Severe Thunderstorms and Heavy Rain in the Central U.S.

A broad threat of scattered severe thunderstorms and heavy showers will exist across the central and southern High Plains into Sunday, including areas well off to the east into the Mid-South and Tennessee Valley. Smoke from Canadian wildfires will continue to bring unhealthy air quality conditions to portions of the Great Lakes and the central Plains. Read More >

Spring 2023 ended up slightly below normal temperature-wise and with above normal snowfall and generally below normal precipitation overall. The averages don’t really capture the story very well, however, as there were several notable pattern changes throughout the spring. March was noticeably colder than normal with above normal precipitation, including snow. Then, a very pronounced warmup happened in April which melted most of the snowpack around the region and led to widespread areal flooding. Temperatures cooled down a bit for a couple weeks after that with more wintry systems passing through, bringing above average snowfall for April. Another stark pattern shift was observed in May with well below normal rainfall and warmer than normal temperatures. Plentiful moisture and flooding was pretty quickly replaced by dry weather and drought.