April 19th Storm and Tornado

It's been a very slow spring in Wichita.  I think the drought monitor shows why.  Per KWCH (local CBS affiliate) this is the driest April in record and since only receiving 0.30 inch of precipitation, the driest since 1936 during the dust bowl.

We've had hit or miss showers with one of the last storms completely missing the Wichita area.

Last Wednesday we had a cold front coming through with a triple point but not strong humidity apparently it was enough to set off deadly tornadoes in Oklahoma, with others touching down in Kansas and Nebraska.

I was late to chase due to a get-together and watched storms develop west of Wichita.  It passed Wichita and went severe to the north. 

This picture made me ignore all of Jim Reed's rules about getting all poles and lines out of the way of the storm.

I jumped on the road and headed north. Reports of baseball-sized hail in Chase County.

Sun was going down and time was limited.

It was starting to get dark and the lightning was almost continuous.  I recorded some video to capture.

I didn't realize I captured the tornado/funnel.  When editing the video, I found it backlit by lightning.

I ended the night by pulling over and recording lightning. 

Next week there is the hope of a slow-moving storm system and some much needed rain for the area.

Drought

Why so quiet.

Well, it's been a rather long drought.  Here is the current Kansas Drought monitor.

https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?KS

There is a comet that may become visible by February 1st and hope to have photos soon. Last time this one zoomed by the Earth wad the Stone Age.

https://www.space.com/rare-green-comet-thrills-stargazers-c-2022-e3-zft-photos

My gut says there may be more than 2 storms to chase nearby this year.  That's my hope.

See you soon.

Lunar Eclipse 05/15/2022

Sunday we were treated to a full moon, mostly clear sky, and Earth's shadow.

not too much on the horizon as temperatures warm up but maybe hoping for one more chase this year.

April 29th Storms

I hate starting all of my chasing posts off with it's been a while. Unfortunately, we're a little droughty in this part of the country. We've seen some moisture but usually storms have been brief. Convective outlooks have been based on fairly strong caps. Storm Prediction Center had a wide swatch of Kansas in the danger zone with a specific area up near the Kansas/Nebraska border

The tornado Outlook was rather ominous.

with a large area of Kansas hatched fornlong destructive tornadoes. The HRRR was showing more activity up north then occuring around sundown in the Wichita area. We started out as soon as I got home and headed toward Hillsboro, Kansas.

Pileus clouds were forming showing quick updrafts.

We watch dust getting pulled up by the updrafts while windmills we're churning in the strong wind. 

Mammatus clouds were visable showing the turbulence in the atmosphere.

We started seeming them shut down with high winds moving in the area.

We were late to the first funnels coming down and started watching several area start to fire up around us. The dryline started expanding and looking quite evil.

I did a quick panoramic of the area with the funnel on the right.

The cold front started clashing with the dryline and the cold front started building near Wichita.

The storm we were on started to back build and we were getting hail. I escaped to the south and found myself watching a funnel descend on the road in front of me.

Then it defined and touched down.

I was between the storm and the tornado which isn't a great place to be, but it moved off to the field left of me and cleared off the road.

This did hit a small structure and was listed as an EF1.

Then the storm got very scary. It rapidly unzipped between us and Wichita. During this time the Andover tornado began and we had essentially three different tornado warned areas between us and home. We made it. We're okay. And I'm a little late in posting this because I wanted some time for the news from Andover to settle down and luckily no one died with four minor injuries reported. This became a scary storm with me calling home and saying l, I don't know what's happening but get into shelter. We had high wind warnings in the area and some areas of blowing dust, but it was over quickly and we headed back home. 

It's been about 11 years since the Wichita area got hit and Reed Timer has some amazing footage from the Andover area if you want to look it up.

It was a mess of a storm and I decided to stop in Newton for some needed late supper and listened to an employee argue about wanting to go storm chasing in the dark.

 

I avoided the argument but should of said nope and explained why. The boss wasn't letting them go any way.

The storm continued east of Wichita with tornados near Eureka/Rosella area but I wanted to get home and listen about the damage in Andover. My phone and cameras were out of power anyway. So I write this and ponder on Monday. Another big setup for afternoon storms and will wait to see what it brings.

Stay safe. May could get ugly.

2nd February Snowstorm

 Thunderstorms, sleet, thunder snow, ice, snow. It's all about 12 hours and done here in Kansas. Schools and businesses are closed and the roads are not great. I needed a day to rest and unwind. It was 66 degrees yesterday. I'm hoping seeing some moisture returning will give us a good storm season this year.

The Lioness

 While playing around with storms I also decided to mint some NFT's of the wildlife I collected over the years.

This lioness was sunning herself on top of Pride Rock at Sedgwick County Zoo.  

My NFT's can be found here on OpenSea:  https://opensea.io/collection/the-lioness-of-pride-rock

I played around with some of the neural network and blended some different textures with it.

NFT Derecho Dream

 This was a large squall line.  Originally the photo took seven different photos to make the panoramic. If you notice the car on the right looks slightly blurry.  The last photo was taken when the gust front of about 70 mph hit, driving all the chaff, rocks, and dirt at me making it blurry.  Luckily I was nearby shelter and was able to wait out the worst of it.  Derecho has been used by NASA, NOAA, and the National Weather Service.

Derecho -

Derecho - City of the Silent

Derecho - The Demon Storm

This is available to view and purchase at https://opensea.io/collection/derecho-and-the-dream