Several National Weather Service Twitter accounts were shut down Wednesday night as a line of severe weather and possible tornadoes moved across the Midwest.
Typically the accounts are used to send out potentially lifesaving information like weather warnings, radar loops and other important content. But as multiple tornado warnings were issued Wednesday evening, accounts from NWS offices across Missouri and Illinois were silent due to a hack that targeted “verified” accounts, which have a special blue checkmark badge marking them as credible and authentic.