Unusually heavy rains -- generally from thunderstorms -- are forecast across the Southwest. The remains of Hurricane Mario will be drawn into the region which will enhance rainfall amounts. The map shows forecast rain from now until Sunday evening. Cloud-to-ground lightning will also be a hazard.  It is important for residents and travelers in the Southwest to keep an eye on the weather the next few days. 

Thunderstorm producing a cloudburst over Overland Park, Kansas, this evening as it was growing.  I noticed a bird circling the storm -- which is also good advice for pilots: Never penetrate a thunderstorm! Click READ MORE to see a closeup of the bird in flight. 

Pecos Hank has produced another of his inimitable videos. This time, the topic is the mesocyclone that drives supercell thunderstorms. 

Daily Mail The picture on the right shows lightning striking the boy and, at left, the video shows him going under the water. When you hear thunder, go indoors or to your car! The most dangerous places to be during lightning are: Golf course Pool, beach, sailboat Under a tree Open farmland or other open space It is already thunderstorm season in the South. Thunderstorms will occur in the central Great Plains Sunday. Please remember these suggestions. 

On June 5, 2018, I posted a piece about an American Airlines flight that flew right through the core of a hailstorm with predictable results.  Unfortunately, there has been a nearly identical incident; this time in Paraguay Wednesday evening.  Below is a screen capture of lightning flashing outside of the plane.  The Daily Mail  has coverage . The nose cone of this aircraft is in even worse shape than the American flight. The radar antenna is completely gone and the windscreens are shattered. The radar is turned parallel to the camera. The antenna is still there.  This thunderstorm encounter was even less excusable (if that's possible) than the American Airlines' (AA) encounter as it was night and lightning would have been visible before the plane entered the storm. That should have prompted the crew to closely examine the onboard radar using varying tilts. That they didn't, as with the AA example, is aeronautical malpractice.  I will also raise a new iss...

One of the best things about living in the Great Plains is the ability to see weather hundreds of miles away. To the right of the building is the top of a thunderstorm 252 miles away from my home.  The radar is below. We'll be seeing clouds starting tomorrow as much needed rain moves into the region. 

Wichitans and others in southern Kansas were treated to one of the most amazing sunsets ever . The sun illuminated a line of strong thunderstorms from below and the colors were almost indescribable. The red-colored clouds are the underside of the storm's cirrus anvil. Copyright 2021, Mike Smith Enterprises, LLC Not only were the ever-changing colors fantastic, note the abrupt cut off in light from the center of the frame to the upper right. This cut off could be seen all the way to Tulsa.  The lack of sunlight at upper right was due to the thunderstorm northwest of Wichita. 

The view from my home this evening.  Nothing like the Kansas Sky! This was right at sunset and the tall cumulonimbus cloud was catching the orange rays. In the foreground is a line of towering cumulus clouds along the outflow winds caused by a downburst near the Sedgwick - Sumner county line.  Below is a closeup of the towering cumulus moving toward me.  The towering cumulus were along the leading edge of a downburst's outflow.  The curved orange line represents the northern edge of downburst winds at 8:27pm. The yellow polygon is a National Weather Service severe thunderstorm warning. 

Thunderstorm developing literally above our home. It made for some unusual colors and I thought you would enjoying them. For weather fans, the cloud type is cumulonimbus.  And, another. Just as I was taking this photograph, a severe thunderstorm warning was being issued. And, one more looking southwest. The whitish color at upper left is a rain shaft that has not yet reached the ground. 

Kansas appears to have broken its 2020 tornado drought with the first tornado of the year. The tornado occurred near the town of Bushong which is north of Emporia. You can see a photo of the tornado here . Addition:  Kansas Tornado #2, 10 mi. north of Strong City at 8:55pm. Screen capture from Reed Timmer video. The "elephant truck" tornado is illuminated by lightning.  A thunderstorm developed rapidly in northern Oklahoma. The radar view is below. You can see Wichita at upper right. The storm was producing hail of 1" in diameter, at least. The storm was 134 miles from my home. The top of the storm (a cumulonimbus cloud) was quite colorful at sunset. What the thunderstorm looked like from the ground (below).

Photo of shelf cloud looking northwest from my backyard looking northwest at 2:59pm CDT. The radar looked like this at the same time. The "wind" symbol at Valley Center was a gust estimated of 55 mph. The two hail symbols (circles) were 1" or nearly 1" hailstones. A few minutes earlier, I also got this shot. Enjoy!

For the eleven years of this blog, we have tried to lighten the mood on Sundays. After the Thursday tornadoes in Iowa and the derecho in Kansas and Missouri (the latter which led to the Table Rock Lake tragedy) let's write about something else. Via Twitter, this is one of the most amazing thunderstorm photos I have ever seen. Click to enlarge it.

Yesterday morning, a 747 cargo plane crashed on takeoff from Bagram Air Force Base, killing the seven people on board. There is quite a bit of speculation on the internet that weather was involved. While the speculation may be warranted, it is far too soon to know the cause of the crash. Because of the interest, let's take a look at a few things we do know. The map below shows the location of the base north of Kabul. The European weather satellite image below, from 1.5 hours after the crash, shows an area of extensive clouds (arrow) with showers and thunderstorms that includes the area around Bagram. The Aviation Herald has the aviation weather observations (known as "Metars") from Baghram. They reveal there was lightning visible, gusty winds, and shifting winds in the area. The base weather observer was estimating rather than measuring the wind. The array of weather instruments to help detect wind shear we enjoy in the U.S. doesn't exist. Let me haste...

UPDATE: 4:41PM. Large hail making its way southeast across southeast Kansas. Large hail approaching Girard, Arma, Mulberry and (crossing the state line) Liberal, MO.  original posting: A second severe thunderstorm watch, also until 10pm. Large hail and damaging winds are forecast over southeast and east central Kansas and southwest Missouri. The radar at 2:13pm shows intensifying thunderstorms in east central Kansas and will start moving southeast. I'm not live-blogging storms today. 

...and other products from the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center is available via webinar here .

The posting below talks about the severe weather occurring in Kansas (where both severe thunderstorm watches and warnings are in effect). Right now, a lightning storm is in progress at the Superdome the site of tonight's national championship basketball game as Jenn Bates and Bruce Hertl are experiencing. It is lightning that is lighting up the background in the screen capture I just obtained. KWCH TV live pre-game special So, hopefully, there will not be any power failures or any other weather-related problems in New Orleans this evening or in Kansas/Kentucky where the game means so much. NOTE:  CBS's Greg Gumbel mentioned the weather and that some of the lights had gone out inside the Superdome. (8:09pm CDT)

...has been posted in easy-to-read and understand form by the National Weather Service office in Birmingham. Please take a moment to read it. Just click here . Even though it was issued by the NWS in Birmingham, it applies everywhere.  

This is a big deal. "High risks" are rare, usually only a day or two each calendar year. I want to break the components for you. Tornado A one in three chance of a tornado occurring within 25 miles of any given point within the high risk area with potential for tornadoes of F2 or greater intensity. Damaging Thunderstorm Winds Very high numbers here. The hatched area is where gusts of 75 mph or more are forecast. Suffice to say it is a huge area of damaging thunderstorm winds.  Large Hail Hatched area is a forecast of 2" diameter hair or bigger.  No tornado watches are in effect at present. However, thunderstorms are developing in many areas and they will become stronger, especially this afternoon.