06/22/2019 Lightning Study

There have been several storms as of late.  Last night, during our second series of storms, I took my daughter out to try to get some shots with the GoPro.  There are always shots that are missed.  The big one was to our west.  A large, positively-charged cloud to ground struck less than two miles from our location in the middle of our neighborhood.  Several firetrucks went out to the area looking for fires but as far as I know, were unable to find one.

06152019 Thunderstorms

We had a series of small intense thunderstorms come into Wichita and produce quite the lightning show.  With several close cloud to ground (CG) lightning strikes, I decided to stay in the car and try using my Gear 360 while trying to take photos from the car.  I had some technical issues with the Gear 360 but came out with an interesting time-lapse.

Panoramic View

360 video

05282019 Heavy Rain

Lots of rain.  In fact, so much rain that a lot of the interesting things I wanted to take photos of, I couldn't because of intense rain.  

Large hail shaft north of Valley Center.

Sunset in Kechi.

Storms 050519

It's been a slow year with most storms hitting late at night.  Last week I was sleeping in the basement and was shaken out of bed by a near lightning strike.  The weekend was nice and quiet, and I decided to grill.  As I grilled, I heard about a tornado warning in Dodge City, Kansas. 

The convective outlooks are posted from yesterday, the first and the last. 

As the steaks and shrimp came off the grill, Great Bend reported a tornado on the ground.  I ate quickly and hit the road.  That's wrong for a grilled steak and shrimp meal.

We headed up to McPherson, Kansas and quickly changed over to Hutchinson and South Hutchinson from Highway 50.  We made it to Haven and started seeing the developed wall cloud.

 Lot of rain, lots of gray.

 There were a few funnels dropping from the wall cloud but nothing touched the ground.  We ended up watching it for a while until the storm got a little too close. 

Found out I can do video from my panoramics

We ran down K-96 a couple miles, and by the time we turned back around, rain had blocked the remaining light and was trying to check out the storm by very frequent lightning. 

Started seeing an odd inflow notch develop and extend until it seemed to be a large turkey wing.  The storm chased us to Wichita and had reports of funnels and hail out near Andale and Goddard. 

Welcome to Spring my friends.  Here's to more chases.

Cool new tool

https://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/hrrr/sscram/index.php
A new website putting HRRR and SSCRAM together.

HRRR- High-Resolution Rapid Refresh
SSCRAM -  Statistical Severe Convective Risk Assessment Model.

Together they create a probability model for where severe weather will strike.  Possibly tonight.

"Tornado" by Larry Hucke

Met this gentleman at ChaserCon.  Singer, songwriter, seemed to do it all.  Had a good discussion with him about music and chasing.  If you get a chance, check out his song and leave some feedback.

ChaserCon

 I attended ChaserCon a couple weeks ago in Wichita, Kansas.  Although it was not the first chaser convention I have attended, it was one of the best.  Got to spend time with some great people and individuals that I have followed for years.  Here is to a great storm season, may the tornadoes be out in the wide country, photogenic, and plentiful.  May we all come back home after our chases.

Roger Hill, whose photography along with Jim Reed's work made me start taking a camera into the field.

Dr. Greg Forbes semi-retired from the Weather Channel.  He will be back in the spring.

Tim Marshall running Solo.  Chewbacca and I discussing beard care.

Got to meet Reed Timmer

Mike Smith gave the keynote speech about Radar and how storm chasers have improved warnings