A large and dynamic storm system bought widespread impacts across much of the United States at the end of February 2023. In the Great Plains and Midwestern United States, significant impacts from severe weather occurred, including a tornado outbreak. The most most impactful day in terms of severe weather was on February 26, when a powerful line of severe thunderstorms containing damaging straight-line winds and multiple embedded tornadoes impacted the Texas Panhandle, southern Kansas, and most of the state of Oklahoma. Dozens of instances of large hail, damaging wind gusts, and multiple tornadoes were confirmed with this event, including an EF2 tornado that killed a person near Cheyenne, Oklahoma. A wind gust from straight-line winds was reported in Memphis, Texas, which was the highest wind gust since the August 2020 Midwest derecho. Five of these tornadoes formed in the Oklahoma City metro area, including a high-end EF2 tornado that caused severe damage in the southeastern part of the city of Norman. More tornadoes touched down in Illinois the next day, including some in the Chicago metropolitan area. In the Northeastern United States, heavy snowfall was recorded. Meteorological synopsis An upper-air disturbance, combined with high-altitude cold air and low pressure, dove southeast from British Columbia into the Western United States on February 21. Severe weather February 26 The threat for organized severe weather across Oklahoma and adjacent areas was first highlighted by the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) nearly a week before the event, on February 21 with a 15 percent risk area issued for the eastern Texas Panhandle, the western half of Oklahoma and much of Kansas. The next day, as computer models began to exhibit greater consistency from run to run, a portion of the risk area was upgraded to a 30 percent risk area, and subsequently to a level 3/Enhanced risk on the day 3 convective outlook. The day before the event, this Enhanced risk was expanded northeastward toward Missouri and a level 4/Moderate risk was introduced across western Oklahoma, where increasing confidence caused forecasters to advertise the potential for a widespread damaging wind event. On February 26, the greatest risk area was again extended across much of Oklahoma, and the SPC also messaged the potential for a few strong/EF2+ tornadoes across southwestern portions of the state. The 1630 UTC day 1 outlook noted that a powerful derecho with embedded swaths of straight-line winds was likely, along with embedded