The month of May got off to an active start with severe thunderstorms across the US.
The National Weather Service (NWS) recorded over 500 reports of severe weather from Colorado to New York state. The majority of the severe weather occurred across the central Plains from Texas to Iowa.
The most active day for severe thunderstorms in term of reports was on Wednesday when the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) reported a total of 232 severe weather reports.
One of the more impressive individual storms occurred on May 1st from a severe thunderstorm that produced a large tornado in Kansas. This particular tornado was captured by a storm chaser’s dash cam.
TIMELAPSE: Culver, KS EF-3 Tornado timelapse from our dash camera! @AlexHaworthWx @mikebettes @KathrynProciv @JimCantore @SarahDillingham @RyanDavidsonWX @WunderCave @spann @wxnewsdesk @LiveStormsMedia pic.twitter.com/EtsTp9dU5o
— Brandon Copic (@BrandonCopicWx) May 3, 2018
In addition to the severe storms, heavy rain and flash flooding was observed across portions of the Plains and Midwest. In just the first 3 days of May, a swath of 3-6 inches (75-150 mm) of rain fell from Iowa to Wisconsin.
The system responsible for the severe thunderstorms will be moving off of the East Coast this weekend giving a much need break from severe weather to the Central US.