April 28: Tornado Outbreak?

For today, the SPC is forecasting a full blown severe weather outbreak.

Today’s update will be quick due to limited time, but the ingredients are all there for a potential tornado outbreak, especially in the level 4/5 (moderate) risk. However, many of our reliable short-range/high-resolution models struggle to show any robust storms where we’d expect. Two things could be happening: 1) The models could be right and it ends up being a bit of a bust, or 2) They’re dead wrong for some reason and we end up with a tornado outbreak. I feel like there won’t be much of an in between on this one. Expect those storms this afternoon thru evening.

Last Night…

Last night, a long-track, multi-hour supercell tracked northwest of North Platte, Nebraska. It produced several tornadoes over its life, most of which were after dark. Sometimes it was producing wedge shaped tornadoes, other times just a lightning show. We were very fortunate to find a road in Cherry County, Nebraska, that took us to the storm. Cherry County is one of the largest road voids in the entire CONUS, so we were very fortunate.