A huge cluster of thunderstorms, containing winds strong enough to tear the roofs off buildings as well as large hail and nearly continuous flashes of lightning, barreled across several states beginning on Thursday morning.
The storms, which are essentially a group of towering thunderheads that have joined forces, have caused damage from Kansas to Arkansas. The storm complex is known to meteorologists as a "Mesoscale Convective System" or MCS, and it is a type of storm system typically seen a few times of year in the Midwest during the spring and summer season. However, today's MCS has been particularly well-defined, as if it came out of a meteorology textbook, and especially fierce.
Thursday's MCS has brought winds of nearly hurricane force, or 74 miles per hour, to some areas, and caused damage in Kansas City, Kansas, Springfield, Missouri, and may bring dangerous weather conditions to Memphis. More severe weather is expected to erupt on Thursday afternoon, and in fact this weather pattern could last straight through the weekend, with several rounds of severe weather in the same general areas.
Mesoscale Convective Systems can bring beneficial rains to thirsty farmlands, but repeat events over the same terrain can quickly lead to flash flooding concerns.
"Mesoscale Convective System" or #MCS being used to describe storms in south today/tonight. What is it? pic.twitter.com/X7CiwD2LbX— NWS Atlanta (@NWSAtlanta) June 5, 2014
The MCS on Thursday featured multiple areas of circulation within the storms, which made the thunderstorms appear more like a land hurricane on weather radar. A "wake low," which forms on the back side of some MCS complexes, even prompted a severe thunderstorm warning for Kansas City, despite the fact that the rain was ending there. The wake low caused wind gusts of nearly 60 miles per hour at times, impressing meteorologists.
The swath of damaging winds may classify this event as a "derecho" event (pronounced de-RAY-cho), which are characterized by a continuous path of wind damage at least 240 miles long.
Picture: MT@BrookeLexiLenn: #Lightning hit this tree in Lawrence #KS. Split it right down the middle #kswx pic.twitter.com/7fvDQCMH6s— Johnny Kelly (@stormchaser4850) June 5, 2014