National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Heavy Rain and Severe Thunderstorms in the Southwest; Coastal Flooding Along Portions of the Eastern Seaboard

A slow moving front will produce a threat for heavy rainfall and severe weather from the southwest into the western High Plains through the weekend. Heavy rainfall and isolated flash flooding and gusty winds will be possible this weekend into early next week in portions of southern Florida. Coastal flooding impacts remain possible through the weekend along the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic coasts Read More >

Overview

From the evening of May 20th through mid afternoon on May 21st, several waves of thunderstorms produced tornadoes, damaging winds with gusts up to 90 mph, hail up to tennis-ball size, and extremely heavy rainfall, which resulted in considerable flash flooding and river flooding.

Six tornadoes (5 EF0 and 1 EF1) occurred with a fast-moving line of thunderstorms that moved through eastern Nebraska and southwest Iowa during the early morning hours on the 21st. An additional 4 tornadoes occurred with a second round of thunderstorms (supercells) that formed over far eastern Nebraska and tracked through southwest Iowa during the late morning and early afternoon hours on the 21st. 

Image
Radar loop from 4 PM on May 20th through 3 PM on May 21st
nws logo Media use of NWS Web News Stories is encouraged!
Please acknowledge the NWS as the source of any news information accessed from this site.
nws logo