New Tornado Watches in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Five o'clock Eastern, I'm Poppy Harlow. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Breaking news this hour, the Dallas-Fort Worth area now under an increased risk for a tornado. New tornado watches have been issued for parts of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. This is in addition to earlier tornado watches in Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska. Many towns already reeling from destructive storms just two days ago. Now they are bracing for what could come tonight with the new tornado watches nearly 20 million people are at risk from the violent weather. Tornadoes are likely in the watch areas. But they have not yet been spotted. Another weather system to tell you about. Beach goers along the Carolina Coast need to be wary of the first named tropical storm of the hurricane season. Tropical storm Ana will bring up to five inches of rain when it washes ashore tomorrow morning. CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray is storm chasing in Oklahoma. Brian Young is in Oklahoma City. And Pedram Javaheri is in the CNN severe weather center. Guys, thank you very much for being with us. Let's go straight to you Jennifer. What are you seeing on the ground there? All right. I think we lost her shot which is understandable in the weather. We're going to try to get that back up for you. In the meantime, let's go straight to Ryan Young, he joins me now on the ground in Oklahoma City. And Ryan, I mean, look at what's around you. This is from what happened two days ago.</s>RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Poppy, you know these people are just bracing for the next part of the storm. What we have been showing you is images of damage. I can tell you, all around us people have been trying to get the power back on. So, you know how critical that is. Just look at this, you can see what sort of left behind here. The woman who owned all this stuff right here had recently lost her husband and was trying to salvage anything she could before the storm hit. We're seeing people are showing up with trailers like this one. Just trying to pick up what they can from this storage facility. But I think the story that really got to us was the fact that there's a motel that's just across the way here. And I'm going to tell it just a little bit. When you see this motel and see the fact that the roof blew off the top of this, we're told by a family here they had seconds to know that the storm was coming. They all ran into the bathroom. They took a mattress, put on top of the kids and then all of a sudden tried to ride out the storm. They believed three storms hit all at once. They were able to survive and today they were able to make it back and try to get some of their stuff that they had left behind here. As you look back this direction, you can see all the damage that has been left behind. This storm seemed like it picked its spots and tore things up. And you have noticed that before in tornado coverages as well, Poppy. So, we look at this and we talk to people, they said the number one thing for them today was they were hoping that not as much rain as before and they were hoping that the wind wouldn't be as strong. So far, so good. We are getting the rain, we do see lightning, but not the hail and heavy rain that we've had over the last few days.</s>HARLOW: All right. That's good news, but stay safe, you and your team there, with that lightning around in the live truck, it can't get dangerous. Thanks very much, Ryan, I appreciate it. Let's go to Jennifer Gray. We do not have her shot back up, but she's in a storm chasing vehicle so we have her on the phone with us. What are you seeing, Jennifer?</s>JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Bobby. We left Norman, Oklahoma, about two hours ago. We're traveling south on I-44. Now, we're heading into North Texas because that is one area that we're really focused on. The storm prediction center has increased the threat level there. And so, we do think some pretty nasty storms are going to start firing up in the next couple of hours. We're actually following a storm chase team from the University of Oklahoma and Howard Burstein (ph) is our fearless leader here. And they basically have a radar, a Doppler on wheels, that they are going to place ahead of the storm and try to put it inside the storm. They are actually out here doing research and what it does is help our forecasting capability and we learn a lot from these storms. And we're following them out here to the area. We're going to see what we can see. And we have about four or five-car caravan here that we're going to head into the storms in the next couple of hours.</s>HARLOW: All right. Jennifer, stay safe, thank you for that. As we look at this live shot from your vehicle as you're driving into North Texas where it is expected to get pretty rough. Jennifer, thank you very much. Pedram, let's go to you in the severe weather center. I know that now they have extended this tornado watch until 10:00 p.m. Central Time. But I want to be really clear. This is a watch, this isn't a warning.</s>PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right. These conditions are favorable, as for storms to spot a tornado. But when you transition into a warning, which we think certainly could be a possibility in the coming couple of hours, that's when the conditions are eminent or occurring. So, we're watching this for 16 million Poppy in the area right there highlighted in red is actually a moderate risk for severe weather. Just issued in the past 30 or so minutes. That means on a scale of one to five, that is a four as far as the potential for severe weather right there around Dallas in the coming couple of hours. At this hour, conditions are on the quiet side around Dallas. But of course, you know, historically speaking, the month of May over 270 tornadoes come down. We have seen 70 just in the past three days. We saw in Ryan's live shot out there in the field that the tremendous damage that's in place from the rainfall and of course the storms recently around Oklahoma City. So, that's the issue right there when it comes to what you'd expect in the month of May. And we do have a couple of new warnings as far as severe thunderstorm warnings just around Cisco and also west of Graham, Texas. One of these storms around Cisco, Texas, their cloud tops Poppy are up to 60,000 feet high. So, it shows you what a large-scale feature we're talking about. And that's the concern as these progress onto the next three to four hours. You approached that and bring that towards areas around Dallas, that becomes a major issue. And in fact, the models between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. tonight begin to show some of these thunderstorms. And Poppy what the issue with this morning was we had large complexes of storms all at the same time producing the tremendous rainfall. But to spawn tornadoes, you typically want the storms to become isolated from one another so they have their own energy to work with as supposed to putting them all together. And that's what it looks like could happen later on tonight.</s>HARLOW: And what about the tropical storm building in the city off the Carolinas? How bad is that expected to get?</s>JAVAHERI: Yes. You know, it's going to make landfall over the next 12 or so hours, 12 to 24 hours. And when it does, in the early morning hours there off the coast of the Carolinas, about 60 mile per hour winds. So, just shy of hurricane strength. If it gets to hurricane strength, it will only be the fifth time in about 150 years we have seen a hurricane impact this portion in the month of May across the United States. But there it is on satellite imagery gusting near hurricane force. So, any sort of beach goers plans for Myrtle Beach to Wilmington, a lot of rainfall certainly, a lot of storm surge as well and the rip currents of course are a big threat on Mother's Day there as well.</s>HARLOW: Absolutely. All right. Pedram, thank you so much for tracking the severe weather for us across the country. We'll keep you posted on that. Also, we're going to talk next about the Department of Justice investigation into the Baltimore Police Department. Is it justified? One of my guests says yes, the other says absolutely not. The sheriff of Milwaukee will join me along with Marc Lamont Hill, next.