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.