On May 3, a moderate risk of severe weather was issued for parts of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, mainly for a threat of intense downburst winds.
[3] A number of "large and extremely dangerous" tornadoes were reported in Alabama in the afternoon of May 3 by Storm Spotters and the NWS.
It quickly formed into a major progressive derecho which tracked across the central Plains, the Ozarks and into the Ohio Valley.
[13] Dr. Joe Schaefer, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Storm Prediction Center, commented that the "derecho complex is one of the worst I've seen in the past decade".
In Valley Ranch, Texas, the practice facility for the Dallas Cowboys was destroyed by a microburst, injuring 12 people.