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.
It's been a very slow spring in Wichita. I think the drought monitor shows why. Per KWCH (local CBS affiliate) this is the driest April in record and since only receiving 0.30 inch of precipitation, the driest since 1936 during the dust bowl.
We've had hit or miss showers with one of the last storms completely missing the Wichita area.
Last Wednesday we had a cold front coming through with a triple point but not strong humidity apparently it was enough to set off deadly tornadoes in Oklahoma, with others touching down in Kansas and Nebraska.
I was late to chase due to a get-together and watched storms develop west of Wichita. It passed Wichita and went severe to the north.
This picture made me ignore all of Jim Reed's rules about getting all poles and lines out of the way of the storm.
I jumped on the road and headed north. Reports of baseball-sized hail in Chase County.
Sun was going down and time was limited.
It was starting to get dark and the lightning was almost continuous. I recorded some video to capture.
I didn't realize I captured the tornado/funnel. When editing the video, I found it backlit by lightning.
I ended the night by pulling over and recording lightning.
Next week there is the hope of a slow-moving storm system and some much needed rain for the area.
It's been an unbelievably quiet season this year. We've seen the summer weather pattern (Omega Block Pattern) come in bringing the temperature up and essentially stopping the chance of severe weather in the plains.
A cold front draped north of the Kansas/Nebraska line and a dry line came in from the Kansas/Colorado border. This gave us an avocado shaped convective outlook with a moderate risk which I think was the first moderate risk for Kansas this year. I also believe we have not had any tornado watches in Kansas this year as well. Due to the moderate risk we were eyeing Dodge City but as we left noticed a tornado warning up north caused by a landspout near Hoxie, Kansas.
We were unaware of it just being a landspout and were drawn to this warning area. We left heading up to the McPherson area before any storms had formed on the dryline. For some reason, I have always been drawn to cold fronts although they tend to have low outcomes for tornadoes. Plus, I figured we could shoot west quickly if needed.
We got into cloud cover quickly and found some Mammatus clouds
We finally made it to the storm we wanted. The storms along the dryline had started to fire.
The entire storm rotated as seen in the youtube video
We had a family stop us and ask if it was coming toward us. At the time it was mostly stationary but I mentioned that can change quickly, and it did, The storm started moving south as the cold front moved.
We did have to change location as a hail core was evident on radar. They had reports of 3.5 inch hail from the storm but I did not see any. The storm itself started falling apart but continued the hailcore and we decided to go west to catch the dryline. After seeing reports that it wasn't doing anything and seeing that it was becoming a squall line, we decided to head home.
Quick panoramic grab with my phone.
We made it home about an hour before the storm hit. It seemed to slow down and reorganized. We were briefly under a severe thunderstorm warning in Sedgwick County, but that was canceled as the southern parts of the squall powered up and had a brief tornado warning in Oklahoma We ended with a fairly gentle rain and thunder.
Wichita was put into a moderate risk for the convective outlook. Talk was a huge hail system with high winds. Luckily we dodged tbe hail but took a pretty good hit from high winds.
Nothing like a softball game on aluminum bleachers and lightning in the area.
Storm to the north, which merged with the storm moving from the NE.
NWS radar
Thoughts from the dustbowl? Harvest is ongoing so lots of fields are dirt. Fairly eerie to watch this approach.
From fellow ruminator, Jeanne, from the Maize area which took the brunt of 80 mph wind.
From my brother's house in NE Wichita, looking west.
Damage out near Valley Center on 85th street. A few medium sized trees were taken down in Maize.
Is second season starting early? A cold front and dry line combo moved into the Wichita area with high winds, hail, and an area of rotation that quickly became rainwrapped in the dark and caused some fear that a tornado had touched down north of Wichita. High winds caused damage to Maize, Bel Aire, and Valley Center areas and at one point left 8,000 without power.
Sunrise in Valley Center
Storms off to the west in Kingman Co.
Non rotating SCUD or scary looking clouds
inflow feeding the storm
The storm hitting Maize with high winds. Look for the face in the clouds and the hand reaching out.
We were unaware of it just being a landspout and were drawn to this warning area. We left heading up to the McPherson area before any storms had formed on the dryline. For some reason, I have always been drawn to cold fronts although they tend to have low outcomes for tornadoes. Plus, I figured we could shoot west quickly if needed.
