now today, i see this in the news. once again, centrum silver was chosen by researchers for another landmark study. this time looking at eye health. my doctor! he knows his stuff. [ male announcer ] centrum. the most studied. the most recommended. and the most preferred multivitamin brand. the choice is clear. how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s. and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed much is the official retirement age. ♪ the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. ♪ >>> we're looking at the size of that funnel cloud and seeing the wreckage on this block. it's not hard to believe that this was a major tornado. it was, in fact, at the very

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joining me is cnn's chad myers in oklahoma and wabc meteorologist amy frieze and storm chaser jeff petrowski. chad, what is happening right now? >> reporter: we behind me now have a new tornado warning. you have to understand we're on a special kind of signal here. we'll have a small little delay, maybe three or four second delay so this will go back and forth between you and me. right behind me there was a tornado forming not three or four minutes ago. the funnel tried to get to the ground but didn't quite get it. we are near paul's valley, oklahoma. if you are in the paul's valley area, you need to take cover right now, because that funnel could come to the ground. something else i think you should see, piers, is that there are cars and trucks on i-35 right here driving right straight into this storm. they don't really know that this storm is ahead. they just saw that lightning flash, clearly, but they don't understand that there's a tornado warning right in front of them. now, there are apps that you can buy for your cell phones, for your smartphones, that will tell you that you are drivi

chad myers is live for us in watonga, oklahoma. chasing storms today across the state. chad, what's the latest? >> well, it just started raining here, piers. but we do know that a lot of weather is still on the way here. behind me, right over my shoulder, an awful lot of lightning over the top of those silos there, the grain silos. let's just go from the start. that was yesterday. yesterday's storm was bennington, kansas, a big wide wedge tornado, on the ground for a long time, and even another storm around corning, kansas yesterday. the weather moved a little bit farther south into the west, over texas today. and we were in it. boy, we were in it with our hail. i'm surprised one thing -- one thing surprised me today, piers, is that all of the windows stayed in our vehicle. we got wailed on by this large hail for miles and miles and miles. it just wouldn't stop. and now we have at least the potential for a tornado, very close to the ground or even on the ground south of elk city headed to kordell. that's on the radar. we are not going to be out of this until the wee hour

so is our chad myers. he is chasing storms today

let's go to chad myers now in the weather center. chad, what's in store?here's more weather coming to you. it's not going to be a tornado. there's more weather developing in western oklahoma moving your way. if you stand outside right now and you're in oklahoma city or moore, it's 60 degrees. it's humid. it's 60 degrees. that's not the 85 or 90 that you had yesterday. the air mass has changed. potential for tornadoes will be well south into texas into southern oklahoma. that's where our first tornado watch box is. back out here to the west. this is about weatherford another storm coming your way. there will be lightning. there will be wind. there may be small hail. this is the setup that we had yesterday. the cold air was here. right through here, through the plains, that's where the severe weather happened. that's where the tornadoes happened. today this entire front has moved to the south 150 miles so the severe weather will be down into parts of shreveport, into dallas, little rock and points north from there. this is how it will set up. biggest area wa

cnn's chad myers and tom saider will join me now. chad, you're storm chasing in oklahoma and have been there for a day now, what are you seeing and seeing now? >> reporter: although the storms die off in the evening hours, the storms tonight seem to have held a lot of punch. we just rolled through the valley, a string of hail, an awful lot of hail, probably up to nickel size, but often broken arrow, a large and dangerous tornado on the ground moving to the east. that's over the creek turnpike and then to the east. so not toward the city of tulsa, but to the east of tulsa through the eastern suburbs and then out toward east of that area into a much less populated area. but this is a large, extremely dangerous tornado on the ground right now that has moved through broken arrow and part of the suburb and now moved over the turnpike and points east. >> chad, i understand you used to work in that area, from your perspective, how bad is this and how close are you to that tornado? >> reporter: we are still, even if we started, we are two hou

also, chad myers on what made this such a powerful and destructive storm. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol as part of a heart healthy diet. that's true. ...but you still have to go to the gym. ♪ the one and only, cheerios ♪ the one and only, cheerios >>> we're looking at the size of that funnel cloud and seeing the wreckage on this block. and for miles around. it's not hard to believe that this was a major tornado. it was, in fact, at the very top of the scale for tornadoes an ef-5. just quickly to explain what that means and talk more about how the storm measured up, i want to check in with chad myers and the weather center. chad, explain the ranking system. >> when you get an ef-5, that means some building doesn't exist anymore. by the three, you're losing an outside wall, four, you'll lose a lot of walls and five you'll lose everything. 2 you lose a couple of shingles. five you lose everything. that's where we are now. 200, 210 miles per hour. when that tornado was on the ground as an ef-4, this is what it looked like. notice kind

we're chasing that system live, chad myers is on the ground with a group of storm chasers.ll get to him in just a moment. first, meteorologist is "outfront" and tracking these storms now. what are we looking at tonight? >> we're talking 60 million of you under the severe weather threat today. also moderate risk is out there. we already had a dozen reports of tornadoes today. the bulk of them in nebraska. one of them reported in the texas panhandle. you can see a large swath here of people under this severe weather threat even as we go through the overnight hours. the moderate risk area is in oklahoma, kansas and down through texas. that involves over two million of you this evening. the problem, some of these tornadoes are rain wrapped. they're very difficult to see. it's really not the only concern. here's the typical setup that we continue to watch. it's that warm, moist air. it is really dry air. it merges. so along the dry line, we see the storms fuel up there. you add the jet stream with the low. all this is like bringing the perfect storm. it will continue through the

central time cnn meteorologist chad myers spotted the telltale signs of a tornado. >> you look down it was a ball. the next time i looked at that doppler radar there was a hook echo on the bottom. and i looked at it, i looked at it again. there's the spin, there's the hook echo. i said, did i just see this? did this just happen in six minutes? because this wasn't here. >> you could feel it all coming. you're knowing as a storm chaser that it's going strong, in fact it's going to intensify. there you see it. now it's on the ground. >> moments later. >> look at it, on the ground. >> a tornado was born. >> we are in moore and we have a tornado to our west. >> i widened up to a skin in tornado and then as it moved into the moore area it widen. >> not ten minutes ago this was not in contact with the ground. it's a fast developing storm, we knew it, saw it and then the tornado dropped straight to the ground. >> as thousands scrambled to safety, kevin, colt and lauren raced toward the storm. >> we should go west if we want to get closer, guys. >> at that time i'm focused on driving because a

so is our chad myers. he is chasing storms today in western kansas. chad, got you on the line there. what are you seeing? oh, i see you. >> you know, we are in greensburg, kansas, a town that was hit by an ef-5 tornado just six years ago. you look over my shoulder, the town -- brand new, well taken -- but you look at where i'm standing, which used to be a church turned into an antique mall. obviously things look a whole lot different. i talked to the people here and they said, you know what, it just takes time. six years isn't enough to put your town back together from an ef-5 tornado. so the people -- that's what they're telling people in moore. please be patient, take your time and realize that this recovery is going to take a long time. you're not going to put moore back together in one month. so we are out here in west texas, in western kansas, western oklahoma covering the tornadoes we expect to be on the ground today. it is windy, it's muggy, but where we are right now in greensburg, it's not sunny. and that's some good news. you don't want it to

chad myers is tracking it all and joins me now. chad, you're storm chasing in oklahoma. there has been a lot of extreme weather today. what's the latest there? >> reporter: actually, there are probably more chasers today than i have ever seen before because we knew this was going to be a very big day, but over my shoulder, the rainbow appears as the storm moves away and the sun comes out, as we begin the sunset. let me take you over here, show you all the storm chasers. all these storm chasers. some of them just want to see the tornadoes but others are here to help the national weather service put out the warnings in time, and there were plenty of warnings today. there was hail, there was wind damage. no real big tornadoes and we really got lucky, i believe. i can't really believe that the storm that we were on in oklahoma didn't put a tornado down very close to moore and norman. the storm did not develop, it kind of got in its own way, it turned to the right and into its own cold air. never want to do that. we want these things if you want them to die, to get right down

our meteorologist chad myers is on the ground with brave and/or crazy storm chasers. chad, where are you right now and what are you seeing? >> we're in laverne, oklahoma about to head into texas and we're seeing the sunshine. and let me tell you, jake, that is a bad thing. you don't want to see sunshine on a severe weather day. that means your air is heating up. hot air like a hot air balloon wants to rise and so therefore you get thunderstorms. and the wind is blowing terribly here. let me just step out. i'm kind of shielded by the truck. i'll just step out of the way here. it's going to be very hard to hear. you can hear what i'm saying in the wind as we just -- the whole area, this wind is blowing in from the south, blowing in very humid air from the gulf of mexico. that's the humid air that is going to go up into the sky and create these big severe thunderstorms and, yes, they're going to be all day and possibly even all night long. >> all right. chad myers, stay safe. thank you so much. >> you're welcome, jake. >>> the politics lead. she's moving on. >> my good fr

chad myers is joining us from the weather center. chad, at this point, it is still very early hours in this search and rescue effort. we know just from past efforts soon they'll have to divide up the disaster zone into grids and go house by house, block by block, literally foot by foot to search for any survivors and account for the people. at this point give us a big picture of how big this tornado was and where it hit. >> it was the storm as big as two counties wide, all the way from well east of oklahoma city back down to newcastle and moore and then through twin lakes, here's the radar site right there. this right here would be about 60 miles from one side to the other and the tornado down here, touched down first in newcastle. the first warning came out at about 2:40 p.m. the first touchdown, we watched it on tv, about 2:53 to 2:55 p.m. so a few minutes' notice for newcastle and it continued to drive itself right into moore. there is the hook echo. we talk about the hook. this is the rotation. this is the semicircle, the hook rig

will be in danger again. >> we're going to come back to these live pictures, chad myers. meowners to see the flames so close and know there is absolutely nothing you can do. chad, we'll come back. thank you. this big cleanup in texas is under way. you see seize zigzag formation, here they are, these train cars. this is a cargo train actually jumped the tracks. more on that. we'll tell you what about. and politics meets rock 'n' roll. chris christie and john bon jovi. the governor signing a bill that hits close to home for this new jersey rocker. y too many aren't. why? because selling their funds makes them more money. which makes you wonder -- isn't that a conflict? search "proprietary mutual funds." yikes! then go to e-trade. we've got over 8,000 mutual funds, and not one of them has our name on it. we're in the business of finding the right investments for you. e-trade. less for us. more for you. the fund's prospectus contains its investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and other important information and should be read and considered carefully before investing

central time, cnn meteorologist chad myers spotted the telltale sign of a developing tornado. >> you look down and it was a ball. the next scan, the next time i looked at that doppler radar, there was a hook echo on the bottom. and i looked at it. i looked at it again. there's the spin. there's the hook echo. and i said, did i just see this? did this just happen in six minutes? because this wasn't here. >> you could feel it all coming. you're knowing as a storm chaser that it's going strong. in fact, it's going to intensify. >> there you go. you see it? you see it. now it's on the ground. >> reporter: moments later -- >> look at it, mike. on the ground. >> reporter: -- a tornado was born. >> we are in moore, oklahoma, and we have a tornado to our west. >> it widened out to a straight up and down skinny tornado. as it moved into the moore area, it widened and widened and widened. >> not ten minutes to go, this was not in contact with the ground. this was a very fast developing storm. we knew it, we saw it, then the tornado dropped right straight to the ground. >> reporter: as thousand

our chad myers is live with a storm chaser right in the middle of it all. he is standing by at a slimmer, trimmer governor, chris christie opening up to "people" magazine about his state, his lap band surgery, and what could be a very bright political future. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> out of the blue a surprise announcement today by michele bachmann the tea party darling and former presidential candidate says she is leaving congress after this term. >> be assured my decision was not in any way influenced by any concerns about my being re-elected to congress. and rest assured this decision was not impacted in any way by recent inquiries into the activities of my former presidential campaign or former presidential staff. >> let's talk about this with our brand new cnn political contributors and democratic strategist stephanie cutter the republican strategist kevin madden and our chief political analyst gloria borger is here as well. first of all to our newest contributors welcome to cnn. we'll talk a little bit about that shortly.

remember, in a very long time, jim. >> chad myers, painting a grim picture for us. chad, thank you.ng word of mandatory evacuations at point magoo naval base. staff sergeant noah joins us on the phone right now. sergeant, what are you seeing right now? >> good evening, sir. they evacuated us over here that they usually have for the naval reserves. we're waiting for the smoke to clear so we can hopefully go back home. hopefully tomorrow around 6:00 p.m., that's the word we got. we're just waiting. >> what were the conditions like before you left? >> they were pretty bad. actually, everywhere there was thick smoke. hard to breathe. but the firemen came in and took care of it and 208d us to hurry up and evacuate and get out of here. and gave us the direction to go. >> and sergeant, one thing we've heard from a lot of people is that typically this is the sort of fire activity you see during the summer. or late in the year. maybe going into fall. are you hearing some of that similar talk, and does that have people worried where you are? >> yes, sir, i heard a little bit from the guys who

i want to bring in chad myers now, our severe weather expert, our meteorologist. in danger right now? >> you know, still, don, we have tornado watches all the way from minnesota down to oklahoma. a couple of storms are still rotating at this hour which means they could have warnings on them. think about this. warning has more letters. it's more important than watch. which is a shorter word. warning, the bad word. watch, the not so bad word. but still, it's out there. you can still get something during a watch. the warnings could still go for the rest of the night here back on even to the north. we get up into parts of minnesota, into places just north of the quad cities. we've had tornadoes on the ground today. tonight. we could even have some now in the dark in the dark part of the day, those are the most dangerous because typically spotters don't see them in time to put out warnings sometimes. don? >> hey, chad. look at this video of the damage. it's just amazing to take a look at this. this is what we're getting in. >> oh, my. >> getting in all evening. we're g

chad myers is with us as well. chad, you used to live in oklahoma. you know this area well. is it normal a tornado rips through an area and all of a sudden flames develop? >> well, you know, there could be gas leaks. there would certainly be water main leaks. there will be power lines that you think are dead but aren't and they could be sparking as well. typically you don't get too much like this, but when you get probably -- wolf, we're talking ef-3 to ef-4 damage, somewhere between 150 to 200 miles per hour with some of this damage i'm looking at from it these aerials this is certainly a possibility. something else. we talked about new castle with the emergency managers a little bit ago. there's another rotating thunderstorm not that far from new castle that may very well get toward valley brook and dell city. there's not a tornado warning on that yet, but you see what can happen with these rapidly developing thunderstorms. there is a severe thunderstorm warning on that cell, and if it continues to rotate or rotates even stronger, it may be upgraded. so valley brook, dell

meteorologist andrew peterson and chad myers is here to talk about the outbreak of tornadoes. were so many reports over the weekend. >> 24 yesterday alone, several parent storms. a parent can have more than one sibling or a child, skipping along a bit. that's how we get to the number of 24. 24 reports so far t. weather service will see if they are checked by one big long line. a couple in des moines and wichita and shawnee, the one we focused on and how it developed yesterday, these parent tornadoes were all by themselves. they became the big dog. they were the supercell tornado not being affected by any other storm out there. i'm sure you or your brothers had a came battling tops. you put a string around this top. if it goes around the bowl, if you spin one, it bounds forever. if you put the two, they bounce off each other, they spin less time. this thing spun all by itself because it was the only top out there, carol. >> it's just incredible. over to you indra, the weather is not going to be terribly nice today, either. >> unfortunately, we can see that severe weather potenti