The atmosphere was not in a celebratory mood this Mother's Day weekend, as deadly tornadoes, flash floods and even record-smashing snowfall blasted areas of the United States from South Dakota to Texas. The severe weather was the largest multi-day tornado outbreak of the year so far in what has otherwise been an unusually quiet tornado season.
As of Monday morning, two fatalities were reported in the town of Van, Texas, after a suspected tornado swirled through the small community of about 2,600, located east of Dallas, on Sunday night. At least one-third of the town has been seriously damaged, according to emergency management officials, which included homes, trees, power lines and an elementary school.
Eight adults were unaccounted for in Van and 43 had been taken to hospitals, officials said. A door-to-door search was underway on Monday morning to find anyone who might be injured or unaccounted for.
Path of devastation from Van tornado. Hard to be certain, but I think theres 4 destroyed houses in this clip. @NBCDFW pic.twitter.com/Ks8GbkZyK3— Jeff Smith (@JeffSmithNBC5) May 11, 2015
National Weather Service meteorologists were surveying the damage on Monday to determine if a tornado had struck, and if so, how intense it was.
Earlier on Sunday, storms struck the small town of Delmont in South Dakota, hurting nine people.
"Our house is flat. There is nothing left," said Stephanie Lunder, 34, who took shelter with her husband and four children in the basement. The town's 200-plus residents were asked to leave for safety reasons, state Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Kristi Turman said. They were to be allowed back on Monday to assess their property.
In all, 79 tornadoes were reported from May 8 to May 10, although the final tally is likely to be smaller because of double-counting of individual tornadoes.
Two people who lived in adjoining mobile homes in Nashville, Arkansas, were killed after suspected tornadoes swept through there on Sunday. Swift-water rescues took place in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area on Sunday after repeated rounds of storms dumped up to a foot of rain in a short period of time. This flooding followed the first-ever flash flood emergency declaration for Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on May 6.
Spring and winter collide
The massive swirl of a storm that spun off lines of severe thunderstorms with embedded tornadoes led to a rare meteorological feat on Saturday, when tornadoes occurred in the plains of Colorado just east of Denver, while heavy snow began falling in Denver on northeastward into Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska.
It is extremely rare to have a tornado warning issued one or two counties over from a winter storm warning for heavy snowfall.
@GMA @kotatweets @NWSRapidCity Park Dr Rapid City pic.twitter.com/A30XUw94Ru— RJFier (@fierroj) May 10, 2015
Although it often snows in the Denver area during May, the snowfall totals were unusual, particularly in neighboring states to the northeast of Colorado. In Rushville, Nebraska, located TK from TK, a whopping 22 inches of snow fell over the weekend. At the same time, residents of other parts of the state were heading into their storm shelters to protect themselves from tornadoes.
Rapid City, South Dakota, picked up 13.6 inches of snow from this storm, its second-largest individual snowstorm on record in the month of May, and the third-largest monthly snowfall total for May. The only heavier May snowstorm in Rapid City, which was an inch greater, took place in 1905, 22 years before Mt. Rushmore's carving began in 1927.
Rapid City's snowiest months of May occurred in 1895, when 19.2 inches fell, and 1905, when 14.6 inches accumulated.
Near 10" snow S Rapid City. #May #snowstorm @NWSRapidCity pic.twitter.com/cFfgG2R7bo— Matthew Bunkers (@wxbunkers) May 10, 2015
The snowfall jackpot in South Dakota was in the town of Lead, which picked up 19 inches, while Colorado, Crestone, had 17.7 inches, and Aurora saw 9 inches of snow. Even Denver International Airport, which is not in the Rocky Mountains, received 4 inches.
There has been a recent spate of heavier early and late season snows in parts of the Plains. For example, in April 2013, 20 inches of snow fell in Rapid City, making it the single snowiest day since records began there, beating the old record set in April 2001. The multi-day total for that storm was even greater, at 28.2 inches.
The small city saw a damaging snowstorm in October of the same year, which dumped nearly two feet of heavy, wet snow, snapping tree limbs and power lines.
The snow with this storm is largely over, but more severe thunderstorms are expected on Monday from Texas all the way into Michigan. Fortunately, the tornado risk is lower than it has been for the past four days, with the main threats being strong straight-line winds, flooding and large hail.