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🌪️ Tornado Talk Updates!

Hello everyone. Coming to you this Monday morning with such a heavy heart as we have moved into a very active weather pattern with numerous tornadoes, some deadly, over the past few days.

As of this writing, there has been at least 27 fatalities between four tornadoes. These all occurred Friday night. 19 were in the Somerset-London, KY area. Five in St. Louis, MO. Two were killed in Sikeston, MO and one in Linton, IN. Below is drone footage of the aftermath of the London, KY tornado.

On Sunday, tornadoes roared through parts of the Plains and tremendous damage occurred in Grinnell, KS.

A very large tornado passed very close to Greensburg, KS late Sunday, and this intense twister moved over the small community of Plevna.

I have not seen injury or fatality reports coming in from Kansas and praying there were none.

An elevated severe thunderstorm and tornado threat remains in effect today from Central and Eastern Nebraska east through Iowa and south through a good part of Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas and North Texas.

Tuesday: The risk moves into areas that were struck Friday night. Eastern MO, Central and Southern Illinois and Indiana, most of Kentucky, Tennessee, parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.

Folks please be weather aware if you are in an area expecting severe weather. https://www.spc.noaa.gov/

🌪️ This Week In Tornado History

May 19, 2013 - Oklahoma: Two supercell thunderstorms produced 8 tornadoes in Central Oklahoma late afternoon and evening, May 19, 2013. The strongest was rated EF4 and moved through parts of Cleveland and Pottawatomie Counties. Numerous homes were significantly damaged (EF3) in Cleveland County. The tornado grew to 1500 yards in Pottawatomie County and a small area of EF4 damage was found. There were 2 fatalities in this county.

May 20, 1910 - Oklahoma: An F4 tornado moved 12 miles through parts of Garvin County, OK. At McCarty, 25 homes were destroyed which according to Thomas Grazulis was most of the town. Total of three killed. “One of the deaths was from a head injury that occurred when a board penetrated the door of a storm cave.”

May 21, 2011 - Kansas: An EF3 tornado struck Reading, KS. One person was killed, and five were injured as several homes and buildings were ripped apart.

May 22, 1987 - Texas:  Horribly tragic event. 30 killed, 22 of which were in one location: Saragosa Hall. Families had gathered for a graduation ceremony for Head Start 4-year-olds. Most of those killed were parents or grandparents.

May 23, 1946 - Kansas: Thomas Grazulis documents two F4s tornadoes in Washington County, KS. The first moved SW of Enosdale and stayed west of Washington. A woman was killed in one of two farm homes that was swept away. The second F4 leveled a farmhouse east of Washington. Two were injured, no fatalities.

May 24, 2011 - Oklahoma: During the afternoon of May 24, 2011, Oklahoma was impacted by one of the state’s most infamous outbreaks. Twenty-two tornadoes tracked across areas west of and into the Oklahoma City metro. Click the link to read a summary that will examine a short-lived and powerful EF3 that tore through areas west and north of Lookeba.

May 25, 2016 - Kansas: Per the Storm Prediction Center, 8 tornadoes occurred on May 25, 2016. Half of those were in Kansas from an isolated supercell. The strongest tornado was a long track EF4. It began north of Niles, KS and traveled for close to 90 minutes finally dissipating just west of the Dickinson and Geary County line. The estimated peak winds = 180 mph. EF4 (violent tornado) damage was noted just southwest of Chapman where a farmstead was completely destroyed.

🌪️ Twister Time: Bonus Round

The Observations of Tornadoes by UAV Systems (OTUS) project has been out chasing the tornadoes the past few days, gathering invaluable data. They are flying drones into the twisters. Here is one of the amazing views from Sunday, near Arnett, OK.

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