Zoo!!!

Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Ks. was voted #7 of national zoos.  It rocks.

Rock star Grizzly.

We didn't get to feed Geoffery, he never forgave us.

Life and death struggle at the zoo.  Wormy lost.

I waited for her to get out of the way, then found the photo just wasn't the same.

I've heard he's got someone back home.

Wallpaper.

Severe Thunderstorm 06/10/2012

A large cold front was taking it's time to hit Wichita on a day that felt like you were wet socks.  Finally at 7:30ish it got close and spawned a couple storms.  NOAA reported that there was a possibility of a few brief funnels at sundown.

 The structure in it's first hour was spinning.  Funny how you don't realize it until you're going through pictures.  You can see some of the rotation from the lines in the anvil.

There were a handfull of brief wall clouds and even briefer (I know word choice) funnels.  This is the second funnel this year I've shot with a right hook.

 The lightning refused to touch the ground.  I was out there for two hours and only saw about five CG strikes.

 Another farmer wondering what I'm doing in his field.  Tried to catch them as they drove off the grain truck but didn't catch them.

 Hammer of Thor?

The last night of River Fest.

Sorry no pics of Toni, Tony, Tone.

Severe thunderstorm warnings for most of the night 05/30/2012

Last night had been warned about for a couple of days.  There had been some discussion about a large scale Derecho forming and potential for high winds and hail.  Most of the early indicators showed storms forming over Dodge City having some brief tornadic possibilities, but as Mother Nature tends to do, storms fired north near Great Bend and quickly formed a line.

A small thunderstorm developed between the main line and over Sedgwick Co. which caused the first warning for small hail.  The storm seemed to fall apart in some areas while intensifying in others.
While this caused some chaos with the rush hour traffic (please remember, don't hide under a highway bridge during a severe thunderstorm, your car is not worth another's life), the bigger storm loomed to the east.







There was about an hour breather until the bigger storm came in.  Hutchinson had 70 mph winds, 2" hail, and several power poles snapped.  These storms were moving to the southeast driven by a cold front and powered by a dryline.  This main storm caused warnings to last for about 2 hours and caused estimated 60mph winds and hail downtown.

From NOAA.gov from around 7pm.

As the storm moved towards Sedgwick Co.  I ran to one of my favorite spots NE of the city and watched this storm head in.  The winds seemed to be causing some rotation in the atmosphere (shelf clouds are caused by horizontal rotation parallel to the ground, but I did see one brief funnel take a 90 degree twist and dissipate.

From NOAA.gov storm approaching Wichita at 7:45pm.

Some rotation seen North of Kechi.

The storm had a very pronounced shelf cloud to it.  As with most of these types of storms the winds started well in front of it.  We were lulled by a 40ish mph gust thinking that may have been the big one, until a 50mph gust hit.  Nothing like watching your sliding glass door start to bow in.

I have a cropped version of this as well, but like the original.

Brian T's Big Mitt Size Hail from near Main and Douglas

Rain approaching S. of Augusta.  Sent by Ruminator Brian T.

Lesson for today: Derechos

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/derechofacts.htm

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day1otlk.html

Storms 05302012

I've been watching the weather with hope and a little sadness.  Wow, it's almost June, chase season 2012 is over.  Today provided for some adventures in Oklahoma with some areas receiving 6" hail.  Tomorrow, that system will be a little closer to home, if not over it.

Dusk provided a couple storms blowing up in the area.  Darkness provided a severe thunderstorm on the western side of Wichita.  The large anvil blew up overhead but movement was a slow 20 mph.

 With lots of lightning and a nice cool breeze running for the storm.

The Severe Thunderstorm did produce a little nickle/quarter sized hail.

 In the end, we got the rain we sorely needed.  Tomorrow, we will have to wait and see what happens.

Quote

Climate is what we expect.  Weather is what we get.
                                                                         - Mark Twain