Texas Tornado and Widespread Severe Weather Outbreak Likely

The blogs and Facebook were buzzing last night with photos and unusual tornado in Bushland, Texas. The tornado came without a risk map from the government's Storm Prediction Center because it was was due to localized conditions, but I can't help but wonder if it portends more to come. Another folklore sign is that the storm chasers on Facebook seem to be as excited as they have been so far this season.

Getting down to some more scientific reasons we could expect a turn in the slow severe weather season this week, the Gulf waters are warming, and although they are still much below normal, they may be high enough to start to support widespread severe weather. Our news article about the potential severe weather outbreak calls the threat "significant."

<a href="http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/30609/southern-severe-outbreak-could.asp"

The SPC has what could only be described as a "huge" Slight Risk out for Friday, with smaller ones on either side - add them all up and you're talking some significant land under the threat area. If the severe weather outbreak doesn't feature strong storms this week, it could at least be widespread, and it will move into areas like the Deep South by the weekend. Plus I wouldn't be surprised if a Moderate Risk ends up embedded in there by Friday, and if so it would be the first of the year, quite rare.