<p>I asked this in the chat and it was suggested I ask on the main site.</p>

<p>There's been a seemingly perpetual severe weather outbreak over the central and eastern U.S. over the past two weeks. Killer EF3s in Jefferson City, MO, Dayton, OH, and El Reno; flash flooding in Oklahoma; severe storms in Illinois/the Ohio Valley/Mid Atlantic; the tornadic supercells in northern NJ/Staten Island, the list goes on, and on, and on.</p>

<p>On top of this, the southeastern U.S. is seeing record high temperatures (earliest-ever triple digit temps for Alabama) and a heat wave is currently (as of today, Wednesday 5/29) smothering the east coast. What has been the synoptic and mesoscale (fronts, upper-air) setup that can explain this unusual pattern? </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-30T17:41:13.850Z
The midwestern US (with rain & tornados) isn't the entire US.  Parts of the west (where I live) have been unusually cool & wet, though I wouldn't call that "severe".  More like a blessing, given a near-record snowpack after several drought years :-)
jamesqf
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2019-05-31T05:29:27.747Z
@gansub: Current western US weather is not typical of El Nino years.
jamesqf
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-31T17:55:25.953Z
@gansub: That report is from Midland, Texas, which is in the middle of the country, not all that far from the Missouri, Oklahoma, &c places that're having floods & tornados.  Not much connection to the California/Sierra Nevada West, AFAIK.  Anyway, I never said there wasn't an El Nino, just that from what I've read it's a fairly weak one, and this spring's weather hereabouts is not typical of such.
jamesqf
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-06-01T17:45:56.780Z
@gansub: It depends on where you're looking from, of course :-)  But Colorado, and particularly the parts east of the Front Range, are roughly a thousand miles from the Sierra Nevada, so I would expect different weather patterns - e.g. influence from the Gulf of Mexico & Canadian prairies.
jamesqf
<meteorology><atmosphere-modelling><tornado><severe-weather>
What is the synoptic/atmospheric setup that is causing the U.S. severe weather outbreak in May 2019?
spillthrill
# What is the synoptic/atmospheric setup that is causing the U.S. severe weather outbreak in May 2019?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-05-29)

I asked this in the chat and it was suggested I ask on the main site.

There's been a seemingly perpetual severe weather outbreak over the central and eastern U.S. over the past two weeks. Killer EF3s in Jefferson City, MO, Dayton, OH, and El Reno; flash flooding in Oklahoma; severe storms in Illinois/the Ohio Valley/Mid Atlantic; the tornadic supercells in northern NJ/Staten Island, the list goes on, and on, and on.

On top of this, the southeastern U.S. is seeing record high temperatures (earliest-ever triple digit temps for Alabama) and a heat wave is currently (as of today, Wednesday 5/29) smothering the east coast. What has been the synoptic and mesoscale (fronts, upper-air) setup that can explain this unusual pattern?

**Tags:** meteorology, atmosphere-modelling, tornado, severe-weather

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: The midwestern US (with rain & tornados) isn't the entire US.  Parts of the west (where I live) have been unusually cool & wet, though I wouldn't call that "severe".  More like a blessing, given a near-record snowpack after several drought years :-)  
> **username_1**: @gansub: Current western US weather is not typical of El Nino years.  
> **username_1**: @gansub: That report is from Midland, Texas, which is in the middle of the country, not all that far from the Missouri, Oklahoma, &c places that're having floods & tornados.  Not much connection to the California/Sierra Nevada West, AFAIK.  Anyway, I never said there wasn't an El Nino, just that from what I've read it's a fairly weak one, and this spring's weather hereabouts is not typical of such.  
> **username_1**: @gansub: It depends on where you're looking from, of course :-)  But Colorado, and particularly the parts east of the Front Range, are roughly a thousand miles from the Sierra Nevada, so I would expect different weather patterns - e.g. influence from the Gulf of Mexico & Canadian prairies.  

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## 0 answers

