This is hard to believe

The lack of tornadoes isn't something you want to talk about at the beginning of May, because as anybody knows, it can spike up very quick. It's even something we shy away from making a big deal out of at the beginning of June, but when you get to mid July, this is really hard to believe.

The stat we are referencing - number of tornado warnings in Kansas. All of the National Weather Service offices combined and less than 30 tornado warnings to date. Neighboring Oklahoma has issued a significant amount more, but the 2020 tornado season has been an unusual one for the Plains. 

Looking at numbers across the country, the tornado reports (not the actual number of tornado touchdowns) is just over 900. That does run below the average (which is indicated by the black line on the graph below) at this point in the season, but not enough to break monumental records. Kansas is currently setting records for lack of tornadoes, but we probably won't see that on a national level. 

Upcoming heat wave:

 

We are facing a mini heat wave setting up for the Plains as high pressure flexes its muscle over the area. This will allow temperatures to climb and there will be fewer rain chances moving into the beginning of the weekend. It's not impossible to get a few storms under the high pressure aloft, but they normally aren't widespread.

A front/pattern shift may help out:

If the high pressure "heat dome" shifts west early next week like we are seeing in the models, we could see a front sneaking into Kansas Sunday night-Monday that will help to bring temperatures back down. However, a subtle shift in the upper air winds could keep the front away from Kansas. It's something to watch, but for now, it doesn't appear that a solid string of 100° heat is coming this way.