Severe Weather 06/26/2018

Summer had set on Wichita or at least we seemed to be in for a long, hot, dry days.  Little patches of rain happened occasionally, but not enough to knock off the severe drought that had lingered.

There had been some storms in the morning that provided a couple of quick thunderstorm warnings, but nothing too strong.  Most of the storms dissipated just before hitting Wichita to reform after and produce stronger storms. I had gone out in the morning just to try to shoot more photography.

Storms looked to be focused mainly on the Kansas/Missouri border and I thought the less than spectacular morning storms may be the end of it.  The five o'clock News mentioned that there was a stationary front just to our west that may form storms in the next few hours.  By six, a number of storms formed NE of Wichita and slowly moved to the SE.  Within 30 minutes from that, the storms had become tornado warned.  

After the initial warnings and not seeing tornadoes I moved to near Rose Hill but unfortunately went though Andover which really slowed me down after they had some initial wind damage.

Storms 10/7/16

It was a chaotic week. First the storms coming through on Tuesday then a sudden increase of storms Thursday with tornado potential increasing on every Storm Prediction Center update.

With a cold front add dry line descending quickly into Wichita by that afternoon, there was an increasing chance for severe weather. Tornadoes were reported north of Wichita near Salina and SE of Wichita near Ark City.  For information on this check out the National Weather Service link:  http://www.weather.gov/ict/oct6th_tornadoes.

from http://www.weather.gov/ict/oct6th_tornadoes

Slowly storms began to fill in and had some severe potential before giving in and forming a squall line with below severe level winds.

At Woodlawn and K-254

Not sure what it was trying to organize.

360 degree panoramic

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.

Chase Log 6/15/09

There was a moderate chance for storms today, so when I heard a barely there patch of green on the radar had issued a significant weather advisory, I grabbed the camera and was off.

Initiation was explosive as the heat of the day met with almost tropical dew points.

I stayed at the perch until they announced a tornado for Matfield Green. Seemed a strange place for the storm to produce, but I went down 254 to investigate. Fellow Ruminator Brian T. called from El Dorado and had eyes on the funnel/tornado.

I made it to El Dorado but tried some shortcuts that left me behind trees and down bad roads.

I finally got eyes on the funnel just as it roped out.

I continued towards the wall cloud as it seemed to almost detach itself and fall from the storm. Within moments another wall cloud had formed.

The rotation was fairly slow and not very well organized although I saw about 4-6 funnels try to drop from it.

It fell apart and split into a couple of wall clouds. One began to spin but just couldn't produce.

Finally with dark approaching and nothing really organizing I called it a night, and drove into a huge squall line.

By the way, if anyone sees my other Ruminations of Thunder magnet, let me know.

Last Friday 5/8/09

My daughter woke up crying. Not a strange thing in this household for a teething one y/o to be yelling at 4am. Between her howls, I heard thunder. The National Weather service warned of big storms very early morning.

I hit the weather radio and started listening to the warnings. So far just hail, but the talk the day before said up to baseball size. I got up.

The lightning outside strobed. It was flashing so quick there seemed to be no wait for the thunder. Then it hit. The winds didn't seem too bad. I could hear hail on the roof but it sounded small. KAKE said that the hail was approaching 1 & 1/2 inches near Kechi. I was thinking, inch and a half hail doesn't tink, it thuds.

Then it got ugly. The storm created a large gust front that spread out and hit Burton, Towanda, and El Dorado with very high winds.

Damage reports started coming in. House on Webb and I-254 lost it's garage. Storage shed in Benton blown over. The Towanda Grain Silo . . . gone.

I have a friend who lives in El Dorado that had a tree fall on his house. One of the limbs went through the laundry room. They are ok. My friend, I'll refer to as Brian Prime said one of the trees fell and landed 40 ft away from it's snapped trunk.

Remember, tornados aren't the only weather that kills people. They are predicting more bad weather tomorrow (Wednesday the 13th) and Friday, May 15th. Stay aware.

I was in El Dorado this evening looking at Frontier Refinery. The sides of the storage tanks are puckered. I bet that wasn't the only thing puckered during this storm.