Here are the latest statistical forecasts: Tornado With 5% being the threshold where I start paying attention, some areas have a 15% probability today, relatively high. The hatched area is where tornadoes of F-2 or greater intensity may occur. Large Hail High probabilities here and the hatched area is where hail ≥2" will occur. Put your car in the garage! Thunderstorms are already starting over the area as of 11:35am CDT. Please pay attention to the weather if you live in these areas.

In this posting , I wrote about the TSA people clustered at the west end of Wichita' Mid-Continent Airport. The head of the airport contacted me to let me know they were off-duty. I'm happy to make that clear.

There is a threat of strong tornadoes and very large hail in the central Plains this afternoon and tonight. I urge people in these areas to keep up on the weather later today. AccuWeather has additional information. Because I'll be on airplanes part of the day, I'll only be able to do limited blogging but I do expect to post  updates on the storm threat.

Check out this dash cam video taken by a Norman, Oklahoma, police officer during their tornado two weeks ago today. Let's see, where to begin...  He drives through Norman at an excessively high rate of speed during heavy rain on slick roads. I count at least three stop signs that he runs. Then the  piece de resistance, he drives right into the tornado! And, chasers behave foolishly around storms?

In addition to the three major tornadoes on the ground in southern Kansas twenty-one years ago this evening (see posting below), an F-5 was tearing across northern Oklahoma. The entire video is here . This tornado, known as the "Red Rock Tornado," is notable for two reasons: It was the first F-5 captured by the prototype National Weather Service Doppler radar A television news crew, led by the late meteorologist Gary Shore, chased this storm back when tornado video was a rarity and got some rather spectacular footage.

I was on the air, warning Wichita and Andover about the approaching F-5 tornado. WeatherData, Inc., the company I founded in 1981, did all of the on-air weather for KSNW-TV (NBC) in Wichita. There were, at times, three tornadoes on the ground simultaneously in our viewing area (and, an F-5 in northern Oklahoma) that evening. I'll certainly never forget it. The exact moment I said the tornado was headed to Andover. With me are John Holt and Melissa McDermott. While 17 were killed in that tornado the Centers for Disease Control, which did an in-depth study, found that approximately 75 would have been killed without the warnings. Today, the City of Andover is a leader in severe storm safety. In addition to three public shelters, they activate their tornado sirens only  in the areas threatened (cutting down on false alarms) and they use AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions storm warnings. During the tornado twelve days ago that took a similar path to the 1991 storm, our n...

...really enjoyed the Indianapolis Marriott where we had another AccuWeather B2B weather decision making seminar.  They did a great job for us. I also thought this was a good idea. Instead of the tiny bars of soap and tiny bottles of shampoo and conditioner, they have dispensers in the shower. Liked it.