Weather News

An F5 tornado 1/2 mile wide ripped through Snyder, Oklahoma. 87 people were killed. Many people thought the approaching tornado was a hailstorm and did not take shelter.

Morning lows of 21 degrees at Bloomington-Normal, Illinois and Aurora, Illinois established a state record for the month of May. Snow flurries were reported at Kansas City, Missouri and Chicago, Illinois.

An unprecedented spring snowstorm, spawned by a huge 5 contour 500 mb cutoff low, hit southern New England and southeastern New York. This storm, which began on the 9th, was an elevation storm. 20 inches of snow fell at Norfolk, Connecticut (elevation 1337 feet) while downtown Hartford received only 1.2 inches. The highest total occurred at Slide Mountain, New York (elevation 2600 feet) with 26 inches falling. Extensive damage to trees and power lines occurred with 500,000 people without power following the storm. This was the first May snow in 107 years of records at Boston, Massachusetts although only 1/2 inch fell there. However, in the nearby suburb of Bedford, 9.5 inches fell. Worcester, Massachusetts recorded 12.7 inches, the Blue Hill Observatory in Milton, Massachusetts measured 7.8 inches, and Providence, Rhode Island had 7 inches.

3 feet of snow fell over the Bears Paw Mountains of north central Montana and snow and high winds created near blizzard conditions over portions of central Montana.

A spring snowstorm produced heavy snow in upper Michigan and eastern Wisconsin. Marquette, Michigan recorded 22.4 inches of snow to set not only a new single storm snowfall record for May but also a new monthly record for snowfall in May. The old monthly record was only 1.4 inches set back in 1980. 8 inches fell at Muskegon, Michigan and Hartford, Wisconsin. The heavy wet snow and winds gusting to 35 mph damaged or destroyed thousands of trees and downed power lines. Total damage from the storm was more than 4 million dollars.

Severe thunderstorms blasted western Texas and Nebraska. 15 tornadoes were reported in western Texas. 3 miles northwest of Lazbuddie, a complex of 5 tornadoes touched down within 10 minutes of one another. This consisted of the main funnel (rated F2) and 4 'satellite' tornadoes that rotated around the main vortex at a distance of about 1/4 mile. Hail 6 inches in diameter broke many windshields and did extensive damage to roofs in Pyote, Texas. 5 inch hailstones fell from a supercell thunderstorm near Crawford, Nebraska.