Short update 04/25/16

In the previous post I did on the 20th (read it here) I briefly mentioned that the end of the weekend and the first of the week there could be severe weather as a strong Pacific storm dropped into the west.  Indeed, there was severe weather on Sunday with lots of BIG hail and a couple of short lived tornadoes across parts of Nebraska, north central and northeast Kansas. A more significant outbreak of severe weather is expected tomorrow (Tuesday).  But good news for the high plains, the severe activity will be east again.

I unfortunately am swamped with work and life in general so will have to make this short.  Looking at the satellite image from this morning... 

 

The "L" over Nevada and Utah is the center of the upper level trough across the west.  The jet stream rotating around this system will impact the central part of the U.S. late tonight into early Wednesday.  But, the good news is that the trough will move only slowly east so that another wave of energy will develop and move out into the central part of the U.S. towards the weekend.  This system should be more favorable to bring precipitation farther west.  I don't have time to analyze that potential but can only provide the 7 day outlook for precipitation provided by the Weather Prediction Center.  IF this occurs, some areas of western Kansas will have had record rainfall for April (for instance, Dodge City needs only 0.46" to set the record).  

More on this as I get time, hopefully by the end of the week.