The high wind speeds across the central plains show the effect of friction on air movement, because the plains are very flat wind picks up speed unimpeded by mountains or hills.
There are some low cells on the west coast which are probably responsible for the higher wind speeds in that region. Over Texas and Oklahoma there are a lot of storms, because they are not along a front they may be spontaneous thunderstorms. That strong wind corridor is probably drawing up lots of moisture from the gulf and when we are seeing very high temperatures that moist air rises and dumps that moisture as rain. And because there are such strong winds normal thunderstorm action, which kills the storm when the falling rain cools the up swell of air, is probably being hindered which his spreading that storm out across a wide area.
This prediction shows the high temperatures that may be responsible for those storms. You can also see the highest temperatures on the northern edge are following the edge of that cold front which is where the most severe storms are popping up, so there is likely significant frontal lifting in those areas.
