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By Doyinsola Oladipo
(Reuters) -A deadly spring storm killed at least seven people and spawned tornadoes and drenching thunderstorms in a swath of the U.S. stretching from Texas to Ohio for a second day on Thursday, raising the risk of flooding.
The powerful system is expected to stall over the country's midsection, the National Weather Service said, fueling further deluges and possible tornadoes in areas already drenched with heavy rain.
"We're concerned there could be some strong but essentially intense tornadoes across Northeast Texas up into Western Arkansas," said Evan Bentley, a forecaster at the NWS' Storm Prediction Center.
The NWS upgraded the storms to a risk level four out of five on a scale used to measure the expected intensity of severe weather. Only 10 to 12 storms are given a four rating per year, making them "pretty rare," Bentley said.
The extreme weather has killed at least seven people since Wednesday, according to media reports. The fatalities include a father and his 16-year-old daughter who were killed when a tornado hit their modular home in Tennessee, according to the New York Times.
Five people in total died in Tennessee in weather-related incidents, one in Indiana and one in Missouri, NBC News reported. At least 13 were injured across the region.
About 34 tornadoes were reported across the region on Wednesday, according to the Storm Prediction Center. It confirmed that at least one tornado touched down in Wilmington, Ohio, about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Cincinnati.
Twisters were confirmed overnight in six states: Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.
Climate change is bringing heavier rainfall and related flood risks in most parts of the U.S., with the upper Midwest and Ohio River Valley among the regions most affected, according to Climate Central, an independent nonprofit that researches weather patterns.
In July 2023, for example, days of historic flash flooding spread across western Kentucky into portions of southern Illinois after six to 12 inches (152 to 305 mm) of rain fell, mostly within 10 hours, the NWS said.
On Thursday, the risk of rainfall topping flash-flood guidance was at 40% or higher for an area stretching from western Arkansas northeast to southwestern Ohio, according to NWS maps.
Flash-flood warnings are in effect in the Ohio River Valley from the northwestern corner of Mississippi to northeastern Kentucky.
"Any flash and riverine flooding across these areas will have the potential to become catastrophic and life-threatening," the NWS Weather Prediction Center said on social media.
The NWS is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The wave of severe weather is one of the first since the Trump administration began to sharply cut NOAA's workforce, part of an initiative by the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk, to slash the size of the federal payroll. The weather service is housed within the NOAA.
The layoffs and a buyout program are expected to shrink NOAA's headcount by roughly 20% and could hamper some of its operations, scientists and researchers have said.
Despite those concerns, there were no apparent delays or disruption in the weather service's forecasts for the areas affected by this week's storm system.
(Reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo in New York; Editing by Frank McGurty and Rod Nickel)
