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Above Average Temperatures for the West and Central Plains; Lake Effect Snow Continues

Well above average temperatures will prevail across the Plains and the West Coast this week, while a cold front will bring Arctic air to the South and East Coast Thursday and Friday. Lake effect snow is forecast downwind of the Great Lakes through Thursday along and behind the Arctic front, as well as mountain snow across the Southern Appalachians. Read More >

Overview

During the evening of June 15th, 2023, a line of storms with embedded supercells formed over portions of southwest Kansas and extended south through Beaver County, OK into the northeastern portions of the Texas Panhandle. The farthest south supercell produced a tornado that tracked through Perryton, killing three people and leaving a path of destruction over 6 miles long. Several other landspout tornadoes developed farther south of Perryton along the flanking line of the tornadic supercell. One of these landspouts damaged some power poles but remained mostly in open grassland. An additional tornado developed south of Higgins and tracked eastward into western Oklahoma, also remaining mostly in open grassland.

The Perryton tornado was the first fatal tornado to occur in the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles since March 28th, 2007, when one person died near Canadian, TX and two people died in south central Beaver County, OK. Additionally, this was the first tornado to cause a recorded injury in the Panhandles since the May 27th, 2015 tornado near Canadian, TX.

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