Chinook

It got up to 100 at a couple of Loveland mesonet stations. Fort Collins-CSU broke a record with 98, exceeding a previous record of 94. Phoenix tied a record high of 115.

I put my indoor thermometer on the front porch in the shade and I got 98.5 today. The heat is coming in too early this year!

Some storms built over my area, going slightly westward at sunset. Despite the rainy month of May, this is only the 2nd day when I have seen lightning this year.

There really have been about 20-25 severe reports around Topeka, mostly wind, with a measured wind gust of 80mph. Kansas City may be getting high winds now, but there are no reports of trees down next to Kansas City yet. edit: some severe reports are north and south of Kansas City, although the storm did go through town.

My area got to about 95, which is maybe 3 degrees warmer than yesterday, I think Sunset with forest fire smoke from SE Utah my picture of Devil's Backbone park in Loveland. There's a hole in the rock. Thankfully, I did not take this picture when it was 95 degrees!

Here's an insane RAP model sounding from central Nebraska, which won't necessarily be the focus of severe weather today.

The 06z GFS, 12z GFS, Canadian and Euro today have a tropical system near the Texas coast in about 9-10 days, coming from the Bay of Campeche.

There is a fairly large enhanced risk area for tomorrow, for the sparsely-populated western Dakotas. HREF has updraft helicity tracks in almost all parts of the Dakotas and Nebraska.

A short-lived Greeley metro area tornado with low shear. As for me, I'm hearing the first thunder I've heard this year. It seems like it went from 60 degrees to 90 degrees in a couple of days recently. Edit: first time I saw lightning this year location of rotation max near Firestone, CO

This is a surprising statement, as other areas of the Dakotas get above 100 sometimes. Other record-breaking temps: Bismarck: 106, Jamestown: 102, Minot: 105, Dickinson: 97.

For me, it felt a lot cooler here than it was, that is, with a difference from normal of about -1.0F or maybe -1.5F. Maybe the consistent clouds and rain made me feel like it just way way cooler than "summer" is supposed to be, since summer is always warmer than normal. As I mentioned before, several areas of the country are not getting better on the drought situation, but Texas definitely had some drought relief and/or abundance of soil moisture. and by the way, I give this Spring a severe weather score of minus 8 million on a score of 1 to 10, because there was a magical bubble protecting the entire Great Lakes/Ohio Valley from severe weather

rain near Denver

GFS - Gobs of Forecasted Snow GFS - Good For Something? NAM - Newfangled Adding Machine NAM- No Accumulation Model RAP - Rarely Accurate Prediction HRRR - Highly Ridiculous Rat Race UKMET - Uncle Kevin's Mediocre Electric Telegraph ECMWF - Extra Carbon Makes Warming Faster ECMWF - Even Chimpanzees Make Weather Forecasts GDPS - Greatly Disappointing Punch-card System RDPS - Rightfully Disavowed Prediction Service GFDL - Glorified Forecast of Downright Lunacy HMON - Hurricanes Make Otters Nervous HWRF - Home Windows Rarely Fail (except when hit by a hurricane) HRW-WRF-NSSL - HRW-WRF-Never Sustains Storms Long NGM - No Good Model "We wish you some RUC."

Many times recently I have looked over toward the Mummy Range and Long's Peak, and the snow looks pretty thick for this time of year. Here's a neat pic, reposted by Jim Cantore

tornado near Stratford, TX

GFS - Gobs of Forecasted Snow NAM - Newfangled Adding Machine RAP - Rarely Accurate Prediction HRRR - Highly Ridiculous Rat Race UKMET - Uncle Kevin's Mediocre Electric Telegraph ECMWF - Extra Carbon Makes Warming Faster GDPS - Greatly Disappointing Punch-card System RDPS - Rightfully Disavowed Prediction Service GFDL - Glorified Forecast of Downright Lunacy HMON - Hurricanes Make Otters Nervous HWRF - Home Windows Rarely Fail (except when hit by a hurricane) WRF-NSSL - World (w)Restling Federation Never Slurp Soup Loudly

nighttime blast of wind up to 77mph for San Antonio

Supercell with relatively weak rotation, but possibly 2" hail. There seem to be two segments of the FFD with heavier rain/hail, sometimes called the "flying eagle."

Surface-based CAPE is up to 3000-5000 J/kg from the Big Bend National Park up to Midland/Odessa. That's very high for any time of the year, and it is typical to have isolated 3" hail reports in this sort of scenario.

this is quite a long time ago now, but here is the radar for the reported tornado at Perryton, TX (time of 0041z)

6-hr hail swaths up to 0330z highlight many of the areas that had severe weather or heavy rain. Areas that show 50mm (2") threshold are very likely to have had 2" hail hit the ground.

I thought tornado potential would maximize after 00z, but it looks like there are not a lot more tornado warnings that are going to happen soon.

Here are two cross-sections (colors are total wind speed) across Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri. These show that the low-level southerly jet increases from 34 kt just above the surface (at 00z, not shown) to about 56 kt or 58 kt in a span of 6 hours on Wednesday evening. I have always found it amazing that as the surface temperatures cool, the winds pick up, but above the surface, not at the surface, in these special situations. SPC upgraded to 30% for wind on Wednesday

some tornadoes reported west of Garden City, KS