May 1, 2017JPEG

Between April 29 and May 1, 2017, a vigorous weather system delivered intense rain, heavy snow, and tornadoes across the central and southern United States. On May 1, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color view of a wide band of snow dropped by the storm. The snow that fell on western Kansas—up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) in some areas—was the heaviest on record for this late in the season, according to the Dodge City bureau of the U.S. National Weather Service.

1. References and Further Reading

2. Category 6 via Weather Underground (2017, May 1) Sprawling Central U.S. Storm Takes at Least 15 Lives. Accessed May 2, 2017.
3. NASA (2017, May 1) NASA Sees Severe Weather from Central to Eastern US. Accessed May 2, 2017.
4. NOAA (2017, April 30) VIIRS Spies Deadly Storms over the Midwest/Southern Plains. Accessed May 2, 2017.
5. National Weather Service (2017, May 1) Dodge City Facebook Post. Accessed May 2, 2017.
6. The Washington Post (2017, May 1) Western Plains blinded by historic late-spring blizzard (photos). Accessed May 2, 2017.
7. The Weather Channel (2017, May 2) Towns Flooded Across Arkansas, Missouri as Rivers Rise; 20 Dead in Weekend Storms. Accessed May 2, 2017.

NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response. Caption by Adam Voiland.