June 21st, 2020 Severe Thunderstorm

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.

Strong winds 06/15/17

 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.

Storms 10/04/2016

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.

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.

Damage

I have a great network of family and friends.

When napping they are some of the first to shake me and ask what do I think I'm doing.  I hate to say it, sometimes I get caught unaware.  Last night, I was with a group of people unaware of what the atmosphere was doing, when I got a couple texts.  Severe thunderstorm warning in Kingman Co (county to the west), and are you out taking pictures.  The last one woke me up.  A quick look at the radar and I realized we were in for a good storm.

After discussing it, one of my friends looked at me and said "I just checked Facebook for your storm update and realized you're right there."

I made it about half way home when it hit.  70ish MPH winds and rain bad enough that it went to zero visibility.    Cloud to ground and cloud to cloud lightning was almost like a strobe light.

The car slightly hydroplaned and I felt myself drifting on the street with the wind.  I moved into a large parking lot and pointed my car into it (Rule: ever stuck in high wind? Your front and rear windshields are stronger than your sides, steer into the wind).  I sat in the parking lot watching power flashes all over making sure I was away from the light poles.  Luckily, I knew this wasn't a tornadic storm or that would have inspired some panic.

By the end of it, 10,000 were without power and a lot of drought plagued trees gave up the ghost.  We've had 39 days in Wichita, Kansas at or above 100 degrees and really lack rain.  Last nights 2.5 inches that fell in an hour helped some, but with the speed of rain and the dry crust of earth, more ran off than was absorbed.

There was a lot of street flooding on the way home.  A couple places the water reached to the curbs and across the road.

That's the lovely Chevy POS in the background.

Then when I got home I saw the last Bradford Pear in the front yard gave up the ghost.  This morning, I saw the crack went down to ground and the tree had to be removed.  Now, a naked front yard.  We lost the other Bradford Pear over three years ago after an ice storm.  The tree hit the Chevy POS, but at this point anything to it isn't damage, it's character.

Uprooted tree at work.

Sad thing is, a combination of this years drought and occasional strong pop up storms have made trees very fragile.

storm reports courtesy of NOAA.

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.