Severe storms rock Plains, Midwest with 5-inch hail and 95-mph winds

Thunderstorms raced across the Plains and Midwest Wednesday, knocking out power to a quarter of a million people, many in the Omaha area.

Severe thunderstorms raced across the Plains and the Midwest on Wednesday, dropping hail as large as 5 inches in diameter in Minnesota, with a 4-inch-diameter stone reported in Prairie View, Kansas. The Minnesota hailstone may have been the largest reported in the state in 38 years. Winds gusted over 90 mph at several locations in Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota.

One of the thunderstorm complexes overtook Omaha, Nebraska, Wednesday evening, prompting severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings. The storm transformed day into night, prompting social media videos showing intense, hurricanelike conditions as winds gusted to 90 mph at Eppley Airfield.

A tornado was reported by authorities near Council Bluffs, Iowa, and a 911 call center filed a report of a tornado near Murray, Nebraska, on the Missouri River.

More than 250,000 customers were without power on Wednesday night, according to PowerOutage.US, but less than 200,000 Thursday morning. Most of those, 155,000, were in Nebraska around Omaha.

The storms will move into the Ohio Valley on Thursday and will reach the East Coast Friday through the weekend.