04142012 chase log

It's been a while since I used the words chase log.  Yesterday's apocalyptical  weather had been forecast since early last week.  NOAA had the Wichita area under alert and even national media's lead story was about potential storms.  Local proms changed location, concerts moved indoors, and there was a very heavy fear over the city of Wichita on Saturday.

It started out with overcast sky that continued most of the day.  One thing that storms need to pack a punch is sunlight.  It creates warm air that rises and adds convection (or the movement of air vertically in the atmosphere).  Last time we had a set up like this was in May 10, 2010.  Lots of warning and overcast skies led to one of the largest non producing wall clouds I've ever seen.

http://www.ruminationofthunder.com/2010/05/chase-log-05102010.html

Storms fired out west and moved NE along a dry line set up around Dodge City.  Around 3pm, not seeing much movement towards Wichita, I grabbed a chase partner and moved out towards Pratt.  I like to visually chase and with no hallmarks seen due to overcast sky, we had to rely on radar.  We decided to stop in Cunningham and watch a storm approaching the Pratt, Kansas area.  We were a decent length away , but could see a pronounced wall cloud and funnels near Pratt.  We progressed on the storm but the rain was caught up in the inflow and weakened the wall cloud.

Due to the hail reports and some loss of energy in the storm, we followed a storm coming up from the Medicine Lodge area.  The storms carried a one-two punch with power going back and forth between the storms.  They never fully developed as we observed them.

We moved around for a while and found the storm in Kingman moving into Reno county.  Near Pretty Prairie, the storm developed a nice rear flank downdraft but the wall cloud had issues developing and respawned in a couple different areas.

Since this storm was trending down and the sun beginning to set, we broke off the chase.  Unfortunately, the storm powered up at dusk and caused significant damage to Lyons and Salina.

In Kingman, dining at the world famous McDonalds, we came across another wall cloud moving east of Kingman.

Storms powered up in Oklahoma and with multiple warnings about the dangers of storms near Wichita, we headed back before the storms had entered Sedgwick Co.  Several reports came in of large wedge tornado developing SW of the city and before long, the sirens were sounding.  Due to it being dark and a very dangerous situation, I battened down at home and rode the storm out.  A tornado emergency was issued and the storm looked to move through the city.  Strong tornados tend to twist so hard that they make a right turn and cut themselves off from the energy sustaining them, and this one did.  The storm moved east out of the city, but preliminary estimates claim $290 million in damage to Wichita and a state of disaster has been claimed.  Luckily, no fatalities have been reported and only minor injuries occurred.  

06/09/11 chase Part II The Real Deal

I ran home.

Wall cloud heading to the house, circulation tightening, rain starting to come down and not allow me to see what's happening clearly.

I made it, everyone was hanging out in the basement.

I ran outside to lash myself to the deck like Lt. Dan screaming at the hurricane.

The storm passed through Kechi quickly running into Bel Aire.  I know I saw a very brief funnel, but it did not touch down and dissipated after trying to form.


Kechi was hit by heavy rains, light hail (pea to dime sized), and 50-60 mph wind.  Luckily, in the city we had minimal damage.




I waited for the main storm to pass, but a cell near Goddard (west of Wichita) strengthened up while this one started east again.  There was some very chaotic movement in the storm and I believe it was due to the storms feeding off one another.

I waited for about thirty minutes for the deluge to stop.  Wichita was experiencing some flooding.  I grabbed the cameras and headed back out.  The sunset was awesome showing some mammatus clouds, the pic below didn't do it justice.

I shot some lightning in the field but the occasional rain and horizontal lightning bursts overhead made me decide to head back home.  I shot lightning out of the garage until the memory card was full.  I did a time lapse video of the lightning last night.  All in all, exciting evening, no tornado injuries or fatalities in the city of Wichita, and an amazing light show afterwards.