After raking the Plains, Midwest and Mississippi Valley with severe thunderstorms, deadly tornadoes and torrential rains for the past week, the potent storm system moved east of Missouri overnight and we are now on its safe side. While it will still unleash severe weather from the Gulf Coast to New England today, the system is expected to weaken significantly over the coming weekend.
Here in Missouri, wrap around showers and a north wind will produce a raw, chilly day but the threat of dangerous thunderstorms has passed, at least for now. As the storm system moves further to the east, heat and clearing skies will build in from the southwest, drying the soggy landscape but setting us up for the next round of spring storms when another Pacific front drops from the Rockies.
It has, indeed, been a cool, wet spring in the Heartland as the jet stream has guided storms across the Northern and Central Plains. While their trailing cold fronts have dipped into Oklahoma and North Texas, the drought persists across most of the Lone Star State; relief for that area will likely come in the form of tropical storms and the summer monsoon, still a month or more away.
