5/3/18 latest

The past week has been very typical of spring - finally.  Wind and lots of it, warmer weather and then severe thunderstorms.  As is typical with mid-spring, the high plains were essentially left high and dry for most areas.  There were isolated low precipitation supercells on Sunday but those don't bring much moisture anyway, besides hail.  The most widespread rainfall occurred yesterday (Wednesday) but mainly from central into eastern Kansas, and Oklahoma.  Unfortunately there was a lot of hail too.  All this after the extremely windy period from Sunday until Tuesday.  Speaking of wind, the Dodge City airport observed 50 MPH winds on 8 different days in April.  The most since 1992 was 5 days so it was extra ordinarily windy!

Today the parting storm was slowly moving from near northwest Kansas (the red X on the left) so additional showers and storms were scattered across parts of the area.  Here is the satellite from earlier today...



As far as precipitation totals this past week, there were many that did not receive a drop.  That is very discouraging but not unexpected.  Here is that map....



Going forward, the pattern does not favor much hope for widespread rain events for the high plains.  Anytime we get at least meager surface moisture nearby, there will be occasional opportunities for at least widely scattered activity.  The best chance for much will be later next week.  Don't expect a lot.

Here is the latest outlook from the Weather Prediction Center....



Overall, there will be more opportunities later this month but at times I'm discouraged at what I'm seeing in the pattern going well into the growing season.  But, there have been brief glimpses of what could be active periods beyond mid-May.  I should have enough time to post around the 9th/10th.  I'll try and narrow it down. Stay tuned.