The system also resulted in a record-breaking and severe blizzard across the Midwest into the Northeastern United States; killing three additional people and leaving hundreds of thousands without power.

The threat area included the South Plains and the Mid-South from northeastern Texas into southern Missouri, where maturing convection was expected to lead to all modes of severe weather.

[4][5] In its day 3 outlook on April 11, the SPC issued an Enhanced risk of severe weather for areas between northeastern Texas into southwestern Missouri, noting that a supercellular storm mode was likely to produce large hail, damaging winds, and a few tornadoes.

A swath of 850mb winds at or above 50kt persisted underneath an elevated mixed layer, yielding an unstable environment characterized by mean-layer Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) of 1500–2500 J/kg.

Throughout the afternoon, confluent low-level flow caused several discrete thunderstorms to form across Arkansas,[8] where the SPC had issued a Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS) tornado watch.

Meanwhile, a cold front pushed eastward and soon overtook the dryline, forcing discrete thunderstorm activity into a quasi-linear convective system.

With abundant moisture and mean-layer CAPE still on the order of 1,500–2,000 J/kg, the SPC mentioned potential for swaths of damaging winds with isolated embedded tornadoes.

The potent upper-level trough that sparked severe weather farther west over subsequent days began to tilt in a northwest-to-southeast fashion, forcing rapid cooling aloft and geopotential height falls over a large region.

[18] The larger extratropical cyclone, named Xanto by The Weather Channel, responsible for the outbreak also resulted in a record-breaking and severe winter storm and blizzard across the Midwest into the Northeastern United States, as well as neighboring Ontario and Quebec.

The CN Tower and surrounding areas in downtown Toronto were closed for several days due to falling chunks of ice after the storm.