Wild World of Weather: Tornadoes, dust storms and spring snow

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Weather in the US this week couldn’t make up it’s mind on the season. Storms brought tornadoes to parts of the southeast, flooding up in Maine, dust storms to the midwest and snow up north.

Tornado rips through Palm Beach

Severe weather hit Florida last weekend leaving a swath of damage.

Video was captured of a car being flipped by a tornado in Palm Beach Gardens on Saturday.

Massive amounts of debris were left in the wake of the storm including tree damage, structural damage and cars stacked atop one another.

The tornado was rated an EF-2 by the National Weather Service with maximum wind speeds of 130 mph. The tornado was on the ground for about 11 minutes.

Virginia Beach hit by tornado

More tornado activity brought damage to parts of the East Coast this week.

A tornado touched down in Virginia Beach, Virginia on Sunday. There was extensive damage left behind - including trees, cars and gas leaks. Major structural damage to more than a dozen houses in the area was also documented.

Officials in the area said between 50 and 100 homes were damaged when the tornado struck.

The National Weather Service in Wakefield rated the tornado as an EF-3 with winds up to 145 miles per hour. The path was 4.5 miles long.

Flooding issues in Maine

Up in Maine, the same persistent low-pressure system that brought storms to the southeastern US caused major flooding early in the week.

Roadways were flooded, washed out and closed due to scenes of flooding on Monday. Over 8,000 Central Maine Power customers were out of power after the storms.

Some areas of the state saw up to 6 inches of rain in 24 hours.

Dust storm causes pileup in Illinois

In the Midwest, rain wasn’t the problem this week - but clouds of dust.

A major highway in Illinois was shut down after a dust storm blew through triggering a chain reaction crash.

At least 72 vehicles were involved in the pileup on the two-mile stretch of highway I-55.

Wind gusts between 35 and 45 miles per hour lifted the dust, deteriorating driving conditions.

Seven people have been reported dead and 37 people were injured.

Spring snow in Michigan

The first day of May was on Monday ushering in the peak of spring... but Michigan didn’t seem to get the memo this week.

People were digging out of a snowstorm in Marquette County to start the month.

The storm caused power outages and bad driving conditions. Snow also brought down trees and led to car accidents.

The snowfall set records in the area including the greatest calendar snowfall in May, greatest 2-day snowfall in May, snowiest May on record and greatest ay snowfall depth. These were set with only one day of May completed.

It was a typical spring snow - heavy and wet - making it very difficult to clean up.

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