Severe thunderstorms broke out across the Plains this afternoon, producing several strong tornadoes, hail to baseball size, and damaging winds in several states. Hardest hit were Oklahoma and Kansas, where several tornadoes caused considerable damage and a few fatalities. The image on the right shows the preliminary storm reports received today. Large metropolitan areas were affected by tornadoes during this event, including Oklahoma City, Wichita, and Des Moines. This is typically a worse-case scenario. Fortunately, the National Weather Service did an excellent job in predicting these storms well in advance, allowing residents to seek safe shelter.
The strongest tornadoes were just east of Oklahoma City and just west of Wichita, and caused widespread damage to several mostly rural communities. The radar image on the right shows a storm approaching Wichita. This particular type of storm is called a supercell. Supercells are typically isolated, large, rotating storms that often produce large hail and sometimes tornadoes. The supercell near Shawnee is near-textbook in appearance, with a hook-like structure on the southwest side of the storm. The tornado was located in the small notch inside the hook, north of Clearwater, moving east-northeast. North of the tornado, in the area of intense radar returns, was heavy rain and large hail. The image below the radar capture is a picture taken by storm chaser Juston Drake of a violent tornado near Shawnee, Oklahoma - truly frightening.
Conditions today were very favorable for supercell thunderstorms, with warm, moist air moving north from the Gulf of Mexico, cooler air moving southeast from the northern Rockies, a surge of dry, unstable air aloft from the southwest, and a strong jet stream overhead. The supercells that developed today remained isolated for several hours, allowing them to spawn several tornadoes along their paths. This isolation is important for persistent, strong tornadoes, because when on its own, the supercell does not have to compete with other storms for instability and moisture.
Unfortunately, a significant severe weather threat exists again on Monday, and to a lesser extent, Tuesday, covering some of the same areas that were affected today.
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