"Amplified" Weather Pattern Keeps The Severe Storms, Weird Weather Going

Satellite view of a storm system in the middle of the nation on
Tuesday. It's rare to get a storm this well developed and
wound up this late in the spring. 

It's true that the current extreme weather pattern in much of the nation did not produce the expected huge tornado outbreak in the southern Plains Monday.

That's great, of course. But the current weather pattern is keeping a large part of the nation in a
daily grind of flooding, spots of severe thunderstorms, almost daily tornadoes somewhere in the nation, and other bad stuff.

Storm systems coming across the country this week are stronger than they normally would be this time of year.

It's an incredibly weird, stormy May in large swaths of the nation, and that's not going to change anytime soon. Some videos at the bottom of this post illustrate some of the damaging weather.

It's hard to get precise as to what will happen where beyond three days from now, so we'll stick to what's happening now, and what will occur in the next couple of days.

Here in Vermont, there might be a couple moments of "interesting" weather over the next week or so, but it won't be a wild as other parts of the nation.

The weather pattern is what weather geeks would call amplified.  That just means the dips and upward bumps in the jet stream are bigger than usual.

Generally in the winter, the jet stream is amplified, meaning there are deep southward pushes in the jet stream matched by big bulges northward.

By this time of year, the jet stream is normally much less "amplified" as we head toward summer. The dips in the jet stream aren't that big, and the northward bulges aren't impressive, either. Plus the entire jet stream tends to shift northward into Canada, leaving most of us here in the United States with relatively few extremes in the weather department.

The jet stream this week has clearly not gotten the memo that winter is over. It sinks way down deep into the western United States, created odd snowstorms and an unusual chill. Meanwhile, a strong ridge of high pressure is over the Southeast, which will create a heat wave there over the next few days.

The battle zone between the cold west and the hot southeast runs diagonally from roughly and broadly from Texas to the Northeast. That battleground is where the repeated storms and possible flooding will occur.

TEMPERATURE EXTREMES

The cold out west is incredibly impressive for this time of year.  High temperatures this time of year are normally in the low 90s in Las Vegas. Today's expected high temperature there is just 64 degrees, which is chillier than the expected high way up north in Burlington, Vermont, where it's supposed to get up to 67 degrees today.

The snow across parts of Colorado, Wyoming and the Black Hills of South Dakota has been impressive, too. Some higher elevations in Colorado got up to 20 inches of new snow over the past couple of days. There's massive tree damage in some towns, like Colorado Springs, as several inches of wet, heavy snow clung to the leaves on the trees, weighing them down so branches snapped.

Meanwhile, record heat will grip the Southeast. High temperatures near 100 degrees are likely over the Memorial Day weekend in parts of Georgia, the Carolinas and some Gulf Coast states. Some of these readings would be all-time high temperature records for the entire month of May.

THE STORMY BATTLE ZONE

As mentioned the Midwest, and occasionally parts of the Northeast are in a storm zone in part because of the temperature contrasts between the west and Southeast.

To give you one example of this weird contrast: It snowed in western Nebraska Tuesday, but in the eastern part of the state, there were tornadoes.

Severe thunderstorms and perhaps a few tornadoes are possible
tomorrow in areas shaded in yellow and orange.

There were actually more tornadoes reported Tuesday - a preliminary count of 38 - in the midde of the nation than on what was to have been the great big outbreak on Monday, when the preliminary count was 22 twisters. (These numbers are subject to change as the National Weather Service investigates tornado reports.)

More tornadoes are possible today in parts of northeastern Oklahoma, Missouri and eastern Kansas.  On Thursday, the interesting weather heads to the Northeast, where severe thunderstorms are possible.

The greatest risk on Thursday of severe weather is in Pennsylvania, where there could even be a few tornadoes out of this. Some strong to severe storms could develop in northern New York and move into western Vermont late in the afternoon or the evening.

Though there won't be widespread bad storms, a couple spots in western Vermont especially could have thunderstorm winds strong enough to knock down some trees or branches. It could also hail.

Another round of severe storms looks like it could strike the Northeast Saturday. Early indications are Vermont will get a good slug of rain, but we will be too far north to get the severe thunderstorms.

There will also be almost daily chances of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes in the southern Plains through the weekend.

Flooding will continue to be a threat, as if there hasn't been enough of it in the middle of the nation already. Flood warnings remain in effect across a broad area of Missouri, southeastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma.

Flooding has been extreme in Oklahoma, with one creek rising from six feet to 36 feet deep within a day.

Flood warnings and watches are also up for western South Dakota.

The stormy spring continues on....

Some videos:

Television station KTVQ aired this tornado video from Oklahoma on Monday:



CBS News report really shows the great extent of Oklahoma flooding:



NBC News shows a woman in Oklahoma being rescued from rushing water:



And a news report of the snow and tree damage in the Denver/Colorado Springs area: