Severe storms June 17th

 It's been a wet June.  All the spring rains seem to have come this month with a 5.5 inch day on June 3rd and 4th which caused significant flooding in my area.

Then this group of storms that hit, not once, not twice, but with three severe storms on June 17th. We were without power for 36 hours and have possibly lost two of our large trees.

This was the beginning of the wind.  Eisenhower Airport recorded a 102 mph wind gust 

The moment power went out in the area.

This was the main storm that caused damage in the area.  

Interesting enough, this was not the storm heavily warned about.  This was a derecho that came down from Nebraska.  There was another storm system that could cause more damage.

A little weather trough pushed by the previous storm's outflow gave a moderate area for storms.

I was on tree cleanup most of the day but around 5pm decided to run up to Newton to see an area that was developing.  An area near Wichita was coming in but a storm down south looked like it strengthened.

Harper, Kansas had a breif tornado 1 mile SSW of the city but I was a little late getting into the area.

This was on the back end of the storm.  Not sure if it was a microburst (strong winds were in the area) or a hail foot.

It dissipated quickly, and formed some fog from the area.  

An odd starship looking storm to the west looked interesting.

The air had cooled but it had a good groundscrubber with it.

Lots of positive stroke lightning out of both storms.  They seemed to pulse and look like they were getting their act together but neither produced.

One of the local guys stopped to see if I needed help, but recommended The Red Rooster Cafe in Harper for a good bite to eat.

The storm started to fall apart but found a great spot with birds chirping, but the cows were not having this storm nonsense. I would like to introduce the storm cows.

April 11th, 2020 severe storms

It's been a slow strange year.  We had early storms form in March with tornado outbreaks in Tennessee, the emergence of the Covid 19 pandemic, and just all the weirdness of the world we are in.  I figured we would have an earlyorm season emerging and I could go chase to my heart's content.  Then the state shut down, we entered the world of online working, teaching, and learning.
I started a project documenting how the shutdown is affecting Wichita, shooting some of the businesses that have succumbed to closing due to the stay at home orders.

Storm chasing has been a little questionable with local sheriffs requesting people from heavily affected areas not coming to the area for fear that someone could spread the virus.  The two main population centers in Kansas, Wichita, and Kansas City have around 1000 cases.  The fear is that many cases are not being tested or being known.

In this time of shutdown, I am teaching, some days a lot.  I'm also trying to keep busy and get creative with my drone, photography, videography, and I recently started my third novel.  I will be starting a section called #Covidcoverage where I document what's going on.

As of what happened yesterday, simple term, cold front.  Yesterday we made it to 83 degrees, today its 36 degrees with winds gusting to 60mph.  As I write this, there is a tornado outbreak in Dixie Alley.  We are under a high wind warning and freeze warning for April 12th, but at least there are no tornado emergencies.

Yesterday, we had a slight chance of severe weather with some pop-ups along the cold front/dry line mix that came down from the north.  I didn't have much hope that we would have much but the HRRR was looking promising to the north and east of Wichita.  Around 5pm a pop up grew and I wanted a chase.  We went north out to Newton, Kansas and recorded a supercell while it was producing  above quarter-sized hail in Walton.

This storm was gorgeous, bright white, and rotating like a skater.  I didn't have all my gear with me but attempted to do a time-lapse.  Needless to say, heavy wind made it difficult.  This is something I've seen done before, most notibly by Stephen Locke when he chased.  The wind was to heavy for drone or tri-pod so I did what I could with handheld and this was the outcome:

Here were some of the photos

This was an odd storm that fell apart to the east. I love the ribbon of cloud left of center.

Radar Loop from storm from the National Weather Service

Satellite loop from the storm from the National Weather Service

3D image of storm showing core extending above 40,000 feet

Hurricane Force WInds, oh my 07/28/2016

It's been a while since I captured a nice shelf cloud coming into the Wichita area.  It set up on a nice cold front that swept into the Wichita area. . .

From the NWS Wichita Website:

Radar animation


Velocity animation


The first picture was taken up near Newton. Not real spectacular, a bit of a blob.  Maybe a hint of a shelf forming in the lower right hand corner.  I relied on radar data and the storm looked to gain a nice bow echo, so I headed back to the Valley Center area (north of Wichita).

Taken from Galaxy S5, a small fire is seen right of center.  This was non-storm related.

The shelf cloud had developed well and was approaching quickly.  I found an open area facing north and west, (the road goes east and west).

Early reports had baseball sized hail out near Kingman and 80 mph winds.

 I was beginning to see the gust front, so I headed home before the main winds hit.  Although not too bad of winds were recorded in Valley Center, a wind gust in NE Wichita was recorded at 78 mph.

Hurricane Force WInds, oh my 07/28/2016

It's been a while since I captured a nice shelf cloud coming into the Wichita area.  It set up on a nice cold front that swept into the Wichita area. . .

From the NWS Wichita Website:

Radar animation


Velocity animation


The first picture was taken up near Newton. Not real spectacular, a bit of a blob.  Maybe a hint of a shelf forming in the lower right hand corner.  I relied on radar data and the storm looked to gain a nice bow echo, so I headed back to the Valley Center area (north of Wichita).

Taken from Galaxy S5, a small fire is seen right of center.  This was non-storm related.

The shelf cloud had developed well and was approaching quickly.  I found an open area facing north and west, (the road goes east and west).

Early reports had baseball sized hail out near Kingman and 80 mph winds.

 I was beginning to see the gust front, so I headed home before the main winds hit.  Although not too bad of winds were recorded in Valley Center, a wind gust in NE Wichita was recorded at 78 mph.

June 16th 2011 storm

I always know something's afoot when a friend texts me and asks what's going on in a certain area.
McPherson - 80mph winds, large hail, maybe rotation.  Too good to pass up.  Left the house and headed about two miles to the north and then a quick jog east.  The lightning was incredible, this storm looked very much alive and somewhat angry.

The lightning crawled all over this storm.  Constantly with the fine little bolts.
I thought about heading up to Newton to see this storm, but the way the lightning spread out from this, I didn't want to get any closer and take photos.



The storm moved slow and I did notice the anvil making progress to the south.  Before long Sedgwick Co. was under a thunderstorm warning.

I love photographing lightning with digital camera.  I know it's a functional Darwinism exercise.

Also people would drive up to the intersection and watch us for a long time.  If you do that and notice they have a camera . . . please turn off your brights (at least).

I know I look like a sasquatch with a tripod in a lightning storm.

The fronts stalled out near the city so tomorrows clash could mean more chasing.

Storms 072410

NOAA warned of a cold front a couple days ago.  The temps went from 100 to 85.

These first two pictures were taken at Oliver and 109thN.  Harvey County had a Severe Thunderstorm warning around 4:45pm when the first two shots were taken.  I can't decide if the large area of white on the first picture (Taken towards Newton) was a hail core or just very heavy rain.

The second was looking back towards Wichita.

The second group of pictures were taken just before the Severe Thunderstorm warning for NW Sedgwick.  The storm had set up several individual storms that were beginning to squall out.  When a storm squalls out there is a power sharing among the individual cells.  Sometimes this causes cells to power up temporarily and cause heavy rain, hail.  This is what occurred yesterday as the storm was gathering.  It was also powered by the heat of the day, and as the sun set and the local area cooled down from the cold front moving through the storms lost their punch and Wichita received some sorely needed rain.  The Butler Co Storm (3rd pic) had a nice inflow and possible wall cloud on it.  It didn't last.  Both storms had little areas of rotation caused by the winds of the cold front smacking it around, but as stated the storm evened out and lost power.

05/26/09

Went running this evening with my nephew, Clay.

Knew the storms weren't severe so I thought I'd take him along.

There were some low hangers and scary looking clouds though. This storm was pushing severe levels but warning were canceled quickly.

I think that this tried to do something, but failed. It was fun to watch, tried to drawn in some moist air.

I don't thing the season is a complete wash. We are in a "dry spell" for tornados, but we will have to see what June brings.

Spring Training Chase Log March 7, 2009

Ah . . . spring.

NOAA had advised against some nasty weather occuring today.

Around 4pm, they were spotting twisters (weak lived quick spin up tornados) outside of Hutchinson. I ran up I-135 to Newton went west about 10 miles.

A few more wall clouds spawned over Hesston, but no funnels were produced.