Extreme Fire Weather Concerns for the Western U.S.; Severe Weather and Flooding Threats for the Central U.S.

Extremely critical fire weather conditions are expected to develop across the Great Basin and Southwest today, and exceptionally dry and windy conditions will promote rapid wildfire spread through the weekend. Scattered severe thunderstorms and heavy rain are possible across parts of the Ozark Plateau into lower Ohio Valley and parts of the northern Rockies into adjacent Great Plains. Read More >

May 21, 2012 Severe Storms

The combination of an unstable air mass, a retreating frontal boundary, and an approaching upper-level disturbance ignited a round of severe thunderstorms across eastern New Mexico and the western Texas Panhandle. One supercell thunderstorm develop over Oldham County, Texas and slowly drifted southward. This storm produced a tornado 4 miles northwest of Adrian and hail up to the size of golfballs in Adrian. The tornado was rated EF-0 with winds estimated of 65 mph. It was on the ground for 3 minutes with a path length of 1,000 yards. The tornado was estimated to be 100 yards wide. The supercell thunderstorm eventually was overtaken by a line of storms moving out of eastern New Mexico. A squall line of thunderstorms became well-established across the southwestern Texas Panhandle and moved to the southeast. This line of storms quickly became a wind threat, and in fact, a 61-mph wind gust was recorded in downtown Amarillo.

RADAR IMAGES


KAMA storm relative velocity at 8:37 p.m.	KAMA base reflectivity at 8:37 p.m.

STORM IMAGES


Tornado 5 miles NW of Adrian, TX. (Courtesy of Chris Kimble)	Supercell facing west on I-40 west of Vega, TX. (Courtesy of Jason Persoff)

Tornado due west of Vega, TX. (Courtesy of Jason Persoff)	Tornado becoming rain-wrapped west of Vega, TX. (Courtesy of Jason Persoff)

Southeast of Adrian looking northwest. (Courtesy of Wesley Luginbyhl)

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