Eclipse

Had a lunar eclipse that happened luckily not too late.

June 21st Tornado, outside of Sedgwick, Kansas

 Around 1:20am a bolt of lightning hit violently near the house that it made me sit up and say something unmentionable. Slightly remarkable since I sleep in the basement.

I had watched storms coming in to the area and went to sleep.

The next morning, news reported on a tornado eight miles from my house.

From NWS Wichita

A tornado had formed and dissipated in two radar sweeps. Quick enough that no warning was issued.

From NWS Wichita

This is velocity data on the left. Green is wind moving at the radar located in southwest Wichita, Red is moving away. Any time two colors meet in a small area, it shows spin. On the right is Correlation Coefficient. This gives the ability to tell if a tornado lifts debris in the atmosphere.

From NWS Wichita

A tornado touched down, hit a manufactured home, then lifted. Unfortunately, there was a fatality of one resident who lived there. A utility worker reported that the house had been blown off its foundation and destroyed.

Drone shot from Chris Evan's KAKE TV

We hear too often stories of a tornado hitting without warning, then finding out there were warnings in place before it hit. This is one of the odd and tragic stories of a tornado hitting and destroying so quickly that a warning couldn't be placed.

This is also one of the few posts I'm made where my photography wasn't used. It's just been something on my mind how the weather could change in an instant and come to you.

April 23rd tornados and storms

 Life can be busy.  I'm writing this almost two weeks after the event due to other things I'm doing in my writing life and school.

April 23rd was an interesting day. 

I had a Professional Development day in Clearwater and the talk of the day was the storm chances we had.  I knew Oklahoma was under more threat, but had chasers all along I-35 waiting on the cap.

We actually got out early due to some people being a couple hours away and starting to panic that they would be driving in severe weather.  The late morning convective outlook moved us up to a moderate risk.

And the tornado threat increased for South Central Kansas on an advancing cold front/dryline triple point. 

There was a cap in Oklahoma limiting a lot of action down there, but the cap was beginning to erode.  There was a large number of chasers heading down south.  Storms were beginning to fire up on the cold front up North and I didn't want to go into Oklahoma more than a couple hours away.  I ended up heading into Canton, Kansas.

Inhave family that once maintained this graveyard and stopped by.

Storms were firing along the line and looking strong.

inwondered over to Marion then decided to head to Newton. The day reminded me a lot of the Andover tornado which dropped several tornadoes along the dry line and anchored with a powerful storm on the southern part.

I made it to Newton to a lot of cloud to ground lightning with what I thought was smoking. After hanging out for about 30 min I was about to call it quits when a certain area started smoking heavily near me. 

video

The tornado lasted about 8 minutes and only went through farm fields. I've been wanting to go back to the spot and do a drone survey but having time to do it hasn't worked out as much.

A nice little hailbow after.

I went back toward home and ended in one of my purches in Kechi doing lightning video.

Check out my YouTube channel for those.

Then it went cold. 40-50 degree mornings and light rain. Need more rain.

This has been the only tornado warning for the area this month and almost a week into May not seeing much else coming. 

April 11th, 2026 Thunderstorm and Funnels

It's been a dry, early Spring with fast-moving storms. April 11th showed a minimal chance of storms with a slight tornado change up north on the Kansas/Nebraska border.

With severe warned thunderstorms coming into the area. I ran to the west, trying to decide to set up in Goddard or Maize.

I drove a little further outside of Maize when I started seeing a wall cloud and a possible funnel.

 By the time I got into a decent positio, it had already fallen apart with the storm becoming outflow dominant.

There was a quick spin up, the photo has the contrast turned up enough to see. There was a semi blown off the road nearby and I don't know if they decided it was wind or a tornado. It did not last very long.

the storm had a lot of odd windflow with the right side dipping close to the ground. It was heading toward home so I headed back to the house.

possible hail falling behind.

This beautiful cloud went up but didn't last long, being cannibalized by the main storm.

I'll upload some video to YouTube @ WeatherViking 

Unfortunately, the following Monday produced on hell of a storm near Emporia and causing tornado damage. It caused tornado warnings clear up to Kansas City. Check out the Topeka Weather Service and Facebook for videos and pics.

But there are times after a long day, you have to ask yourself, do I want to go a couple hours away on not a lot of sleep?

Safety third.

March 7th Storms

Mother nature woke form her long winter nap and decided to punish Oklahoma with a series of long lived tornadoes on March 5-6th. The Wichita area was under the gun for severe weather but for most of the day, the storms remained either on the cold front or in Oklahoma.

SPC did a good job discussing the tornado dangers near Tulsa.

Our lone Mark on this map was a one-inch hail report from Butler County, to the west of Wichita.

I'd been watching radar, seeing the mess down in Oklahoma. A couple of small supercells started SW of Wichita and grew. I needed to see some lightning.

This was 6 miles west of El Dorado, looking east toward the city.

With it being night and wind quickly approaching from the cold front to the west, I went back home. There is an interesting little settler's cemetery next to I-135 and 85th street, where I shot this lighting.

This last shot and video was from the Valley Christian Church and looking west as the cold front and shelf cloud entered.

Maybe we will have an active spring.  Please not like last year and all the local hail.

This Winter 2025-2026

 It was a warm winter. We had one memorable snow that shut things down for a couple of days.

The average temperature for December, January, and February remained around 45 degrees.

The first snow hit on January 16th, north of town with some strong bands. I liked how this storm stretched over then dumped on the left side.

Our next snow storm, on January 24th, gave us significant snowfall around 7 inches and was made up of dendrites(what people think of as a snowflake and needles). Very cold temperatures followed and rewarded us with a day out of school. My beard froze while shoveling.

Then a dusting came on January 30th.

I wouldn't say Punxsutawney Phil lied when he saw his shadow. The NE has had significant snow this year, just not us.

The Sun Has Been Angry

We're in Solar Maximum.  That means the sun is angry. This week we've seen about 3 flares.  Tonight was a little powerful.

Multiple flares hit the Earth.

I looked at Facebook and got the notice that auroras were visible in Kansas.

I ran outside and was able to get one with the phone.  

We went to the darker part of the neighborhood and could actually see it with the naked eye.  A big splotch of red in the sky and a glowing light on the horizon.

The lines you see going horizontal are planes.  The vertical ones are called pillars.