Record Cold, Snow, Flooding and Tornadoes: Why the Midwest and Plains Have Been Most Extreme Weather Regions in 2019

Since January, those regions have set records for cold, snow and flooding. May has added hundreds of reports of tornadoes to the list.

A persistent weather pattern is the culprit for the storminess.

Strong upper-level winds from the jet stream have often carved a path southward over the West. When that happens, it puts the Plains and Midwest in the crosshairs of a repetitive track of storms. Moisture from the Gulf of Mexico feeds into those systems and allows them to dump copious amounts of precipitation.

Here's a look at the extreme weather we've seen so far in 2019, from May's severe weather and flooding to January's polar-vortex induced record cold.

May's Siege of Tornadoes and Flooding

Fresh on our minds is the nearly two-week-long siege of severe weather and flooding.

There have been more than 350 reports of tornadoes across the United States from May 17-early May 29, and most of those have been in the Midwest or Plains. The month as a whole has had 442 reports of tornadoes through May 27, according to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.

The actual number of tornadoes confirmed from those reports has yet to be determined, pending NWS damage surveys, but it's likely the final tornado count for May 2019 will be well above the month's 20-year average of 279.

Heavy rainfall has also triggered historic flooding in the central states. Record crests have occurred on the Arkansas River in Oklahoma and Arkansas and on Bird Creek in Avant, Oklahoma.

May has been record wet in Kansas City and Bartlesville, Oklahoma. A few other spots in Kansas and Oklahoma are also closing in on May rainfall records.

Several locations along the Mississippi River clinched records for their longest-lasting floods since the Great Flood of 1927. Flooding has been ongoing for months along parts of the river, including in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where flooding began in January.

April's Late-Season Snow Blitz and a Tornadic End

April began with Winter Storm Wesley topping all-time monthly snowstorm records in South Dakota.

Wesley buried Watertown, South Dakota, with 25 inches of snow April 10-12. That's the largest three-day snowstorm total on record there, beating a late-March 1937 storm, which brought the city 20 inches over three days.

New all-time two-day snowstorm records for the month of April were also set by Wesley in both Huron, South Dakota (18 inches), and Mitchell, South Dakota (16.2 inches).

Later in the month, Chicago had two bouts of snowfall that were unusual for so late in the season.

The Windy City picked up 2.5 inches of snow from Winter Storm Xyler April 27. That's the latest in the season accumulating snow has occurred there in more than 25 years. It was also the first time this late in the season that a single calendar day has had 2 inches or more of snowfall.

Xyler's snow occurred about a week after Chicago saw 5.4 inches of snow on April 14. The only other day with as much snow so late in spring was April 16, 1961, which also had 5.4 inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service.

Melting Snow Triggers Record River Flooding in March

Persistent cold and snow early in the year set the table for disastrous flooding in March.

Winter Storm Ulmer, also known as the March "bomb cyclone", tracked through the Plains and upper Midwest with blizzard conditions, high winds and heavy rain.

Warmer temperatures before Ulmer's arrival in combination with the rain triggered a rapid meltdown of snowpack and record flooding in dozens of locations.

In total, 42 locations set new record river levels, mainly in the Missouri Valley from southeastern South Dakota into Nebraska and western Iowa, but also in parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota and northern Illinois.

Numerous roads, bridges, levees and dams were damaged or destroyed by floodwaters. The damage from flooding and ice jams in the Midwest has topped a billion dollars, according to NOAA.

Buried in February

Snow was prolific in parts of Midwest and Plains during February and shattered records in some cities.

Eau Claire, Wisconsin, shoveled 53.7 inches of snow in February, easily topping its previous record for not only February, but also any other month of the year.

Minneapolis/St. Paul also smashed its snowiest February in 2019 by over a foot, tallying 39 inches of snow. The previous record was 26.5 inches in February 1962.

Omaha set a February record with 27 inches of snow. That propelled it to its snowiest winter season on record - December through February - with a whopping 46.1 inches of snow.

Some of the other locations that had a record snowy February are Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan (45.2 inches), Duluth, Minnesota (36.4 inches), Des Moines, Iowa (25.1 inches), and Fargo, North Dakota (21.4 inches).

The Midwest and Plains weren't alone setting February snow records. Parts of the West also joined the club.

January's Record Cold

The Midwest went into a deep freeze at the end of January that set all-time cold records. The widespread subzero temperatures were ushered in by a displacement of a lobe of the polar vortex.

Mount Carroll, Illinois, dropped to minus 38 degrees on Jan. 31, setting a new record low for any location in Illinois.

At least 340 cold records were set in the Midwest over two days Jan. 30-31, including record lows that were tied or set in Moline and Rockford in Illinois, Mather, Wisconsin, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The coldest temperature was minus 56 degrees in Cotton, Minnesota, on Jan. 31.

Wind chills fell into 60s below zero in parts of Minnesota, North Dakota and northeast Iowa.