Tornadoes and Torrential Rain in the Midwest

Summer has ended and in its wake is a trail of destruction across the Midwest and parts of the east coast.

From June through September, upper Midwest states saw more rain than in previous years. In West Virginia, residents experienced a months' worth of rain within hours. Torrential and oftentimes sporadic storms flooded areas, uprooted trees, and damaged infrastructure. Some communities endured long-term power outages and in other areas residents were forced to evacuate their homes and have since become displaced.

Under-resourced communities with outdated infrastructure are still in recovery, even as State of Emergencies are declared and neighbors provide support. First responders and health experts say they are prepared to address immediate needs, but struggle to adequately support communities with resources when emergency response endures from days to weeks.

As climatologists evaluate the extreme events, two things are certain: severe weather patterns are becoming more intense and dangerous storms are happening more often.

"A warmer atmosphere can have more moisture in it," said Melissa Widhalm of the Midwest Regional Climate Center. "It's primed for bigger, heavier rainstorms around the whole world."

Tornadoes and Floods Cause Displacement

In July, West Virginia's governor called for a State Emergency for all 55 counties as severe storms moved across the state. From July 21^st to 22^nd , the National Weather Service tracked nine tornadoes across several counties. Some traveled over 20 miles while others had shorter spurts of less than a mile.

"I've never seen it like this before," said Dr. Kevin Law of the West Virginia State Climate Office.

"Our hills and mountains allow a lot of runoff, so whenever we have just three inches of rain, where that may not be that impressive for other areas, it is for us because that runs off very quickly and is channeled down to these valleys where a lot of people tend to live. It's more dangerous," he said.

Law is a geography professor at Marshall University. He said it's a misconception that West Virginia doesn't have tornadoes due to its mountainous landscape.

"A lot of our tornadoes are what we call rain ramps, meaning they are embedded in thunderstorms," he said. "It also makes them more difficult to see."

Law said that in the two days of heavy storms, parts of the state saw up to seven inches of rain within six hours. The state's average rain totals for the month of July is about four inches.

"To put that into perspective, if you're getting seven inches, you're almost getting two months' worth of rain in six hours," Law said.

Longterm residents said the situation was devastating.

"Thousands of people were out of their homes," said Brooke Waybright. "There were houses that were picked up off their foundation and floated down a stream that didn't exist an hour before. People's vehicles were totaled."

Waybright is the director of compliance at Barbour Community Health Association in Belington, West Virginia. The health center worked with first responders to support public health needs following the storm. Belington didn't experience the worst of the storm, but Waybright said health center staff put together diabetic care kits for residents who were unable to grab daily medical needs, donated hygiene kits to donation centers, and set up mobile clinics to provide tetanus and hepatitis vaccines in neighboring communities.

The National Guard was deployed, and many people were rescued from the roof of the homes with paddle boats. Waybright said it was an eye-opening experience as she witnessed how quickly the water levels rose and how many residents have lost everything. The State of Emergency was extended for several counties, and clean-up efforts continue.

"We're a big community here in West Virginia and a big family," she said. "We all jumped in where we could."

A Memorable and Terrible Summer

The Midwest didn't fare much better.

According to the Illinois State Climatologist, the state experienced a record of 210 tornadoes by the start of September. The previous state record for tornadoes was 142 in 2024. In the University's report, experts described the 2026 tornado frequency in Illinois as 'truly remarkable."

The Midwest Regional Climate Center at Purdue University reported over 70% of Wisconsin was in a drought by summer's end. Minnesota had its 12^th warmest summer and its worst smoke outbreak in at least 50 years. Detroit, Michigan experienced its first tornado in 29 years, and the state experienced over $6 billion in damage from wildfire smoke.

Melissa Widhalm, associate director and regional climatologist at MRCC said the Midwest is known for experiencing severe weather, particularly in the winter. However, she said 2026 has had a "memorable summer" with "terrible amounts of rain."

"We are getting more rainfall than we used to," she said. "Year over year, everywhere across the Midwest, we are seeing more rain than we used to."

On August 11, a derecho, or long-lived windstorm and torrential rainstorm affected the Lake Michigan area. According to the MRCC, the area experienced 70 to 100 miles per hour winds.

Local news reported 375,000 locations lost power due to the severe weather. Customers in Gary, Indiana, a city whose residents are predominantly Black, were without power for nearly two weeks and were not informed of when their power would return, while other locations had power restored much faster.

The derecho crossed into Ohio, creating flooded streets and forcing school closures on the first day of school.

'Do We Get Carrier Pigeons?'

In the weeks that followed the Midwest derecho, residents waited in hours-long lines for gasoline, struggled to find alternative housing, and impatiently waited for the lights to return.

Melissa Mitchell, chief executive officer of HealthLinc, said when the storm began the sky turned black.

"It got really ugly, really fast," she said.

The HealthLinc network has health centers across six counties in northern Indiana. The organization anticipates expanding into a seventh county before the end of the year. As the storm knocked out the power system, Mitchell said they were forced to temporarily close four sites. The health experts moved patient appointments and used generators to maintain temperature control for specific medications.

When the generators failed, Mitchell said they had a team move medications and vaccines from location to location.

"We're used to taking severe weather hits for winter weather like blizzards," she said. "We've done a lot of accommodation to try to manage that and navigate those problems, but we have not had so many of these summer and spring storms that we've been getting this year."

Indiana experienced several bouts of heavy rain in July, making it easier for trees to fall during the high winds and intense rain in August. The summer heat threatened public health, as the lack of power meant no air conditioning.

Mitchell said that three HealthLinc staff members lost their homes and 85 others lost power for at least a week. Even more, no internet or cell service was available, which made contacting staff and patients more difficult.

The local pharmacies were also without power and patient records were unavailable. While the health center could offer vaccines for immediate needs, Mitchell said it was difficult to provide continuous healthcare without modern technology.

"That created additional headaches," Mitchell said. "Do we get carrier pigeons? What are our options when all of the modern methods of communication have been affected?"

Direct Relief contributed nearly $1 million in medical supplies to support emergency response in the United States in July and August 2026. Barbour Community Health Association and HealthLinc were two of several recipients.