Wednesday, May 25, 2011

May 21, 2011 storm

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.

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