Good morning! Above I've attached an interesting map from the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK. This map depicts tornado reports (red dots), small hail reports, large hail reports, and damaging wind reports. As you can see, there was quite a bit of severe weather yesterday.. with at least 5 fatalities reported as of this writing. Fortunately, this was a well-forecast severe weather outbreak as it was obvious days ago the ingredients of strong upper level wind, warm/humid air, and strong rising motion in the atmosphere would come together over the central and southern Plains yesterday. If this hadn't been the case, the death toll could have been much higher.
Another potent system will move into the western US later today and, coupled with the return of warm/humid air from the Gulf of Mexico, the potential will be there for more strong to severe storms later today and tomorrow. However, the severe weather threat should not be as widespread this time.
Brian
