Brandon Bellamy retweetledi
Tornado Alley is CLOSED until the second week of June!
Despite this week marking the historic peak of tornado season across the U.S. Great Plains, we're absolutely silent tornado-wise. In fact, most of the week will remain devoid of rotating storms anywhere in the country. Unless a random "mesoscale accident" happens, which would bring a highly-localized storm threat, most of the nation will be uncharacteristically quiet.
May is running 60-70 percent behind tornado-wise. Oklahoma hasn't seen a single tornado! Texas is 30+ tornadoes below average. (We'll take it!)
Into the next week, an "omega block" pattern may become established, with hot, dry, sinking air squashing storm chances across the Plains. The clockwise-spinning high will be flanked by counterclockwise-rotating lows; the three systems will remain stuck, like interlocked gears, and probably won't budge for 7-10 days.
In addition to fending off any upper-air disturbances, that high pressure dome also shunts the jet stream north into Canada. That lack of wind energy at the high altitudes reduces severe weather chances as well. We can't get storms to spin if they don't have momentum aloft to tap into!
This may change after June 6, but until then, enjoy the quiet spell. The Plains certainly deserve it.
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