Texas Snow and Tornadoes

On April 29th, six tornadoes hit eastern Texas, including an EF4, an EF3, an EF2, and three EF0s. Four fatalities were confirmed.

The April 29th 12Z (7 AM CDT) sounding for Fort Worth showed that there was already 2,500 CAPE:

As dew points rose into the mid 70s in the afternoon east of Dallas, CAPE values exceeded 5,000 by 21Z (4PM CDT) according to NAM:

There was strong low level wind - greater than 40 knots at the 1 km level - and a clockwise turning wind field with height, producing sufficient shear and helicity for tornadoes.

On April 29 and 30, heavy snow fell across the High Plains as far south as the Texas Panhandle. Amarillo received 3" and Dalhart had 9". There were over 50,000 power outages in the Texas Panhandle caused by high winds. At Amarillo, winds gusted to 54 mph and visibility dropped to 1/2 mile.

Garden City, KS had blizzard conditions on the 30th and 11" of snow, causing three structures to collapse. 14" fell in the southwest corner of Kansas at Elkhart. One farmer near Sublette estimated that he had lost 80% of his crop. At Wallace in northwest Kansas, 28" of snow fell, with drifts of 8-10 feet. 33" fell at Lander, WY and 39" fell at San Isabel, CO.

Flooding has killed 7 in Arkansas and 3 in Missouri. In southern Missouri, the town of Houston received 11.15" of rain.