May 6th, 2024 had teased a moderate risk until that morning when it went to high risk. This happens maybe once or twice a year and usually is the harbinger of bad things.
Wichita was on the northern end, OKC on the southern. HRRR was showing lines of storms forming, but not going linear. I also was looking at Pratt, not wanting to go into Oklahoma because I had just returned the day before from the great OWFI Conference.
We had the ingredients in place for a very severe weather day, but just like having a taco bar and opting for a burrito or taco salad. It just didn't come together.
There were tornado warnings just over the border in Oklahoma but the northern storms produced brief and EFO to EF1 tornadoes.
A storm we followed did go to Manhattan, Kansas and produced a brief tornado SW of town but luckily didn't hit anything.
Didn't see any storms producing wall clouds but would see these odd funnels dip just below, spin for a moment, and disappear.
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.
With some strong tornadoes coming from the same cold front in Nebraska and Iowa, the Kansas portion of the storm had a threat of becoming a strong squall line. Around 3:30 the dry line and cold front began initiation to the west of Wichita. Movement went very slowly, by 5:00 I was out NE of Wichita and waiting until about 6:30 before it moved in. The storm pulled quite a lot of rain cooled air into the inflow and somewhat limited the squall lines development. It did go briefly severe, with some smaller hail threat. These dynamics gave rise to a couple discrete supercells that dumped rain and caused an impressive amount of lightning in the Wichita area.
I'm going to miss this over winter.
I noticed the speck of dirt on the lens about half way through the storm. Unfortunately, it followed through the panoramic.
Mammatus clouds starting forming to the left on the high point of the clouds.
Beaver tail pulling rain cooled air into the inflow.
With some strong tornadoes coming from the same cold front in Nebraska and Iowa, the Kansas portion of the storm had a threat of becoming a strong squall line. Around 3:30 the dry line and cold front began initiation to the west of Wichita. Movement went very slowly, by 5:00 I was out NE of Wichita and waiting until about 6:30 before it moved in. The storm pulled quite a lot of rain cooled air into the inflow and somewhat limited the squall lines development. It did go briefly severe, with some smaller hail threat. These dynamics gave rise to a couple discrete supercells that dumped rain and caused an impressive amount of lightning in the Wichita area.
