Weatherscapes

Awoke to muggy, hazy conditions in Great Bend, KS this morning. The target for today was southwest or south-central Kansas, so I knew that I didn’t have to drive too far. Therefore, I took it easy getting ready, allowing plenty of time for coffee and forecasting. The target was refined as Dodge City, KS, due to good surface convergence and proximity to the better upper-level flow. The plan was to get to Dodge by noon or so, check data there, and refine the target further.

After doing another data analysis in Dodge, I moseyed around the area for a while. I sat by the side of a wheat field for over an hour, watching the cumulus go from flat and mushy to sharp and agitated. I headed south a little bit toward Sitka, KS, to see if the cumulus were any better there, but they weren’t, so I went back north. Eventually, several storms fired in a line just north and just south of Dodge City. I chose the one just south, and stayed with it as it moved east.

As I headed east on US54, I passed through Greensburg, which had been destroyed by an EF5 tornado in May of last year. It was very eerie going through there. There are still some piles of debris, lots of trailers, and stripped trees. The trees were the spookiest part for me. They were completely denuded by the tornado, but by this time, had started to grow leaves and limbs. Life is making a comeback here, thankfully.

As for the storm, it became tornado warned near Greensburg, with the circulation located a few miles south of town. I set up to the east of the storm, trying to get some structure shots, but the heavy rain kept me in the car for the most part. The low clouds were streaming into the storm from the southeast, which blocked my view of the updraft until I went south for about 10 miles. I finally got some good shots of the storm near the town of Coats, KS.

The storm was then absorbed into a developing line, just like the storms on Sunday. This time, though, I stuck with the original cell for a little longer, watching it as it drifted over Pratt, KS. A tornado was reported east of town, but from my position, I couldn’t see it. The color of the storm was amazing…a deep aqua green, signifying the large hail core that was inside. I gave up on the storm after several smaller cells started popping up around it, obscuring the updraft once again.

It looks like the active storm pattern of the past week will be breaking over the next couple of days, so I’m heading down to OKC to visit some friends. The next chase day looks to be Thursday, when I’ll make a return trip to southwestern Kansas. Perhaps I should make motel reservations now?

- JB

My day started in Norfolk, NE, after Saturday’s chase.  My original plan was to play the Iowa target, but after considering the conditions in central KS, and the fact that Monday’s target was central KS, I headed south toward…wait for it…central KS.  My route was US81-I70-KS156-US56 to Great Bend.

After checking radar and surface obs in town, I headed west on KS96 toward a developing storm southwest of Rush Center, KS.  I blasted south on US183 in Rush Center, keeping an eye on the precip core to my west and a ragged wall cloud to my southwest.  I stopped just past the Rush-Pawnee county line and watched as the storm became more organized.  Soon, it was apparent that I needed to head farther north, so I turned around and went back to Rush Center.

I pulled off on a gravel road a few miles south of town and shot photos of the amazing storm structure, including a rapidly rotating wall cloud that came close to producing a large tornado.  Alas, it never did, so I continued north toward Rush Center, and my easterly road option, KS96.

Upon entering town, the wall cloud looked like it was going to move right over me, and was spinning like crazy, so I bailed east.  I turned north toward LaCrosse a few miles later, then east again on KS4 as a funnel made its way down near the town.  I didn’t see the dust whirl, probably because I was a little farther east and there were trees in the way.  Who woulda thunk it…trees in western KS.

After that, the storms all merged into a line and became outflow dominant, so I tried some lightning shots near Great Bend, then holed up for the night at the Days Inn.  It was a good chase day, the best I’ve had in a long time.

- JB