May 20, 2010 turned into another wet, gloomy day with even more rain sliding through the area. The pictures below show rain drops hanging off a rose and leaf at Gage Park.

Overall, we did see less rain on the 20th. Here are a few rainfall totals for Northeast Kansas: Billard Airport (Topeka): 0.47", Emporia: 0.42", Manhattan: 0.37", Forbes Field (Topeka): 0.27", Concordia: 0.15" and Lawrence: 0.08".

May 21, 2010 started off cloudy, but the clouds eventually cleared allowing some sunshine to return by the evening. The ground was finally able to begin drying. You can't find rain drops hanging from the mushroom in the photograph below like on the rose above.

The rain cleared out in time for the weekend, but the humidity and heat moved in. Highs warmed into the upper 80s on May 22, 2010, although the thermometer at Fairlawn Plaza in Topeka, Kansas thought it was much warmer!

The Walgreen's thermometer was a lot more accurate, but still hot!

You can see in the photograph below, both pictures were taken at the same time and location. Here are some of the highs from May 22nd across Northeast Kansas: Billard Airport (Topeka): 88, Forbes Field (Topeka): 87, Lawrence: 89, Emporia: 86, Manhattan: 88 and Concordia: 84.

It was still hot and humid on May 23, 2010. When I brought my camera outside from the cool house, the lens fogged up immediately. Every time I cleaned it, it fogged right back up, therefore the following pictures is capturing the humidity we saw on May 23rd.

I had my phone outside with me, so I didn't have to deal with the fogging lens. Here is the same picture as above. My cat was enjoying the nice weather, but also trying to stay cool in the shade!

Cloudy skies moved into the area during the morning on May 19, 2010, still the sunrise was very colorful.

;

;

A blanket of clouds covered the area on May 17, 2010, which made for a gloomy day. By the evening, we finally saw small breaks in the clouds.

Clouds continued clearing through the evening and overnight, leaving mostly clear skies on the morning of May 18, 2010. Even though there were clear skies, you couldn't see that the skies were clear because of the dense fog. I took the following photograph on my way into work during the early morning. If you look at the lights, you can really see the fog.

Below are a few photographs taken once the sun came up. It was still pretty difficult to see anything far away.

As I was driving around on May 14, I noticed there have been a lot of dandelion seeds floating around lately. This inspired my photograph for May 14th, I believe the proper term for this is the "dandelion seed head."

When I see dandelions growing in the grass, it takes me back to when I was little. I use to pick up the "pretty flowers" and make flower arrangements! I also remember picking the dandelions, which were actually seeds, and blowing all of the seeds off.

Little did I know, I was creating more "flowers." Looking back today, how my dad most have loved to see me planting more weeds in his yard!

Over the weekend, everything was wet and gloomy. The following picture was taken on May 15, 2010 and shows the rain water that has been building on top of my dog's sandbox (yes, my dog has a sandbox. I am trying to encourage her to dig there, not in the mud!)

Here are photographs taken on May 16, 2010, showing that everything is still wet!

Stormy weather moved back into Northeast Kansas on May 12, 2010. Meteorologist Ed Bloodsworth went out chasing, anticipating severe storms capable of producing isolated tornadoes, while I stayed in the KTKA studio with Chief Meteorologist Matt Miller, to help him cover the storms on-air. (One unique thing about our company is that we have two television stations in Northeast Kansas, KTKA 49 ABC News based out of Topeka and 6News Lawrence, which focuses specifically on the Lawrence area. Severe weather is one of many occasions we combine our weather teams to provide even better severe weather coverage, with more eyes on the weather.) The first photograph is a “behind-the-scenes” weather picture from the KTKA studio. You can see Matt updating our 49 Storm Team Facebook page. If you look at the radar, you can also see a few storms pushing into our area with tornado warnings. We didn’t end up seeing any tornadoes, most of the storms weakened as they moved into our area.

While our area didn’t have any tornadoes, we had a lot of lightning, heavy rain and damaging winds. The pictures below were taken as heavy rain moved over our studio.

Between storms, we saw a little bit of sunshine peaking through, which made for a beautiful sunset, with a lot of colors in the sky. You can see the color from the sunset also reflecting off the water on the ground.

If you look closely at the next picture, you can see a rainbow showing up on the far right.

The heavy rain continued to push out of the area during the morning on May 13, 2010. By the afternoon, a little sunshine returned to the area. You can see a turtle basking in the sunshine in a pond at Gage Park. Last time I was by this pond, the flowers weren’t in bloom yet on the lily pads, but they were this time.

Mother’s Day on May 9, 2010 was mostly cloudy at cool, but at least the stormy weather stayed out of the area.

That was not the case on May 10, 2010, as strong to severe storms pushed through the Midwest. With the threat of strong tornadoes, Photographer Jon Englert and I headed to Council Grove, Kansas to intercept any bad storms that moved into our area. Over 42 tornadoes were reported to our west and south, with a majority of them to our south. Luckily, the worst of the severe weather, and all of the tornadoes, stayed out our area. Heavy rain and lightning was the extent of what we saw while out chasing, but that seems to happen a lot!

Once we returned to Topeka, the storms were beginning to clear out. Sunshine peaking through the clouds made for a beautiful view in the evening.

Storms moved out by May 11, 2010, with a few breaks in the clouds, making for a beautiful sunset. It’s amazing how every sunset is so different.

The picture below is a panoramic shot from the setting sun, panning up across the sky.

Click here for the 365 Days of Weather Archive and Photo Gallery.

We saw sunshine and warm temperatures for much of the day on May 6, 2010. During the afternoon, I noticed "different" clouds in the sky. I will admit, when I was little I often watched the clouds, seeing everything from elephants to castles. I still like to see what shapes I can see in the clouds. On May 6th, the sky reminded me of the ocean, with all the breaking waves I saw.

Above and below are a few photographs of the "strange" clouds. I've done a lot of digging and the best I have come up with so far is some type of lenticular cloud. They almost look like cirrocumulus lenticularis, but cirrocumulus lenticularis are pretty rare, so I am not convinced that is correct. The circular cloud in the photograph below is the cloud that makes me think it could be a type of lenticular cloud. Regardless of what they were, they were a great sight, and most likely, a sign of unsettled weather heading our way!

Severe storms pushed through the area overnight on May 6, 2010. Storm reports ranged from damaging winds to several tennis and golf ball size hail reports. These strong to severe storms also lit the sky up with a lot of lightning. Below are some great photographs of the lightning. They were taken in Topeka, Kansas by David Behzadpour.

I went to a Mother’s Day garden party with my great-aunt on May 7, 2010. Luckily, it was an indoor garden party, because cooler, breezy weather settled in behind the May 6th storm system. The garden party inspired me to take pictures of irises from my aunt’s garden. While the hail we saw the night before may not be great for gardens, the rain we’ve seen lately certainly has been.

Cooler weather continued into the weekend, but mostly sunny skies returned for May 8, 2010. It turned out to be a beautiful day, which was great news for the hundreds of people who headed to Downtown Topeka for the Eagle 99.3 Classic Cars Cruise Night. The scene reminded me a lot of the Disney/Pixar movie "Cars."

May 3, 2010 was a sunny, beautiful afternoon. I was outside with my dog and noticed honeysuckles were in bloom. While I was taking a few photographs of the honeysuckles, they brought back memories from when I was little. I remember we would always tear the stems of the honeysuckles and eat the nectar inside.

While I was taking pictures of the honeysuckles, there was a swarm of bugs behind me. I'm not sure what they were, they suddenly flew up from the ground in a swirling motion. I didn't get close enough to figure out what they were, but I did take a picture. Does anyone have any idea what they could have been? They didn't look like bees

Over the weekend, I was in Tulsa, Oklahoma for military training. The beginning of May started off wet, with on and off rain throughout the day on May 1, 2010.

May 2, 2010 was the complete opposite. The morning started off cloudy, but by the afternoon there wasn't a cloud in the sky. At least, not when I left Tulsa in the evening. The clouds increased during my trip north to Topeka, along US-75. I saw a lot of towering cumulus, showers and a few pulse storms in the background. (I also saw a lot of cows and a rainbow!) You can follow my trip home in the photographs below.

Near the Oklahoma/Kansas border

Near the Oklahoma/Kansas border

Right outside Yates Center

Right outside Yates Center

South Coffey County

South Coffey County

Osage County

Osage County

Shawnee County

Shawnee County