Ruminations of Thunder

Snow

2012-02-04T07:43:00.000-08:00

Man, I need to learn Photoshop.

Rain

2012-02-03T06:17:00.000-08:00

It's been a bad drought. Last night on the porch, with the first few sprinkles of rain hitting, I think all of Wichita looked skyward like the children of Dune, and wondered what it was.

Recap of 2011

2012-01-01T22:01:00.000-08:00

Cold . . . Snow . . . Hot . . . Hotter . . . Dry . . . Wow welcome to the Midwestern Desert . . . Normal Temps . . . Couple Days of Rain.

I got to meet Tim Samaras from Storm Chasers at the Douglas CO. Severe Weather Symposium in Lawrence.

(April 6, 2011) Large fires in Arizona and New Mexico giving spectacular sunsets in the Midwest.

(April 8, 2011) Large hail storm out near Rose Hill. Stopped on my way in, watched a few moments, and told my chase partner, no. Missed baseball sized hail and lots of dents. Unfortunately got caught up in hail on the way home and added a couple new dents.

(May 22, 2011) This was part of a storm system responsible for the Emporia and Reading Kansas tornados. We gave up early on the storms due to loss of updraft. The system moved NE and created a couple tornados that hit Emporia at dusk and moved to Reading, KS after.

(June 6, 2011) They moved Riverfest to June to avoid the severe weather of May. Then a wall cloud forms north of the city and closes Riverfest down. Really the only good chase of the season for me this year, until it suddenly turned SW and came waaaaay to close to the house.

(June 16, 2011) Two great nights of electrical storms and me standing out in a field with a high tripod daring the thunder god.

(June 20, 2011) A dryline comes through with storms firing up north, here just wind and mammatus clouds.

(July 31, 2011) Hot and dry. Mostly 100+ days since May. Watched a lot of rain come close and just keep moving by. Most corn in the area (including the one in the shot) was toast.

(August 3, 2011) I was caught unaware by a huge storm that came into town. Love the fact that friends text me before warnings hit the phone.

Memorable quote of the night: "Blue lightning. That's not good is it."

70ish mph winds and torrential downpours. I could see power lines popping all around, luckily this was straight line winds and nothing tornadic.

Same storm split our last tree in the front yard. Never again Bradford Pear. Now need to do some landscaping. Luckily, the POS doesn't take damage, it creates character.

(August 9, 2011) A large group of storms brought much needed rain to Kansas but also brought strong damaging winds.

The storm had a very unique shape to it and I took one of my favorite shots and turned it into promotion for my new novel coming out.

Ah, October. Suddenly the 100+ temps decided to go far far away, and you could walk outside without wanting to incinerate.

Watched the Harvest Moon coming up between the neighbor's tree.

Absolutely nothing to do with the weather. Just love the Sedgwick Co. Zoo. You can feed the giraffes and stand in awe as their Gene Simmon's-like tongue takes the leaves from your hands.

December. Still dry, but a lunar eclipse at moonset provided some good photos.

The terrible map of tornados for 2011. Drove through Joplin in the middle of the night and passed the FEMA village. Although I bemoan a slow season here in Sedgwick CO. it could have been much much worse.

A special thanks to Studio's United for letting me do two Final Friday's in Wichita. I want to show more photography in the future and hope that the new year brings a new camera.

Santa on Radar

2011-12-24T10:25:00.001-08:00

No matter what, it only gets brighter from here.

2011-12-21T20:59:00.000-08:00

Happy Winter Solstice everyone.
Stonehenge, more reliable than the Mayan Calendar with no pesky 2012 updates.

Future in Weather Forecasting

2011-12-18T09:46:00.000-08:00

I bring you . . . Sammy the Weathergirl

2011 Eclipse - The fourth sign

2011-12-12T18:59:00.000-08:00

Earthquakes, and sun spots, and eclipses oh my. Taken from Northern Sedgwick Co. the morning of Saturday, December 10, 2011.

Fall

2011-11-23T21:11:00.000-08:00

The tree's are bare in the back yard, yet today was in the mid-60's and beautiful. Found a nice leaf photo from our October Blaze Maple just as the leave started to turn and the photo of someone who thought their Karate was stronger than mine. Mostly taken with a macro lens.

All's Quiet

2011-11-23T21:03:00.000-08:00

Down time.

The Sedgwick Co Zoo is one of the nation's top 10 zoos. When the weather is nice, I like to take my kids and camera. Here are some of my favorite photos, and no, the animals don't pose for you.

The elusive King Cobra

New baby Chimp with dead bird toy

Koi, Carp, and the occasional brave duck.

People tell me I'm crazy and sick, when I tell them to dress your kids in pinks, reds, and orange. It will attract the predators.

Snow

2011-11-12T10:52:00.000-08:00

Nothing much forecast severe for the rest of the year. We had decent rain, and I saw the first flakes of snow fall this year. I thinking of settling down for a long winter nap. Will post if anything comes about.

Another sign

2011-11-12T10:46:00.000-08:00

Earthquake.

In the Midwest.

Our strange year continues. . .

A moderate earthquake struck near OKC last week sending tremors as far north as Kansas City. I didn't feel the actual quake, but those who did said:

I thought the dog was hitting the bed.
It felt like an animal was stuck in the chair trying to get out.
I didn't realize what it was until I heard the glass clinking.
It made me feel ill.

There is a little debate at the time on whether some of the new fracking (yes, I am a BSG fan, but this has to do with releasing high pressure water to fracture oil and gas from shale) may be at cause in Oklahoma and Kansas.

From the US Geological Service:
http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/usgs_top_story/oklahoma-struck-by-series-of-quakes/

Monday, as I was half falling asleep, the chair began to move. I thought our large dog hit it, wanting petted. Then I heard a large glass wine decanter on our china hutch clink. This was an aftershock to Saturday night's quake, but the first time I've experienced it.

Halloween is in the air

2011-10-12T18:27:00.000-07:00

A little bit of cloud action, but the Harvest moon looks like a big monster's eye.

First . . . a sign

2011-09-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

Per Spaceweather.com: A NIGHT TO REMEMBER: A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field around noon Universal Time on Sept. 26th. The impact set the stage for a night to remember. As soon as darkness fell over Scandinavia, auroras filled the sky with such intensity that they were visible through rain clouds. Fredrik Broms photographed the scene from Kvaløya, Norway:

Maybe if you squint hard enough, the violent space weather will be visible in the upper Midwest.

Slightest Chance

2011-09-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

Second season? Storm chances today, area of interest west of Wichita.

La Nina

2011-09-08T18:11:00.000-07:00

http://thestormreport.com/2011/09/climate-prediction-center-la-nina-is-back/

Hmmm, heavy snow for winter? Time to get the snow blower fixed.

Texas fires

2011-09-06T20:58:00.000-07:00

Photo floating around Facebook today. Can't imagine the feeling.

Don't let it fool you . . .

2011-09-02T14:50:00.000-07:00

I was a slooooooooooooow year in South central Kansas. I find it amazing to look at the tornados in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and North Dakota this year.

My other life

2011-08-16T20:02:00.000-07:00

http://fatherthunder.blogspot.com/

Severe Thunderstorm Warning

2011-08-13T06:07:00.000-07:00

I'm setting here with the windows open. With 40 days over 100 streak this has been a pleasure with 60 degree temperatures outside. A handful of weak cold fronts came through in the last week, one causing the storms I posted last week. This one set up a slight squall line that gave the dramatic orange atmosphere that always makes one think of bad weather.

This was a two part line, the first one missed Wichita from the west with the second only barely touching the eastern corner of Sedgwick Co.

Wind hit about 30MPH but it barely rained and the lightning moved off to the east.

Severe Thunderstorm Warning August 9, 2011

2011-08-10T16:52:00.000-07:00

A large group of storms invaded Kansas and brought some much needed rain. They also brought damaging winds that caused damage in Burton and Hutchinson. They also flipped a semi on K-96. I watched the storms moving in from Great Bend which also caused a brief tornado warning in Ellis country around 9:00. As the storms neared Hutchinson I grabbed my gear and went out.

When I got a little bit out of the city, I kept looking to the northwest wondering what exactly I was looking at. There is always a few moment after leaving the house and looking at RADAR you're left with that feeling of the unknown.

Lightning illuminated the smooth sides of the rotating storm. The storm itself, when at it's most powerful looked like three plates staked upon each other.

Winds were very steady at 30mph. There was a slight gust that almost took the camera and tripod but luckily the remote sensor was connected and I used it like keeping a dog at bay.

lighting up the shelf as it almost passed overhead.

Sorry, shameless self promotion

The storm moved near and I went a little further north to look at some of the scary looking clouds (SCUD) hanging from the bottom. As I went to the clearing most of the clouds had died off and the storm lost its structure. Lightning struck overhead and just to the north. I decided it was time to go home.

Severe Thunderstorm Warning August 9, 2011

2011-08-09T22:44:00.000-07:00

This Storm Tracker is going to bed, pics tomorrow.

Damage

2011-08-04T21:41:00.000-07:00

I have a great network of family and friends.

When napping they are some of the first to shake me and ask what do I think I'm doing. I hate to say it, sometimes I get caught unaware. Last night, I was with a group of people unaware of what the atmosphere was doing, when I got a couple texts. Severe thunderstorm warning in Kingman Co (county to the west), and are you out taking pictures. The last one woke me up. A quick look at the radar and I realized we were in for a good storm.

After discussing it, one of my friends looked at me and said "I just checked Facebook for your storm update and realized you're right there."

I made it about half way home when it hit. 70ish MPH winds and rain bad enough that it went to zero visibility. Cloud to ground and cloud to cloud lightning was almost like a strobe light.

The car slightly hydroplaned and I felt myself drifting on the street with the wind. I moved into a large parking lot and pointed my car into it (Rule: ever stuck in high wind? Your front and rear windshields are stronger than your sides, steer into the wind). I sat in the parking lot watching power flashes all over making sure I was away from the light poles. Luckily, I knew this wasn't a tornadic storm or that would have inspired some panic.

By the end of it, 10,000 were without power and a lot of drought plagued trees gave up the ghost. We've had 39 days in Wichita, Kansas at or above 100 degrees and really lack rain. Last nights 2.5 inches that fell in an hour helped some, but with the speed of rain and the dry crust of earth, more ran off than was absorbed.

There was a lot of street flooding on the way home. A couple places the water reached to the curbs and across the road.

That's the lovely Chevy POS in the background.

Then when I got home I saw the last Bradford Pear in the front yard gave up the ghost. This morning, I saw the crack went down to ground and the tree had to be removed. Now, a naked front yard. We lost the other Bradford Pear over three years ago after an ice storm. The tree hit the Chevy POS, but at this point anything to it isn't damage, it's character.

Uprooted tree at work.

Sad thing is, a combination of this years drought and occasional strong pop up storms have made trees very fragile.

storm reports courtesy of NOAA.

Heat

2011-07-31T11:30:00.000-07:00

I'm a cold weather guy, Spring, Fall, Winter are my best months. This summer has been torture. We started hitting 100 degree days in May and looking at the forecast, it's not letting up.

Currently in the Midwest we have a moderate to extreme drought. I think were somewhere between a 6-7 inch rain deficit for the year.

Rain has been on the horizon but seems to stand in place and dissipate rapidly. The popcorn storms form quick, drop lots of rain over a small area, then produce strong wind as they fall apart causing brief thunderstorm warnings.

This was taken looking west toward one of the warned areas. The corn has mostly withered.

too hot

2011-07-24T19:46:00.000-07:00

The tally of days over one hundred degrees melted yesterday and my hopes for rain were completely dashed. The forecast for next week looks like a bad Tonight Show joke for weather in Hell. Although it does appear the weatherman changed tomorrows forecast to 99 to stave off villagers with pitchforks.

We had rain to the west and south of us today, even felt a couple drops while out shopping today, but the rain eluded us. Dissipated before it crossed over.

There's a line of showers to the northwest trying to kick up, we will have to hope and see.

07/02/11 Hesston, KS

2011-07-04T21:42:00.000-07:00

I can't claim this one although I ran that way after hearing of the tornado warning. Special thanks to Aimee, who was already at the location and grabbed video of a brief tornado. There was so much rain, I didn't get a thing.

06/20/11 Squall

2011-06-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

The dry line lazily rolled closer to Wichita with a whimper of threat. Storms were firing in Salina, but down here, wind. Nothing seemed to be happening so I went a little north to watch the storms.

To the south, a single cumulus tower began to rise and soon all hell broke loose. Before the storm even seemed to mature the National Weather Service issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for the area.

Clouds began stacking up on the dryline and we had a squall line.

Hail, high wind, and lots of rain.

The line took over an hour to move thorough town. There was wind related damage (trees, a couple roofs, and power lines), but no significant hail.

Afterwards mammatus clouds were very visible on the tail end of the front showing lots of turbulence up above. The temp dropped about 25 degrees and we finally lost the blast furnace wind that hit most of the day.

Inspirational moment of the Day

2011-06-21T19:56:00.001-07:00

Do something tomorrow that will change next week.
Do something next week that will change next month.
Do something next month that will change your life forever.

Moon

2011-06-17T22:30:00.000-07:00

Forgot to mention the moonrise tonight. With all our attention focused to the north, I caught a glimpse of something on the horizon.

I may try to make these into one print.

06/17/11 video

2011-06-17T22:27:00.000-07:00

I have not sped up the film. This is as quick as the lightning happened.

June 16th 2011 storm

2011-06-17T22:24:00.000-07:00

I always know something's afoot when a friend texts me and asks what's going on in a certain area.
McPherson - 80mph winds, large hail, maybe rotation. Too good to pass up. Left the house and headed about two miles to the north and then a quick jog east. The lightning was incredible, this storm looked very much alive and somewhat angry.

The lightning crawled all over this storm. Constantly with the fine little bolts.
I thought about heading up to Newton to see this storm, but the way the lightning spread out from this, I didn't want to get any closer and take photos.

The storm moved slow and I did notice the anvil making progress to the south. Before long Sedgwick Co. was under a thunderstorm warning.

I love photographing lightning with digital camera. I know it's a functional Darwinism exercise.

Also people would drive up to the intersection and watch us for a long time. If you do that and notice they have a camera . . . please turn off your brights (at least).

I know I look like a sasquatch with a tripod in a lightning storm.

The fronts stalled out near the city so tomorrows clash could mean more chasing.

Lightning June 9th and 16th

2011-06-17T15:01:00.000-07:00

06/09/11 chase now with video

2011-06-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

Video shot during wall cloud observation.

06/09/11 chase Part II The Real Deal

2011-06-10T20:03:00.000-07:00

I ran home.

Wall cloud heading to the house, circulation tightening, rain starting to come down and not allow me to see what's happening clearly.

I made it, everyone was hanging out in the basement.

I ran outside to lash myself to the deck like Lt. Dan screaming at the hurricane.

The storm passed through Kechi quickly running into Bel Aire. I know I saw a very brief funnel, but it did not touch down and dissipated after trying to form.

Kechi was hit by heavy rains, light hail (pea to dime sized), and 50-60 mph wind. Luckily, in the city we had minimal damage.

I waited for the main storm to pass, but a cell near Goddard (west of Wichita) strengthened up while this one started east again. There was some very chaotic movement in the storm and I believe it was due to the storms feeding off one another.

I waited for about thirty minutes for the deluge to stop. Wichita was experiencing some flooding. I grabbed the cameras and headed back out. The sunset was awesome showing some mammatus clouds, the pic below didn't do it justice.

I shot some lightning in the field but the occasional rain and horizontal lightning bursts overhead made me decide to head back home. I shot lightning out of the garage until the memory card was full. I did a time lapse video of the lightning last night. All in all, exciting evening, no tornado injuries or fatalities in the city of Wichita, and an amazing light show afterwards.

06/09/11 chase Part II ish

2011-06-10T18:59:00.000-07:00

PSA

Dear people of the Midwest. Recent storms have cause horrible damage and loss of life. When lightning is overhead, sirens are roaring, seek cover.

This guy . . .

Let's just say, don't be this guy. We don't need functional Darwinism. This is the second time I've been monitoring severe weather outbreaks, and was passed by someone riding a bike.

Thank you.

06/09/11 chase

2011-06-10T18:53:00.000-07:00

Although there was a thunderstorm watch for the area, this storm surprised me with it's fierceness. I watched the small blob grow on radar screen and decided to go take a look before I had a get together later in the evening. I have a great vantage point to watch storms about two miles from my house. It's a local farm field that the hedge rows were removed and I can see way out west.

When I arrived, I noticed a definite lowering of the clouds.

The wall cloud was forming and feeding off of the huge amount of moisture to the north of it and building although rotating very slowly.

There was some radio chatter about a rear flank downdraft opening up but I never saw it. Quickly the wall cloud slimmed down and continued feeding on warm moisture.

I was in a good position with inflow directly overhead. It kept the rain from cloaking the area. The cloud slowly rotated and radar finally indicated a cause for a tornado warning. If there was a rear flank downdraft, I think it choked out the tornadogenesis as the wall cloud became smaller. As it became smaller it began to rotate.

It was rumored that the storm was moving SE instead of straight E. Unfortunately, that's where my house is.

Part II coming soon.

Heat Bursts Data

2011-06-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=ict&storyid=69444&source=0

06/09/11 chase

2011-06-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

Still working on photos. Might even post a movie. Stay tuned.

Heat Bursts and other strange things I've never heard of

2011-06-09T21:33:00.000-07:00

In the early morning hours of June 8th, 2011, the temperature rose from 85 degrees to 102 in 20 minutes. This spawned a 50 mph wind through the city around 12:22 AM.

The meteorological explanation was that rain falling cools the air beneath it. The colder air falls quickly and as it falls it's warmed and compressed quickly.

The pictures are from a co-workers house on the west side of Wichita. Neighbors shed was picked up by the wind and thrown at her house.

The sky was on fire

2011-06-07T20:06:00.000-07:00

Huge fires down in New Mexico/Arizona are adding to the hazy hot skyline. Took these pictures through a glass with antireflective tint and also used a UV filter.

Did a little computer post editing, but thought it came out ok.

http://www.redcross.org/

2011-05-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

With the death and destruction we've seen from a Spring of horrific and historic storms, please take time to donate or give blood to The American Red Cross. http://www.redcross.org/

Brian Johnson
http://www.ruminationofthunder.com/

Jefferson City,Mo Wednesday May 25, 2011

2011-05-28T07:39:00.000-07:00

Taken by Crawford Brantley in downtown Jefferson City, Mo. during a tornado warned storm.

May 24,2011

2011-05-25T20:24:00.000-07:00

We were under a high risk of severe weather and some of the most influential storm chasers I know were commenting how bad the forecast for Wichita looked. Although it has been a mostly quiet spring, we were due for bad weather, and with Joplin, MO so fresh in our minds, many people including myself were worried.

Storms began firing up in Oklahoma west of OKC and heading here fast. Even the management at work released us to go home early. Of course, I went chasing. I hate fast moving storms. These were coming in at 50-60mph and beginning to join into a nasty multicell storm.

For this storm I decided to take out the Chevy POS. No point in destroying totally reliable transportation. I grabbed Ruminator Brent again (he was with me on the previous storm posted) and we headed out west to intercept. Right before we left, a cell formed before the multicell and looked interesting. We ran to Maize, Kansas and set up. Once again at Nancy's A-Mazing Sandwiches, sorry Nancy there was a weather apocalypse we had to get ready for, so we stayed in the parking lot.

Boosted the shadows in this to show cloud definition now I see an inflow line.

While watching very dark, very overcast sky, two bicyclists passed us holding up traffic on one of the main streets in Maize. I think my chase partner and I stared at them as they went by thinking of a case to present on functional Darwinism. Unfortunately dark, overcast, and rainy sky does nothing for photography.

Lots of rain.

We sat in the parking lot watching the storm came in and the lightning gave a show that now I kick myself for not recording. Seemed like we were surrounded by lightning and thunder for a while.

We ran back across town to the east side seemingly to get rained on a little harder. Thank you Rain-X.

The storms flew through the area and slowed as it hit the city. Reports were coming in about the destruction in OKC and surrounding areas, but Wichita really dodged the bullet.

We ran back to the house to check radar (I know I need to upgrade and join this decade, hmmmm maybe I'll add a paypal account for help). The storms in Wichita weakened drastically and a large strong squall line had formed in western Kansas spawning several warnings. As the sun went down, the line decided to start moving east. The bottom of the squall line would hit Wichita and as it grew close, thunderstorm warnings were issued, although they were borderline severe.

Add caption

They appeared to build for a while, then weakened as the sun dipped below the horizon.

The winds were still as this moved in then a moderate gust of cold wind let you know it was coming. I tried taking lightning pictures and developed a game called Capture/Processing. When the Sony DSC-V3 is capturing and lightning strikes, I get it. When it's processing, I get nothing. Last night the storm won.

After dark I started playing with long exposure as the shelf cloud came into sight. The below was taken with a 5 second shutter speed. The light on the left is from Wichita, the light in the middle was lightning.
Not too much on the horizon, yet. I could use a couple days worth of rest.

May 21, 2011 storm

2011-05-25T18:50:00.000-07:00

It's been a slow year in Central Kansas for the exclusion of the last few days. April had only eight reported tornadoes for the state, May didn't have any until the 21st. So when you are posed with apt attention and nothing happens . . . you give up. The clouds were gathering Saturday evening, and after dinner noticed a great super cell anvil building to the northeast.

With a fellow ruminator, we ran out K-254 and watched the action in Benton. So far this year we had been on three local chases that ended up in hail or a nice gentle rain. We sat and watched the anvil begin to get hazy then look like it lost upflow while raining its contents to the ground below.

Even the inflow stopped moving toward it. With a heavy heart I called the chase and we went home. Later that evening I looked out the window and saw very impressive overshooting tops. Apparently it kicked into high gear and ended up hitting Emporia and Reading, Kansas near and after dark.

Storms on May 19th

2011-05-21T12:35:00.000-07:00

There was a hope for storms near the Wichita but the all important afternoon sun lacked. Storms were popping in Oklahoma but seemed to be lacking energy near here. There was a good cell coming up just south of Kingman and I ran up on K-96 hoping. Yes, sometimes all we have is hope. We3 made it out near Mount Hope and could tell that a strong squall line was developing to the west. I pulled over and took one panoramic. By the time we got on the road, the inflow disappeared and the storm died quickly. We went back to Maize and stopped at Nancy's A-Mazing Sandwiches. If you're near Maize, KS stop by, the food is awesome.

‎. . . horrific and violent acts of nature.

2011-04-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

‎. . . horrific and violent acts of nature was quoted by local weatherman Leon Smitherman. I think this above all sums up the storms this week. I chase for the fact that I can warn the public, but I also chase because I truly believe this is the raw power of nature. I think this also reminds us that even though we get tired of our shows being interrupted by the weathermen, and sometimes ask why do I need to know about a tornado in Wichita at the Colorado border, that there is a human toll. Watches and Warnings save lives, and it becomes dangerous when we become complacent.

This aerial photo from Thursday, April 28, 2011, shows damage to an east Tuscaloosa neighborhood. (The Birmingham News/Joe Songer)

Beginnings . . .

2011-04-24T12:15:00.000-07:00

Fear.

I was seven years old and I hated thunderstorms. Being a child of the Midwest, this meant every summer I was in abject terror. We lived behind a TV station and all around their radar tower was lightning rods. Across the street, was a church steeple. To this day, I don't know what got struck by lightning more. Knowing me, it was probably the church.

My family loved to fish and camp, so every summer we went to a little spot called Melvern lake and we camped beneath the dam. We were there over Memorial Day weekend. Storms had hit earlier in the evening and intensified overhead in the dark. We sat in our fifth wheel camper and listened to hail plink off the roof and rocked as the wind buffeted the trailer's side. The weatherman looked nervous and tired on TV, there had been a lot of thunderstorm warnings, so we headed to the campground's storm shelter. I will use this in the loosest terms since it was a brown brick structure that housed the showers, washer and dryers, but solid if all hell broke loose.

The shelter was full but we squeezed in. There was a nice place in between a washer and dryer and I hunkered down. I remember the sound of thunder but not the conversations. There was a lot of thunder and hail in the storm. People seemed tense, but the storm slowed down. My father called me and we went back to the camper. (Hint: for all you Twister Fans think of the term “Cone of Silence”).

Back at the trailer, Dad knew I was scared, and to counter that, tried to show me Solitaire. To this day, I still don’t know how to play. The rain started again, lightning hit right outside flickering the power, and the weatherman interrupted regular programming. A tornado was sighted at Melvern Lake heading to the dam we were right below.

Dad ran outside and got the truck. He pulled it close enough to the camper door that mom and I were able to jump right in when it started hailing. It was the largest hail I remember, but sometimes that’s how childhood memories are. We made it to the shelter with a line of people screaming and forcing their way in. We made it, right in front of a ripe pregnant woman screaming, “Oh my God. It’s going over the top of us”.

I found my spot between the washer and dryer and waited for the apocalypse. . .

My novel “Hell to Pay” will be coming out August 2011 from Hellfire Publishing.

Stay Turned . . . I might tell you more.

The last few days . . .

2011-04-16T20:29:00.000-07:00

Wichita had a severe chance of storms on Thursday from a system that went and spawned several monster storms that at this time has claimed 27 lives. Chilling to think that many have died when we have the warnings that we do this day and age. I know the previous days losses were due to trees falling on houses.

http://dryline19.blogspot.com/2011/04/mid-april-madness.html posted a map of the storm reports:

Needless to say the backside of this system wasn't pleasant. Wichita had wind gusts a few MPH below Hurricane strength. Some damage was reported across the state.

Thursday didn't quite pan out as I hoped and I found myself on the backside of a multi-cell cluster that finally became a squall line and moved quickly to the east. There were a couple reports of funnels and tornados in Kansas, but a couple small towns east of Tulsa took a direct hit.

At the Soccer Stadium on Greenwich as the storms began to initiate.

In the town of Furley realizing we were to late and going to miss the dance.

2011-04-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

Panoramic of multicell storm building around 4pm on 4/14/11 in Kechi. 22 photos went into this shot.

04/08/11 Hail

2011-04-09T10:18:00.000-07:00

Burning fields. More Hail. I know, I know, it's not coincidence.

Semi monster hail (baseball size) in Rose Hill did a number on cars including the police department's.
I'm just saying give some particulate matter for the moisture to hold on to, let it do it merry little up-and-down dance, then fall solid. Once again, I know, it's been proven it doesn't happen like that.

The sky did get that odd orange look to it last night. Tornado Warnings stayed south of the Oklahoma border except for a brief one after dark north of Emporia.

Like I said, a lot of field burning is going on at the moment, which always makes the sky a little murky. We were mainly running around Butler CO. looking at one of the storms. We headed to Augusta and decided to bail in midtrip due to some of the hail reports. We turned around, made it to K-254 and ended up between Towanda and Benton when the hail hit us after dark. Huge rain shaft on the storm. Started seeing hail and decided to pull off on a side road when it began to hail. Just a reminder, if you get caught in a hail storm on the highway and you decide to pull over, don't just stop in the middle of the road. It makes you a target. I mentioned this on my call to the radio station. If you stop on the highway, pull over. Someone behind you will arrive shortly freaking out that the hail is destroying their car and rear end you at a high rate of speed. Also stay out from under bridges. If you're not a troll, you don't belong.

I don't know if I'm happy with my Sony DSC-W350. The tech is awesome on the camera but low light photos (Hello, storm chasers) come out noisy. I'm going to play with it a little longer. I think it's an awesome day to day great point and shoot, but maybe not for my hobby. I do like the grittiness of the photos below. I just don't want it in more of my important shots. I use a Sony DSC-V3 in the field and am very happy with it. I just want to increase my MP size. I know, I'm comparing a $135 point and shoot to a $700 semi-pro model. Hey Sony? Want me to try some new equipment?

Sunset 4/6/11

2011-04-08T21:09:00.000-07:00

Squint real hard, spin around three times and click your heels. You may see the moon.

1300 Severe Weather reports

2011-04-05T16:10:00.000-07:00

Over the last 24 hours there were 1300 Severe Weather reports. Unfortunately, eight people also died. Deaths were caused by falling debris, mainly trees snapped off in the winds.

More storms possible Thursday.

Green dots: Hail reports
Blue dots: wind reports
Red dots: Tornados

Storms from the night of April 3rd, 2011

Storms April 4th, 2011

Source: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/online/

Severe Storms Symposium

2011-03-23T20:11:00.000-07:00

Almost a decade ago when I was wearing Chaser pull-ups and going to the spotter meetings, I heard about the big show. Now mind you, it's not as colossal as some of the bigger storm conferences, but for a local meet-up, it kicks a lot of ass.

My first year, I met Roger Hill. The conversations were over my head, but the people were genuine. The last few years I've tried to make it up, but it's been more hit than miss due to weather, sickness, babies, and all of life's reasons that make you miss some great things.

This year I made it and had a great time.

Lawrence, KS is the home of KU. In addition to being a college town, it has a very laid back and great air to the city. While walking down main street under the light of a huge full moon a UFO summit was being held. Didn't see any green men for the exception of a frat boy with a little too much beer.

I found my old haunt, The Red Lyon Tavern, had a shot of Jamesons and a pint of Smithwick's for my friends no longer with me. Not that they are dead, just the business of life in a college town, they've moved on. This place has board games laying around and Tobasco to heap on popcorn (trust me, try it).

Ah Conspiracy Theories and full moons go together like steak and eggs.

I called it an early night. One criticism about the Severe Weather Symposium, it starts early.
The next morn, I headed to the Center for the Arts in Lawrence. I milled about looking for familiar faces and talked a lot to complete strangers, I'm decent at marketing. The Symposium began with a local KC weatherman, Joe Lauria, talking about the Greensburg tornado and what would happen if it hit near KC.

Answer: all Hell would break lose.

One of the more sobering discussions, although I've always enjoyed Joe Lauria from Fox in KC.

During the break, I saw Tim Samaras from The Discovery Channel's Storm Chaser. Yeah, I asked for a picture. Tim was very gracious. He presented some of the research that he's doing on lightning and tornados, as a guy with a science background . . . I'm impressed and fascinated.

Tim Samaras and myself

I also met a meteorologist from the Severe Storm Lab in Norman, OK that has sent some educational things that I will use in the classroom. Special thanks to Severe Studios (http://www.severestudios.com/) that held a raffle in memory of Matt Hughes. I won a strip of Sean Casey's "Tornado Alley" IMAX film.

One thing of interest is the southern part of Douglas County (were Lawrence resides) went under a severe thunderstorm warning during the Symposium. A crowd made up of emergency managers, storm chasers, and media thinned fairly quick and went to work.

It was a great weekend. I highly recommend the conference for those interested in weather. Not just chasing. Education never hurts. Now if we can only have storms. . .

Welcome Spring

2011-03-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

The windows are open, the birds are singing, my eyes are burning and I can't stop sneezing.

Welcome Spring. May you bring good storm chasing memories.

Super Moon

2011-03-20T08:43:00.000-07:00

Last night the full moon rose 50 minutes after it's closest sweep of Earth in 18 years (221,565 miles). This gave us the fullest and brightest moon. For us in Wichita, we didn't see much. Too much overcast after storms were in the area.

http://www.space.com/11179-supermoon-photos-full-moon-2011-skywatchers.html

Japan

2011-03-15T17:51:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/13/world/asia/satellite-photos-japan-before-and-after-tsunami.html

Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami

2011-03-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

Tsunami waves generated from the Japanese Earthquake. Like a pebble thrown into a clear pond.

Just think of the power the earthquake let off today

2011-03-11T14:12:00.000-08:00

Preseason 022711 storms

2011-02-27T20:39:00.000-08:00

I don't enjoy foggy days with severe weather. I typically use the clouds to tell what's going on in the storm. When fog, mist, and rain band together in a huge moist mess, it's never good.

A supercell formed SE of Wichita and started scooting towards town at 50mph. It formed quickly and moved fast. We hit lots of rain and hail (only pea to marble size) but no dramatic cloudscapes, so not much in the way of pictures.

As stated, this storm moved quick and grew creating severe thunderstorm warnings from here to Kansas City. Later in the afternoon, tornadoes were spotted down at the Kansas/Oklahoma border SE of Wichita.

Due to previous plans, I couldn't chase. The bad news is that these storms have progressed into Missouri and Arkansas on their way to Tennessee and Kentucky, where the chances of tornadoes are much greater. If they happen, it will happen tonight.

I like slow preseason storms. It gives you a chance to get your feet wet, test out old equipment and try out new things. With the atmosphere being opaque and this being a fast moving storm, it wasn't the greatest of chases.

Thundersnow?

2011-02-22T06:21:00.000-08:00

Cold front is moving in tomorrow afternoon and may spawn a strong thunderstorm Wednesday night. Looks like we'll be on the rollercoaster between rain, ice, and snow Thursday with another storm following Sunday night into Monday. Also added a Doppler radar widget to the webpage, let me know what you think.

Harbinger of Storms

2011-02-20T07:02:00.000-08:00

Stan Finger from the Eagle is reporting that the severe weather season may be a long volatile one.
http://www.kansas.com/2011/02/20/1728406/e-time-for-twisters.html#

In the article, Mike Smith from Weather Data states that a weather pattern will be developing later this week that will be conducive to produce thunderstorms. He also states that this is a more or less severe weather setup and that this may setting ourselves up for a longer than average tornado season this year.

Severe weather Week is March 7 to 11th but with Kansas weather you never know. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/ict/pdf/SWAW_2011.pdf
It wouldn't be a bad time to review.

Greg Carbin, warning coordinator for NOAA in Norman, OK states he's not ready to call the busier than tornado season modeling yet.

February has been a month of extremes in Kansas. We've had a 90 degree shift with record cold one week (-17 degrees), then record high (78 degrees) the next.   Today Wichita may be in for a fifty degree drop in temperature as a strong cold front moves through the area. A red Flag warning is in place for the high winds before the front, expect 30 mph winds from the SE gusting to 45mph. Unfortunately, this also increases the chance for grass fires.

Precipitation models seem all over the place at the moment.  So do the temps, after a 73 degree high today, temps will settle into the 40's for the next couple of days, then up to 60's then back down to 40's with the possibility of snow late in the week. Welcome to pre-spring. If you don't like the weather . . . wait.  It will change.

Pre-Spring Training

2011-02-18T21:11:00.000-08:00

This isn't me wrapping up the old wrists, this isn't me staring at the bar preparing for a bench . . .

This is me moving the storage boxes out of the gym and wondering how much dust is really in here.

This is nothing but hope. This is a small ripple in the atmosphere causing the air to rub up on itself enough to let me hear thunder.

The possibility exists to see something, hail maybe, but thunder.

It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.

Frederick Douglass

Coming soon!!!!

2011-02-18T09:01:00.001-08:00

Ruminationsofthunder.com

More announcements as they occur.

Fire, Ice and Fog

2011-02-17T08:47:00.000-08:00

Rain is in the forecast this weekend and early next week which may offset some of the drought fears talked about recently. Although only a 20-30% chance, it's nice to see the old lightning icon promising some chase days coming soon.

Last week Wichita broke a cold record with -17 degrees Fahrenheit. Today we are forecasted into the upper 70's. Welcome to Kansas. We call a 90 degree shift in temps Spring.

Yesterday, a pea-soup fog descended on Wichita. The Pirate Zombies from the otherworld caused about 8 accidents in a fifteen mile stretch of road. Some problems sighted were: people (of course, can't see but driving 70), zero visibility (bad when your hand is in front of your face and you can't see it), and road conditions (salt, grime, oil left from the recent Snowpocolypse, Snowmaggedon, and Mt. Snowsuvious storms left the roads slick when moisture mixed).

Full moon lighting and fog has interesting possibilities.

It did leave the opportunity for some cool photos.

Had the overcoat, wide-brim hat, played "Tubular Bells", and still had the cops called.

from KSNW tower cam looking over the sea of Downtown Wichita.

After the majority of fog burned off and allowed for safe travel

Reality bubbled and only allowed a 1/4 mile.

parking lot at Sedgwick Co. Zoo, you could see the mist rising from the pavement.

Streaming video

2011-02-12T21:12:00.001-08:00

I found out how to stream live video to the laptop. We may be providing streaming video this year.

Reykjavik, Iceland is warmer than I am right now.

2011-02-10T08:02:00.001-08:00

http://fatherthunder.blogspot.com/2011/02/reykjavik-iceland-is-warmer-than-i-am.html

Something I wrote on my writer's blog this morning.

Snowpacolypse, Snowmaggedon, now Mt. Snowsuvious!

2011-02-08T21:01:00.000-08:00

It's snowing again in Wichita on a Tuesday. Schools once again are closed. Started out with the possibility of 4-6" now could be up to 10".

Snowmaggedon Warning 2011

2011-02-01T06:20:00.000-08:00

Massive snow and ice storm affecting middle America at the moment. We dodged the big ice and most of the snow but the current temp is 4 degrees with a -20 wind chill.

snow

2011-01-23T09:51:00.000-08:00

Not much, just a dusting.

Got out the Macro lens and took some shots.

Fail.

2011-01-20T10:38:00.000-08:00

My snow trolls failed me. While up on the roof manically yelling "Minion's more ice!" They decided to hitch a ride Northeast and laugh all the way.

Now my snowman looks hungry, and sad.

release the hounds

2011-01-20T10:13:00.000-08:00

ping your podcast

The rest of 2010

2010-12-31T13:17:00.000-08:00

I'm bad at best of. . . I'd rather have new!

Panoramic of previous blog pic.

Leftovers of a severe thunderstorm at old lookout peak at I-235 and 25th.

I miss lightning.

Loved the saucer shape this storm anviled out to.

2nd season's only tornado warned storm. The left side of this produced baseball (some claim up to softball) size hail. One large stone found out in a field 3 hours after the storm was short of the state record by 1/2".

Found out my wife didn't see the double rainbow guy video, so she thought I went insane saying "Double Rainbow!" and "What does it mean?".

Harvest Full moon at Midnight. Couldn't sleep.

Happy 2011 and may we hear thunder in the new year.

More 2010

2010-12-30T21:31:00.000-08:00

Early evening storm off to the south of Wichita.

Panoramic of above mentioned storm

and sometimes, I just like sunsets.

More of 2010

2010-12-29T13:01:00.000-08:00

One of the hail storms in Wichita this year. This Squall line built lazily in early April and ended up dumping hail on the East side of Wichita for nearly an hour. I caught this 180 degree capture before heading to class. Unfortunately, it hit while in class.

Ah, Lightning. I swore I watched streamers rise in the field in front of me.

The big May 10th storm. They cancelled a day of River Fest for this and ultimately decided to move the festivities to June (good idea). No solid tornado, but we did see rotation aloft and spinning wheat. Lack of afternoon heating kept this killer at bay. It roughly hit Wichita during rush hour. This monster was made up of 20+ photographs and proved to be a nightmare to merge.

Solstice Eclipse

2010-12-21T11:45:00.000-08:00

Had a few issues with clouds, camera settings, and cold batteries, but all in all it was awesome to watch . . . and tell stories of the Mayan Calender.

More of 2010

2010-12-20T09:18:00.000-08:00

Also from late January. I've always told myself in a big pea-soup fog I wanted pictures of the Catholic church in Bel Aire.

Second shot by the traintracks at Oliver and K-254. Just happened to drive by and look over.

2010 recap

2010-11-30T21:25:00.000-08:00

Here it is an hour before December and I write this with a heavy heart. I didn't see any tornadoes this year. Technically, there was one there, we think, rotation in the clouds, rotation in the wheat before us, but no visible tornado.

I'm thinking about selling photos next year online and in a little shop in Kechi when it's built. I'll entertain ideas on whether to sell them framed, unframed, in sets, as a one shot deal, or as part of a series. Let me know your thoughts either here or on facebook.

As always, thanks for being out there. I get stats on visits to the pages, and I'm not doing too bad. Don't be shy on comments.

Now onto 2010 in recap:

January

Had fog and freezing temps all morning. At work I could see the trees across the street had a little frost on them. Thought I would head home and grab the camera. As I neared the house, the fog thickened and it became colder. It frosted heavier on the trees and one of the farmers just tilled his land causing a nice contrast in color.

Suddenly the trees were flashing by us

Clouds reflecting fast across your eyes

We turned into a frozen meadow

The wind the only sound

'We'll know where when we get there' you said

Sonic Youth "Hoarfrost"

Special thanks to Mike Taylor for introducing me to the term.

More later.

2010

2010-11-22T14:47:00.000-08:00

Turkey time is almost here and working on a recap of 2010. It was a lame year, but had decent pics.

Stay tuned.

Happy Fall

2010-10-17T19:38:00.000-07:00

From our October Blaze Maple in the back yard.

Double Rainbow, What does it mean???

2010-10-10T19:28:00.000-07:00

No tip of the hat to the YouTube dude.
I didn't stand out in the yard yelling "What does it mean"?

Kansas State Squall line

2010-10-10T18:18:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how many people you are out of town at the same location. On Saturday September 25, 2010 a rather nasty squall line went through Manhattan, Kansas as the KState Football game was underway. The first two pictures are from long time friend Micaela Barnes who was at the game. Notice the low hanging clouds at the bottom of the first photo that were slowly rotating.

These were lifted from the Eagle and ESPN.

Apparently the professionals can't get the Physics right either.

Second Season 091510 Tornado warnings

2010-09-15T19:47:00.000-07:00

I've been hoping for weather, really of any type. I noticed earlier in the week that maybe there might be some sort of storms going through the area today. When I went out this afternoon, I was pleasently suprised. A cold front touched several strong storms in the area.

The ones pictured here had funnels associated with it in Reno County and over Cheney Lake, I watched this wall cloud collapse and reform three times before the rumors of hail associated with the storm made me decide to go home, that and a dead battery on the camera.

The area had strong updraft (note the rain curtains on both sides) and gobbled the small clouds that were forming below it in the humidity getting absorbed by the storm. Even though I really didn't see any of the funnels, it was nice to go on an early fall, second season run.

clouds

2010-08-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

Nothing else really going on . . .

Ross & Millie's Blog: Largest Hailstone

2010-08-04T11:04:00.000-07:00

Ross & Millie's Blog: Largest Hailstone

Something over from Ross Janssen at KWCH. This links to pictures of the new record hailstone that fell in South Dakota. The thing to think about is this fell, set in a field, and probably was rained on and melted some before being found.

Storms 072410

2010-07-25T07:37:00.000-07:00

NOAA warned of a cold front a couple days ago. The temps went from 100 to 85.

These first two pictures were taken at Oliver and 109thN. Harvey County had a Severe Thunderstorm warning around 4:45pm when the first two shots were taken. I can't decide if the large area of white on the first picture (Taken towards Newton) was a hail core or just very heavy rain.

The second was looking back towards Wichita.

The second group of pictures were taken just before the Severe Thunderstorm warning for NW Sedgwick. The storm had set up several individual storms that were beginning to squall out. When a storm squalls out there is a power sharing among the individual cells. Sometimes this causes cells to power up temporarily and cause heavy rain, hail. This is what occurred yesterday as the storm was gathering. It was also powered by the heat of the day, and as the sun set and the local area cooled down from the cold front moving through the storms lost their punch and Wichita received some sorely needed rain. The Butler Co Storm (3rd pic) had a nice inflow and possible wall cloud on it. It didn't last. Both storms had little areas of rotation caused by the winds of the cold front smacking it around, but as stated the storm evened out and lost power.

July 12, 2010 lighting

2010-07-16T21:33:00.000-07:00

I took a couple hundred storm photos this night and found that the photo editor (Picasa, yeah . . . big spender) had a time lapse feature.

I didn't get many straight bolts on the storm but a lot of cloud to ground. When running thought the photos in a strip type line, I noticed a lot of lightning that wouldn't stand out alone in a pic, but streamed together was interesting.

July 12th, 2010 later that day

2010-07-16T21:20:00.000-07:00

Walked out of school and found another storm down south.

I put this on KAKE.com attempting to get some publicity for the website.

This storm was slowly dying and generating a lot of lightning. I stayed out watching the storm for about 45 minutes trying a couple of different techniques to capture.

There were continuous cloud to cloud lightning but only a few cloud to ground.

Didn't have any issues other than lots of bugs.

July 12th, 2010 mid afternoon

2010-07-16T21:03:00.000-07:00

Left work and luckily had the camera with me.

On the left side I thought we might have a wall cloud, ultimately it didn't rotate or do much. NOAA did refer to this as having a pseudo-cold front. Notice the line of clouds just off the horizon right of center.

There was a lot of rain out to the northwest but otherwise not too much going on.

July 11, 2010 and all is quiet

2010-07-16T20:51:00.000-07:00

Some storms did move south of the border. Other than that, not much.

Manmade Thunder and Lightning

2010-07-09T20:52:00.000-07:00

Because nature is only providing rain . . .

Late Forth show due to rain

061310

2010-06-13T10:33:00.000-07:00

Small front went through this morning with additional possibilities this afternoon.

060810 Not much of anything

2010-06-08T20:33:00.000-07:00

Usually I've had about ten good chases by now. Not this year. A cold front promised to stir up the atmosphere a little, and to a point did. To a very small point.

rain 052710

2010-05-27T17:51:00.000-07:00

Slow moving popup showers, 2.5 inches of rain in a couple hours, flood warnings!!!

Yeah, I need a good storm.

partner pics 05122010

2010-05-15T15:55:00.000-07:00

By Nichole Conard http://www.redrockphotography.com/.

partner pics 05102010

2010-05-15T15:48:00.000-07:00

These are some of the pictures my chase partner, Nichole Conard (http://www.redrockphotography.com/) took from Monday's chase.

05122010 Chase Log

2010-05-15T15:40:00.000-07:00

Wednesday's storm forecast wasn't as apocalyptic as Mondays and looked to squall out quickly.

Needless to say, when this storm blew up, it exploded and had several tornado warned cells out west and up north. These storms were a little more visual than Monday's with less high level moisture obscuring the clouds.

We made it out near Colwich and moved up to Bentley where there was a tornado warned cell. The wall cloud was very visible west of town.

Unfortunately, shooting into an area heavy with moisture obscures definition.

I was able to get on the radio with Entercom radio and KAKE TV with reports. The wall cloud has very slow rotation and little definitions coming out of the bottom of it, but didn't produce any strong funnels.

The wall cloud dissipated fairly quickly and reformed creating a rather large funnel that showed and dissipated.

There was an impressive storm in Goddard that was building that seemed to pull a large amount of moisture and updraft from this storm quickly. The storms seemed to fight a little for power and ended up squalling out.

We made it back to town see another storm coming in. It wasn't impressive until around 8pm. A severe thunderstorm can through and caused a large microburst in Towanda.

By the way, this is the new chase vehicle.

05122010 chase

2010-05-13T18:35:00.000-07:00

Chase log 05102010

2010-05-12T20:23:00.000-07:00

What a week it's been.

The storm on the 10th had been forewarned by almost a week by the National Weather Service. It is the only time in my 34 years in Wichita that I've ever seen a River Festival day canceled due to possible weather. The predictions were bad enough that Emergency Management was scrambled. We were very lucky that we lacked afternoon heating that kept the tornadoes from forming. The storm I chased went right through the heart of Wichita and right over my house.

I left thinking about Belle Plain down south, there was a large thunderstorm with a massive hook echo that had several chasers on it. We left heading south, then a call from my brother-in-law made us go west. We ended up in Clearwater then shot south of Viola. Their was so much humidity aloft that the haze obscured any sort of cloud definition.

Needless to say we found the wall cloud. At first I thought this was inflow due to the sheer size of it. Until it was fully rotating and heading towards us. Cold wind was shooting into the storm about 45 to 50 mph. Then as the cloud moved overhead, the wind suddenly lifted and we were in silence.

The wheat was going every which way and we were looking at funnels coming together and falling apart. The strange thing was we were watching rotation in the wheatfield along with it. We never "saw" the tornado, but it was there in the field with us.

Luckily, the entire storm seemed to be rotating and the wall cloud moved out from over us and away. At such a high rate of speed it was impossible for us to keep up with the storm. They were warning that funnels were spotted near the airport in Wichita.
The storm was followed by a deluge of rain and hail. We drove back into Colwich, nearly needing to stop due to visibility. By the time we took K-96 to I-235 in Wichita we had sunlight to the west and one of the brightest rainbows I've seen.

Preparation, timing, and waiting

2010-05-09T09:21:00.000-07:00

The reports for tomorrow are becoming more intense. Anytime you start getting outlooks like this, it usually means something major will occur. I know the broadcasters have been busting at the seams to report this, but even the National Weather Service seems a little worried about this.

There are so many variables that go into forecasting like this, that pre-warnings can go largely ignored. I know I've talked about high risk days that ended with pictures of pretty clouds with no substance.

The energy and moisture are in the atmosphere, winds are shooting every different direction with height (sheer), the timing will be the dryline and cold front colliding. This may start in Northern Oklahoma and end up crossing the border and affecting South Central or Southeast Kansas.

We will see what happens, hopefully I'll be in the middle of it providing pictures. Maybe Vortex 2 will make an appearance.

2010-05-09T09:12:00.001-07:00

Monday?

2010-05-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

I've stopped living with perky optimism years ago.

NOAA says it might hit the fan Monday and now we look to be ground zero. Stay tuned.

Seriously, what else am I going to write about this time of year.