This past month was the coolest April in 11 years for the continental United States, and fell into the lowest quarter of all Aprils based on records going back to 1895, according to an analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center.
The average April temperature, 51 degrees F, was one degree below the 20th century mean - ranking it the 29th coolest April on record in the U.S.
The average temperature in Wichita was 53.9, 1.4 degrees below average. That’s the third straight month the average temperature was below normal here.
Tuesday’s storm threat fizzled into a non-event, with just one tornado and two strong wind events reported - all of them in Texas. The tornado was reported in eastern Texas, where it struck a few trees.
Greg Carbin, warning coordination meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., sent this photo of a pileus cloud he shot near Norman Tuesday night. These distinctive clouds form when a layer of humid air is thrust upward rapidly by the conditions that form thunderstorms.
A couple in Springfield, Mo., found two photographs while doing yard work: photos that belong to Jack and Rayma Redden, who live in Picher, Okla. — 93 miles away.
The Reddens’ home was destroyed when a large tornado shredded a 20-block section of Picher Saturday evening. The Reddens and five relatives huddled in closets and escaped with a few scratches.
Robyn and Alan Bates of Springfield found the photos stuck together back-to-back, wrapped in shredded photo-album plastic and spattered with bits of mud and leaves. One shows the Reddens wearing matching sweaters on Christmas Day 1971, and a young girl holding a doll on Easter 1972.
Other residents in southwest Missouri reported finding canceled checks, photos and other storm-related items from Picher.
This reminds me of ranchers in the Flint Hills of Kansas, who told me they were finding items from Andover in their pastures years after the deadly tornado of April 26, 1991.
It’s been a cool spring in Kansas - and if you don’t want to take our word for it, believe the wheat.
Only about 19 percent of the state’s wheat crop has now headed, according to the Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service. That’s well below the 61 percent average for this late in the season.
Not surprisingly, the crop’s condition is suffering somewhat. The agency rates 56 percent of the crop as fair, poor or very poor, and only 44 percent as good or excellent.
Strong storms - including the threat of more tornadoes - are expected again in southeast Kansas and northeast Oklahoma later today.
The death toll from Saturday’s storms is now up to 23, officials say: 7 in Picher, Okla., 14 in western Missouri just across the border and 2 in Georgia.
The Storm Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has placed the southeast corner of Kansas - along with the eastern half of Oklahoma and portions of Missouri, Texas and Arkansas - in a moderate risk for severe weather.
An area of Kansas essentially east of the Kansas Turnpike is in a slight risk for severe weather.
The death toll from Saturday’s tornadoes is now at least 20, including 7 confirmed at Picher, Okla., and 10 near Racine, Mo.
Teams of meteorologists from the Tulsa office of the National Weather Service are headed to northeast Oklahoma and western Arkansas today to perform storm damage assessments. The Tulsa branch has created a preliminary summary of Saturday’s tornadoes, though it will likely be several days before the exact number is known.
The weather service’s Springfield branch has compiled a summary and maps depicting tornadoes and large hail in southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri. Teams of meteorologists from Springfield will also be assessing damage in Kansas and Missouri today.
Along with several tornadoes, hail as large as softballs was reported with the storms.
The preliminary death toll from Saturday’s tornadoes has reached 19, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center.
Five fatalities have been reported in Picher, which is just south of the Kansas/Oklahoma border on U.S. 69. Forecasters say the tornado that struck Picher touched down in Kansas minutes earlier and crossed the border into Oklahoma. The Wichita office of the National Weather Service has posted the radar image of the powerful supercells on its Web site.
The tornado had a damage path 3/4 of a mile wide along the Kansas-Oklahoma border, the Cherokee County Emergency Management Director told the Springfield office of the National Weather Service.
The tornado moved into Missouri and killed 13 people in the rural area between Seneca and Neosho - including 10 north and northwest of Racine, which is less than 25 miles from Baxter Springs.
Another death has been reported a mile outside of Purdy southeast of Joplin. Tornadoes have also been reported in Arkansas on Saturday night, and more tornado warnings are being issued as the storms move east.
A total of 34 tornadoes had been reported in four states as of early Sunday morning, though some of those reports may be multiple sightings of the same tornado. And more tornadoes are possible.
What’s the earliest day of the year Wichita has ever reached 100? Why, that would be today - May 10 - in 1967.
Which should give you some idea about how wacky the weather can be around here. The latest freeze ever recorded in Wichita isn’t for another three days yet: May 13.
For the fourth day in a row, severe weather is pounding western Kansas. At least one tornado has touched down - north of Selkirk in Wichita County - and other thunderstorms are showing the capacity to develop tornadoes as well.
I’ve already spoken to veteran storm chaser and weather photographer Jim Reed, who chronicled the tornado north of Selkirk, and I hope to offer a photo or two of the tornado. Stay tuned.
…on this date in 1927. They formed in Comanche County, then moved northeast through Barber, Kingman, Reno and McPherson counties.
They stayed on the ground for 115 miles and varied in size from a half mile to two miles wide. Ten people were killed, and about 300 were injured. The tornadoes caused $1.3 million in damage - and remember, those are 1927 dollars.