Severe Thunderstorm Warning August 9, 2011

A large group of storms invaded Kansas and brought some much needed rain.  They also brought damaging winds that caused damage in Burton and Hutchinson.  They also flipped a semi on K-96.  I watched the storms moving in from Great Bend which also caused a brief tornado warning in Ellis country around 9:00.  As the storms neared Hutchinson I grabbed my gear and went out.
















When I got a little bit out of the city, I kept looking to the northwest wondering what exactly I was looking at.  There is always a few moment after leaving the house and looking at RADAR you're left with that feeling of the unknown.

Lightning illuminated the smooth sides of the rotating storm.  The storm itself, when at it's most powerful looked like three plates staked upon each other.

Winds were very steady at 30mph.  There was a slight gust that almost took the camera and tripod but luckily the remote sensor was connected and I used it like keeping a dog at bay.

lighting up the shelf as it almost passed overhead.

Sorry, shameless self promotion

 The storm moved near and I went a little further north to look at some of the scary looking clouds (SCUD) hanging from the bottom.  As I went to the clearing most of the clouds had died off and the storm lost its structure.  Lightning struck overhead and just to the north.  I decided it was time to go home.

Severe Thunderstorm Warning August 9, 2011

This Storm Tracker is going to bed, pics tomorrow.

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.

Heat

I'm a cold weather guy, Spring, Fall, Winter are my best months.  This summer has been torture.  We started hitting 100 degree days in May and looking at the forecast, it's not letting up.

Currently in the Midwest we have a moderate to extreme drought.  I think were somewhere between a 6-7 inch rain deficit for the year.   

Rain has been on the horizon but seems to stand in place and dissipate rapidly.  The popcorn storms form quick, drop lots of rain over a small area, then produce strong wind as they fall apart causing brief thunderstorm warnings.

This was taken looking west toward one of the warned areas.  The corn has mostly withered.

too hot

The tally of days over one hundred degrees melted yesterday and my hopes for rain were completely dashed.  The forecast for next week looks like a bad Tonight Show joke for weather in Hell.  Although it does appear the weatherman changed tomorrows forecast to 99 to stave off villagers with pitchforks.

We had rain to the west and south of us today, even felt a couple drops while out shopping today, but the rain eluded us.  Dissipated before it crossed over.

There's a line of showers to the northwest trying to kick up, we will have to hope and see.

07/02/11 Hesston, KS

I can't claim this one although I ran that way after hearing of the tornado warning.  Special thanks to Aimee, who was already at the location and grabbed video of a brief tornado.  There was so much rain, I didn't get a thing.

06/20/11 Squall

The dry line lazily rolled closer to Wichita with a whimper of threat.  Storms were firing in Salina, but down here, wind.  Nothing seemed to be happening so I went a little north to watch the storms. 

 To the south, a single cumulus tower began to rise and soon all hell broke loose.  Before the storm even seemed to mature the National Weather Service issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for the area.

Clouds began stacking up on the dryline and  we had a squall line.

Hail, high wind, and lots of rain.

The line took over an hour to move thorough town.  There was wind related damage (trees, a couple roofs, and power lines), but no significant hail.

 












Afterwards mammatus clouds were very visible on the tail end of the front showing lots of turbulence up above.  The temp dropped about 25 degrees and we finally lost the blast furnace wind that hit most of the day.