April 27th- May 9th | Tornado Outbreak Sequence

[Andie]

it’s tragic Omaha. Roads are so dangerous and seem to grow worse each year.  
My sister was killed on a wet highway by a drunk driver.  It’s terrifying and tragic.   
She was an oceanographer and we lost a fine scientist.  The other driver was a butcher by profession. Ironic.  
my life and my parents’ were changed forever.  Drive safe guys.  Please.  There’s enough danger out there waiting for us. 

[Grizzcoat]

1 hour ago, OmahaSnowFan said:

Tragedy last night for 3 chasers. My biggest worry chasing is all the driving, never the storms.

I was nearly killed 4 years ago next Memorial Day driving home from a chase. A jackknifed semi was blocking all lanes on I80 in the dark and rain. I came up on it driving 75 mph and only saw it when my headlights shined on the overturned trailer. I slammed on the brakes, turned hard right and somehow managed to parallel the semi as I headed straight for the ditch. I missed a pedestrian from a pulled over car walking on the side of the road by maybe a foot and managed to keep the car under control as well. The shock to my body of having a near death experience kept my chest sore for 3 days.

Rest in peace to the young students.

https://okcfox.com/news/local/three-ou-meteorology-students-die-in-car-crash-near-kansas-border

D**n. That's one of the saddest things I've heard in sometime.

RIP.

[Andie]

We had a high of 85* today.  
Ditto Sunday and Monday with a high chance of storms Monday.  
We need the rain 

[NWbyNW]

Kansas and other parts of the midwest are getting pounded by storms.    It's very sad. 

[Clinton]

Day 4 for Oklahoma 

[Iceresistance]

28 minutes ago, Clinton said:

Day 4 for Oklahoma 

I won't be able to see it myself, as I'm currently near Phenix City, AL

[OmahaSnowFan]

I'll be chasing again tomorrow down in southern Kansas. Looks to be another nice warm front/dry line set up as long as morning storms clear out soon enough. Here's the 12Z HRRR helicity tracks for tomorrow afternoon and evening.

I went through some of my dashcam footage from Friday's chase. I saw the tornado in southern Nebraska from a distance (unfortunately due to waiting for a pilot car in a one lane construction zone for 20 minutes), drove through some pretty crazy dust storms, and lastly ended up with some cool lightning. I'll put together an edited video sometime this week.

[Andie]

6 hours ago, Iceresistance said:

I won't be able to see it myself, as I'm currently near Phenix City, AL

North Texas should see an uptick in rain later this evening through the night.  Thunderstorms expected but so far nothing more than that.  
High of 86* should fire these off.  
 

Edit:   Just read they’re calling for potential 2” hail.   Please, no.  Just got a new roof.  

[OKwx2k4]

I love videos and pictures, but please PLEASE come back safe with them.

That incident (chasers in KS) and a major accident here (non-weather) with youth in my county say enough about the importance of valuing life and safety and awareness first. It's just a massive loss, to say the least. Same when a community is devastated.

[OmahaSnowFan]

18Z HRRR even more crazier looking for tomorrow in Kansas 🌪🌪

[Iceresistance]

Currently in Orlando, FL

 

Had a strong storm that missed me to the west, lot of lightning and thunder though.

[Andie]

Storms firing up in west Tx.   
Should arrive between midnight and one so prepared to be bounced out of bed.  
Looks like they could get pretty strong.  

[CentralNebWeather]

Local forecast looks like 1.0-1.5” from late tonight through late Monday night. No severe weather, just a steady rain with temps of 43 and winds gusting up to 40 mph. Raw day, but no complaints about more moisture. Another good chance late Tuesday night through most of Thursday according to the Euro. 

[Bryan1117]

1 hour ago, CentralNebWeather said:

Local forecast looks like 1.0-1.5” from late tonight through late Monday night. No severe weather, just a steady rain with temps of 43 and winds gusting up to 40 mph. Raw day, but no complaints about more moisture. Another good chance late Tuesday night through most of Thursday according to the Euro. 

So glad the pattern seems to have changed for most of us that live in Nebraska... it's nice seeing things starting to green up a bit more around here after the recent rain. 

[Iceresistance]

Pretty sunrise in Orlando

[Andie]

Thundered and rained all night. No sleep.  🥹  No rain totals yet   

What is the deal with all these night time storms??   Seems we get more now than in the past.  

[CentralNebWeather]

0.70" so far as of 7:30 AM.  Rain to last the entire day and hopefully accumulate close to 1.50" when it is done.

 

[Clinton]

Moderate risk issued for northern Oklahoma.  Chasers should do well today.

[CentralNebWeather]

My weather app says 1.35" so far, as the rain continues to pound down.  What a blessing this has been so far.  Will take all we can get this week.

[Iceresistance]

Supercells are developing in Oklahoma and Kansas

[CentralNebWeather]

Just got home from school. My gauge says 1.65” as of 3:55 pm. Nice. 

[Hawkeye]

9 minutes ago, CentralNebWeather said:

Just got home from school. My gauge says 1.65” as of 3:55 pm. Nice. 

The area farmers must be pretty happy.

[CentralNebWeather]

1 minute ago, Hawkeye said:

The area farmers must be pretty happy.

Ecstatic. Standing water everywhere. Been 7 months at least since we’ve seen that. 

[Tom]

2 minutes ago, CentralNebWeather said:

Ecstatic. Standing water everywhere. Been 7 months at least since we’ve seen that. 

The Heavens have opened…prayers were answered…God Bless!

[CentralNebWeather]

18 minutes ago, Tom said:

The Heavens have opened…prayers were answered…God Bless!

Lots of prayers answered for sure. Fires are out. Now planting will be delayed a little, but no one is complaining. 

[Andie]

 .65” of rain last night. 

More rain through Thursday as the Low moves across No Tx. 
It’s Okla’s turn tonight! 

[Clinton]

The storm Wednesday night and Thursday could really produce heavy rain here.  Currently only a slight risk of excessive rainfall but with an inch or two expected tonight I could see this risk increasing.

[CentralNebWeather]

May 2nd and we have snow falling. One of the strangest years I can remember. 

[CentralNebWeather]

Just east of me. 

[CentralNebWeather]

Precipitation as of 6 pm. 

[gabel23]

I have been home for 30 minutes and the temp has dropped from 39 to 36. I have 1.8" of rain so far and some fat snow flakes are starting to mix in. Radar doing a pretty good job of picking that up. Just a crazy week so far. 

[Andie]

The Low is still sitting in NW Texas and shouldn’t  push through till tomorrow night.
Temps will drop between 10-15* tomorrow. 

[OKwx2k4]

Bout to get a good pouring And a 60 plus mph thump. Thankfully tornadoes/rotation on my end are dissipated.

[Clinton]

7 hours ago, OKwx2k4 said:

Bout to get a good pouring And a 60 plus mph thump. Thankfully tornadoes/rotation on my end are dissipated.

Today's moderate risk is right on ya.

[Clinton]

I received .85in yesterday bringing my total since Friday night to 2.55 inches.  Cloudy, windy and cool today with highs in the mid 50s.

[Tom]

12 hours ago, CentralNebWeather said:

Precipitation as of 6 pm. 

 

12 hours ago, gabel23 said:

I have been home for 30 minutes and the temp has dropped from 39 to 36. I have 1.8" of rain so far and some fat snow flakes are starting to mix in. Radar doing a pretty good job of picking that up. Just a crazy week so far. 

IMG_1756.MOV

Let's see if you guys can set some snow stats wrt the time in between "Last Flake & First Flake" of the seasons.  That would be something to see after an dreadful winter for you guys.

[Iceresistance]

Seminole got 4 inch hail last night, but I'm shocked that there was a tornado near Earlsboro 

The Mesocyclone and the BIG hail missed my house again!

[Timmy Supercell]

[snowstorm83]

Drought monitor on Thursday should see some improvement 

[Clinton]

Tornado outbreak about to get underway in the southern plains.   Tornado watches from Amarillo to OKC.

[OKwx2k4]

Gonna be a fun night. That's a beast.

 

[OmahaSnowFan]

Uploaded a video from my chase on Monday 5/2/22. Another moderate risk that really underperformed given the 15% hatched tornado risk and even expectations of very large hail.

Unfortunately for me, I was far enough away (6.5 hours) that the discrete cells which offered the best structure and had a couple of brief tornadoes, were pretty quickly taken over by the surging cold front. I almost called off the chase when I woke up Monday morning based on how the models were now showing that scenario. But when you were excited as I was to go the night before based on what the models were showing, it's hard to change your mind.

I made it to this storm, mere minutes after it had a confirmed tornado, but it was only a brief tornado despite the obvious, very strong rotation with the storm. Shortly thereafter, it was overtaken by the cold front and became part of a line of storms with some wind and hail.

So in the end, I drove 6.5 hours one way to basically chase/be near the storms for an hour, and then had to drive back to make it back home at 1am. These are the days where I am like, what the f*ck am I doing, and my wife thinks I'm crazy!