Welcome to Hurricane Season 2011! A lot to talk about tonight! We have tornadoes from coast to coast with tornadoes today in California, Kansas and Massachusetts. It was not just one tornado each in California and Massachusetts, but what looks like 2-3 tornadoes in each state. Tornadoes aren’t unheard of in either of these two states, but they are indeed quite rare. In Massachusetts, damage reports are still coming in where some cities were hit multiple times. Springfield, Mass was hit twice in two hours and there are confirmed reports now that four people have been killed. Springfield is a city of 150,000 people, which is significant not only by size, but also because today’s tornadoes add Springfield to the list of cities population greater than 50,000 that have been hit by tornadoes this year. Springfield joins Jackson, Tuscaloosa (twice), Raleigh/Fayetteville, St. Louis, Birmingham, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Minneapolis, La Cross, Joplin, and Dallas/Fort Worth. Good news today came that the list of missing persons in Joplin has dropped to zero.

Bringing us back to the southeast, it has been very hot today! So hot that at least five cities broke record highs today in Florida alone. These records stretched far and wide, as far away as Vermont and Kentucky. The big loser (in my opinion) was Marianna, FL which hit 105 degrees by mid-afternoon! This heat is that is shoving the storm track up into Canada and into New England.

As far at the tropics go, we are still watching two tropical entities in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. The first is in the Gulf of Mexico now. Recon may fly out tomorrow at about 1pm ET to search Invest 93L to see if there are any concerns that may change a forecast along the Gulf Coast. Although the panhandle was blazing hot today, the tale for central and eastern Florida was a very wet one. As much as three inches of rain fell in some lucky spots as 93L crossed the state from east to west, finally exiting the west coast near Tampa Bay. From here, Invest 93L will be crossing the Gulf coming ashore in Central Texas where the conditions are extremely dry right now. Rain is very much welcome in Florida and Texas.

Our Caribbean low pressure system is still going, although shear is consistently tearing it apart. Most of the thunderstorms are well off to the northeast of the low pressure system because of 20-40 knots of shear traversing the system. Conditions are improving, and this system will have a better chance of development nearing the weekend.

When the weather quiets down a bit, I will continue with the fourth condition that allows for cyclogenesis, but until then, check out the weather term of the day which will be added shortly to the top right side of the home page. Also, check out My Mission statement above. Good night and stay safe (and cool!)