Finally

So we started off with the driest year on record.  As of April 8th, 2014 we passed a year in the middle of the dust bowl for being the driest start.

Then yesterday storms started to fire east of Wichita almost like a bad joke.  Luckily the dry line/front combo drifted back to the west firing storms and allowing us to finally get a little rain (around 0.25 of an inch).  I went out a couple times yesterday to watch.  When the rotation started showing up on radar, we (I took my oldest on her inaugural chase), out to central Butler county.  When we started hearing about flooding west of Leon we stopped and watched this strange wildly rotating scud under a cloud.  It showed rotation very briefly before attaching to the storm and becoming a wall cloud.  There was very weak rotation and a couple brief, very high funnels that tore themselves apart as they formed.

Daughter's first storm pic out in the field

We stayed until dark and headed back.  I nice storm was over Wichita and we finally got some much needed rain.  Unfortunately, today promises a little harsher environment for some possible large storms (hail, wind, and maybe a tornado) after dark.

Severe Thunderstorm Warning

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.

Monday August 17th storm

This was to the East of El Dorado. A friend called and thought he saw a wall cloud earlier. The movie is made out of several long exposure (10 seconds or more) pictures. most pics were taken in the dark, but with all the cloud to cloud lightning, illuminated the most important part of the storm.

This is the picture that really caught my attention but I never heard a warning for Butler Co.