Great Plains

Severe weather was extending from Minnesota to southern Texas on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. During that time there were three tornadoes reported in Minnesota, two in Colorado and two in Missouri. The TRMM satellite flew above tornado spawning thunderstorms in the southern United States on May 9, 2014 at 0115 UTC (May 8, 2014 at 8:15 PM CTD). A rainfall analysis from TRMM's Precipitation Radar (PR) and Microwave Imager (TMI) is shown overlaid on a GOES-EAST infrared image received at the same time. TRMM's PR instrument found rain falling at a rate of over almost 163 mm/hr (about 6.4

It's springtime in the Plains, which means the increased likelihood that severe weather, including tornadoes, will occur somewhere across the region. After a week of relative quiet, a strong storm system moved out of the southern Rockies and out into the Central Plains. In association with this system, strong southerly winds at low levels drew Gulf moisture up across Texas and into Oklahoma and Kansas while strong jet-stream winds aloft raced northeastward around the base of an upper-level trough over the four-corners region and out over the Plains, setting the stage for a potential severe