The first major tornado outbreak in 2015 occurred in January. However, the spring tornado season started off real slow with March and April having below average tornado activity. However, the lack of tornado activity was not about to last.

An outbreak sequence occurred in the West and Midwest regions of the United States. In 5 days 127 tornadoes would be produced by this storm system. So what caused this outbreak.

A strong storm system developed in the Rocky Mountains. Ahead of the storm system was warm air with temps in the 60's, 70's, and even 80's in some locations. Cold air aloft was getting pulled into the storm system. You also had rich Gulf Moisture being pulled in. In addition, you had a very strong jet blasting in from the southwest. Then there was High pressure dominating the East. The high pressure caused this storm system to stall out. Thus, every day there was severe weather.

On May 5th. Tornadoes touched down in New Mexico and Texas. In addition to tornadoes large hail and damaging winds occurred.

May 6th the tornado outbreak pushed into Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska.

May 7th tornadoes hit the same area again occurring in Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska.

May 8th tornadoes occurred in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle.

May 9th tornadoes occurred in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.

On the last day of the tornado outbreak another pierce of energy came into the South Dakota and Iowa. Tornadoes also touched down in the same places they did the previous days.

A total of 127 tornadoes occurred with 14 of them being being EF2 or higher. This event alone made up for a lackluster spring.

Some of the worst tornadoes from this outbreak were the following

Grady Oklahoma Tornado- This tornado did severe damage in Grady Oklahoma. This tornado was rated a high end EF3 type tornado.

Jewel Kansas Second Tornado- Jewel was hit with an EF1 tornado earlier in the day. Later in the day a powerful EF2 tornado occurred. This tornado did severe damage doing over $4 million damage to Jewel Kansas.

Mount Hope Nebraska - Another long tracked tornado occurred in Nebraska this one was rated EF3.

Courtland KS and Hebron NE tornado- This tornado touched down in Kansas and moved into Nebraska. This tornado was EF2 doing 1 milion dollars worth of damage.

Munden Kansas Tornado- This long tracked tornado touched down in Munden Kansas doing severe damage that this tornado was an EF3.

Oklahoma City- Oklahoma city is no stranger to violent tornadoes. An EF3 tornado touched down in the city doing severe damage and doing millions of dollars worth of damage.

Eeastland South Dakota tornado this high end EF2 tornado did severe damage to barns and farms.

Van Texas- This was the most destructive tornado in terms of damage because it hit a populated area. This tornado did severe damage to the town of Van Texas. This tornado was rated Ef3 and caused 40 million dollars worth of damage.

There were other EF2 and EF3 type tornadoes but these tornados occurred in rural areas.

Overall, this tornado outbreak made up for below average tornado activity. In fact, this tornado outbreak would be a series of large tornado outbreaks that occurred in the Midwest and lower part of the United States. Moreover, this was the first large tornado outbreak of 2015.