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.

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