Monday, April 27, 2009

042609 chase


There is a cold comfort setting inside your house listening to the rain and thunder outside. Then a cold comfort when you realize the area they just placed the warning on is less than 2 miles away.

We ran out of Kechi to Benton through blinding rain and wind. Then it slowed down and so did we. Never a good sign. Lots of reports were coming in but we were facing an irregular phenomena. Hook echos are to produce to the SW sides of Supercells. Not smack dab on the western side. We pulled over to get some bearings and decided to run into the town of Benton. Just before we got there I took this.


















Not really sure if it was a wall cloud, a scary looking cloud, microburst, or maybe one of the horsemen of the Apocalypse, we decided to get a little closer.














We drove through Benton. One of the problems is due to the houses, tree, etc. there was a lot in the way of seeing what we needed to see.










We thought we saw something at the end of the street.

By the time we got to a clear place, the cloud had really broken up. As stated before, we didn't know if it was a wall cloud or just something scaring the locals.
















We thought about going to Kingman since it seemed to be where the more serious storms were going to play out. I ended up heading home for a little while and never made it to Kingman. I missed the Lake Afton tornado as well.

Then the squall line decided to move in.

I ran to my usual photo spot on the highest peak of Sedgwick Co.





There is something about the sight of a good strong squall about to hit and realizing that you won't make it home in time.


It been a while since I stood out in a strong storm.


It's an interesting feeling as the wind starts off slow, then increases, and keep increases until it's whistling past the light poles like a reed and hitting an F flat. Then the rain and light hail hit, and I had enough.


I was disappointed that Sunday didn't quite turn out as spectacular as I had hoped. On the other hand, with the horror show they predicted, we could have had a lot worse.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

PDS Watch


Weee,

Check this out

AT THIS TIME...THE AREA AT GREATEST RISK OF LONG-TRACKED TORNADIC SUPERCELLS WILL BE OVER WESTERN OKLAHOMA AND SOUTH-CENTRAL KANSAS. STATE AND LOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGERS ARE MONITORING THIS POTENTIALLY VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION. THOSE IN THE THREATENED AREA ARE URGED TO REVIEW SEVERE WEATHER SAFETY RULES AND TO LISTEN TO RADIO...TELEVISION...AND NOAA WEATHER RADIO FOR POSSIBLE WATCHES...WARNINGS...AND STATEMENTS LATER TODAY.
Now with updated graphics!

WWTD part 3

They had tornados NW of Salina this morning when I got up. Language that NOAA is using is a little scary. Strong supercells capable of producing long lived tornados.

Weeee,

Keep aware.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Chase Log 4/25/09


Started seeing Storms initiate about 4:30. Decided to run like hell to Wellington. If we were lucky, we'd make it on the back side of the storm.





It was very overcast and there was a lot of precipitation falling around so once we were under the storm, we had some difficulty deciding where to go.









We hit Wellington and then decided to head East into Winfield. We waiting a while in Winfield hoping the storm would figure out what it wanted to do.








Off to the west I could see a "beaver tail" (an area where warm moist air feeds into a storm and gives it a lot of intensity) build. Another thing that caught my attention was the nice clear slot that had developed next to it.


We had our wall cloud.
















Couldn't tell what the cloud in the center was trying to do, I don't believe it was a funnel.
The wall clouds of this storm didn't survive. The storm seemed like it was attempting to organize but fell short. The wall cloud above did cause the warning for Sumner Co.



We kept chasing and I had the driver (Nichole Conard) back up for this:











The wall clouds continued to generate and created a few odd clouds like the "O" cloud.














We followed up to Oxford, where the radio was claiming the wall cloud was overhead.



It didn't last too long either. We watched as the cloud tried to rebuild and hopscotched to the East.


With the sun going down, we decided to call it off. We found Udall road and headed back. This storm went on to cause a brief tornado in or near the town of Douglass. At this time no one was reported hurt and it was limited damage.



Keep your eyes to the sky tomorrow. Round two is less than 16 hours away. They are predicting a major outbreak tomorrow. Be prepared.

More pics of this storm, forthcoming.

What Would Thor Do part II



Looks like the threat of severe weather may last all weekend up to Monday.
There is a threat of tornados which could occur after dark tonight. Although most of that has gone more to the SouthWest. Another scary thought is with the amount of moisture in the air, they may be heavy precipitation storms with rain wrapped tornados.

Today might be good, Tomorrow may be great.




Friday, April 24, 2009

WWTD - What Would Thor DO

Storms every day for the next week?

Severe storms Saturday and Sunday?

Could it be spring?

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Saturday, April 18th

Wichita had a nice soaking overnight, but a nice day otherwise.


The guys at http://www.tornadovideos.net/ intercepted the twin tornadoes north of Dodge City. Per the National Weather Service, there were no injuries or fatalities, but a house was destroyed.


I took this before the storm hit here in Wichita, it had a strong wind, heavy rain, but we did without the hail.


Thursday night sky


Nothing spectacular, but nice.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Sat. April 18th

Good chance for hail today late afternoon into early evening.


Saturday, April 4, 2009