05/11/2025 - 05/17/2025

Climate in the News: 

Craighead County, Arkansas, woke up to an EF1 tornado early Friday morning. According to the National Weather Service, it formed in a field south of Lunsford, overturning an irrigation system. The tornado moved northeast, snapping several power poles at its strongest point (damage pictured below, its location circled in orange). It continued to the Mangrum community, damaging the roofs of a home and an outbuilding and snapping tree branches before lifting. The tornado tracked 7.11 miles (pictured below in green) and had wind speeds up to 90 mph.

Damage points, storm track, and damage picture from assessment on 5/19/2025 at 11:45am CDT. Source: apps.dat.noaa.gov

Weather Synopsis:

The atmosphere was mostly benign across the Southern Region until later in the week. Upper-level disturbances triggered a series of low-pressure systems, resulting in strong thunderstorms on Friday and Saturday in North Texas and Southern Oklahoma that moved eastward. Across the two days, storms reportedly produced 2-inch to 3-inch hailstones in Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. Severe wind gusts of 75 mph to 80 mph also occurred in northern Arkansas. Three tornadoes struck in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

Source: WPC Surface Analysis, 5/17/25 at 4pm CDT

Temperature: 

Generally, May is when the Region starts to see consistently warmer temperatures. Temperatures in the southern portions of the Region often start seeing daily average temperatures in the low 80s.

A steady flow of air from the Gulf contributed to warmer-than-normal temperatures across the Region last week. The warmest temperature anomalies occurred in the Texas Edwards Plateau and Middle Tennessee. However, the Louisiana coast, Panhandles, and west Texas stayed seasonably cool due to daytime cloud cover. Overall, weekly average temperatures ranged around 65 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit for much of the Region.

Precipitation: 

With most of the Region located in a humid subtropical climate, rainfall occurs throughout the year. During the spring months, storm systems are frequent throughout the South. In May, severe storm probabilities are at their highest in Oklahoma and Northeast Texas in the Southern Region.

Last week, rainfall was relatively low in the Southern Region. The disturbances mentioned earlier were responsible for most of the rain on Friday and Saturday in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and parts of North Texas. Mississippi and Tennessee saw almost daily rainfall last week. Across the two states, stations recorded over an inch of rain on Saturday, Tuesday, Monday, and Sunday. As a result, much of the eastern half of Tennessee and the northern half of Mississippi received twice their normal precipitation amounts. Meanwhile, Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma stayed relatively dry.