Big High Risk, Historic Plains Severe Outbreak

UPDATE: Note that the NWS radar at Amarillo, Texas is "running hot" today - causing inaccurate readings of storms above 90 dBZ (with nothing close to that from nearby radars). This is also causing the storms in Oklahoma to look more intense than they actually are on the AccuWeather.com radars.

UPDATE: I just posted some sick radar maps here... the storms on the Dodge City KS radar are off the charts for Reflectivity, Echo Tops, and VIL. I'm talking 79 dBZ, 81 VIL, 74,000 foot tops.

We may have on our hands today an historic Plains severe weather outbreak. Our Wichita office (WeatherData, Inc.) is very concerned about this situation and is flashing back to June 8th, 1974, when a large severe weather oubreak spawned 39 tornadoes, including 4 violent, killer tornadoes that left 22 fatalities behind, according to WikiPedia. I recommend reading this PDF from CEO Mike Smith detailing that outbreak.

The High Risk area issued by The SPC [JessePedia] is unusually large, including the even-larger Moderate Risk around it. I recommend that, if you live in that area, you read the SPC's discussion, then batten down the hatches. The WRF model says that a line of storms will develop on the Nebraska/Kansas border early this afternoon, then move northeastward. Below are some tools that will help you monitor the outbreak when it begins.