Every Tom, Dick, Harry, and Mark have asked me about the “overpass” scene in the movie, “Man of Steel.” Got to see the movie yesterday and, I have to say I wish the scene wasn’t there. I’d like to think people would take the advice of meteorologists not to do this but given the reports of people crawling up under overpasses during the May 31 El Reno Tornado, it appears they do not. Where did the “take shelter under an overpass” business start?  On the Kansas Turnpike, between El Dorado Lake and Cassoday, April 26, 1991. KSNW TV photographer Ted Lewis and reporter Gregg Jarrett were coming back to Wichita from covering a story in northeast Kansas. They didn’t even have the car radio on when they encountered a tornado. It was the fifth in a series of tornadoes (the fourth was the horrible Wichita-Andover tornado that killed 17) spawned by a single supercell. There are relatively few exits on that part of the Turnpike the the area is completely rural. The raw video shot ...

Today's threat area has migrated south from recent days. Tornado Five percent is the significant threat level. Damaging Winds Fifteen percent is the significant threshold for wind gusts of 58 mph or stronger. Large Hail Fifteen percent is the significant threshold for hail 1 inch in diameter or larger. The hatched area is where hail larger than two inches is forecast to occur.

Maroon are current flash flood warnings. Light green are flood warnings. Dark green are flood watches. The pink areas are at risk of wildfires through tonight.

This one in effect until 1am CDT. There is a very strong tornado signature on radar south of Scottsbluff, Neb. in the southern Panhandle moving ESE as of 6:05pm CDT. Persons near and north of Harrisburg, NE should take immediate safety precautions.  Addition: A tornado warning has been officially issued.  Here is a radar view at 6:09pm CDT.

Please keep up on the weather if you live in these areas.

Annie Calovich is a popular writer for The Wichita Eagle  and, in today's column , she mentions a spectacular photo I shared on Facebook last week. The photo, taken by Brandon Sullivan , is here. The sun is about to duck behind a line of thunderstorms that brought a spectacular show of lightning and thunder later that night. On Twitter last week, I had an exchange with an author who lives part time in Toronto and part time in New York City who contended the earth is "too crowded." When I pushed back by saying the entire population of earth could be comfortably housed in the combined land mass of New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma, he didn't disagree but said that people wanted to live in big cities because that is where the economic opportunity is. That got me to thinking: Charles Koch, Wichita Warren Buffet, Omaha Bill Gates, Seattle Sam Walton, Bentonville Seems to me that economic opportunity is where you make it. The wide open spaces and spectacular vis...