Remembering Greensburg & Mercury transit coming soon

It's hard to believe that the Greensburg tornado was already 9 years ago today. Early May is historically a rough time of year in Kansas with some very violent storms. What was interesting to me that night is how the storm moved up from the south. So many storms move from southwest to northeast, but that storm had more of a northerly track to it. Just look at the damage path from that night. How interesting that it loops around to the northwest before falling apart. It was the first EF5 tornado (on the new Enhanced Fujita Scale)

Our weather won't be capable of producing any kind of violent weather today, tomorrow, or Friday. We are right under a high pressure system in the upper atmosphere, and that will keep us clear and quiet for awhile.

We do have a storm system coming in for Mother's Day weekend. It's a fairly large storm that will be slow to move, and as the system approaches, it becomes a little less organized and starts to weaken some.

Saturday:
The first chances for storms will show up in northern Kansas by Saturday evening. There's a warm front that will be stretched out along and north of I-70, that will be the area to watch in the first part of the weekend. The could be a couple of storms move into southwest Kansas as well, but most of the storms Saturday evening will be isolated.

Sunday:
A little more favorable for scattered storms over much of the state. It's a little less likely for rain the farther west that you go, but the chance is still there. It's not a high chance for severe weather, but I would expect we will have some hail and wind in our state this weekend.

Monday, May 9th the Transit of Mercury across the sun will take place. It starts at 6:12 a.m. (before the sun comes up) and ends at 1:42 p.m. You can't look directly at the sun, but there will be a very small black dot that travels through the lower part of the sphere of the sun. The last time Mercury crossed this path was back in 2006. Venus sometimes has a path that takes it between the Earth and sun, but that won't happen again until 2117. There are several places on the internet where you can watch this online. I'll keep you posted on where you can find this live viewing.