Greetings everyone and thanks so much for stopping by. Today has quite a potent severe weather setup with tornadoes, damaging straight line winds, and very large hail potential across several states from Texas and Oklahoma into Nebraska and Iowa. It’s certainly a day to stay very weather aware. This week, I will continue with an overview of tornado safety. As usual, we have the latest US Drought Monitor update along with other good science reads, so let’s get started.

Tornado Quest micro podcast for May 18 – 25, 2024

Let’s start with some amazing information from the incredible James Webb Space Telescope and take a trip back 13 billion years.
Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Denying scientific facts (i.e. don’t say that “C” word) doesn’t make a significant hazard to humanity disappear.
NOAA has released their outlook for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. To say that it’s going to be active is a vast understatement.

The Atlantic ocean is the fuel for the fire with hurricanes that affect the gulf coast and eastern seaboard. Here’s why that’s especially important this year.
While on the topic of hurricanes, here’s an interesting and informative read on one of many factors that can affect hurricane intensity.
Here’s the latest update on the US Drought Monitor. Substantial improvement has taken place across much of the contiguous USA. Drought conditions continue for parts of Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, and Texas. The latest fire weather outlooks can be found at the Storm Prediction Center website where they are updated daily.

TORNADO SAFETY

Let’s review very important and potentially life saving tornado safety guidelines. Here’s an excellent 20 page PDF document from the National Weather Service: “Thunderstorms, Tornadoes, Lightning…Nature’s Most Violent Storms.” NOAA has a very comprehensive page on what to do during a tornado warning. Here’s another detailed look at tornado safety you should read carefully. There are many misconceptions regarding taking shelter from a tornado. The following infographics should clear up any confusion.