04/24/2015 Storm Chase

This has been an odd year for storm chasing.  I'm at the tail end of moving houses and prepping the old one for sale.  I'm in a new local looking for my perch to find the storms again.  The old one is still out there in a farm field not far from the old house and I still go there,  It just takes a little more time.

This storm occurred on 4/24/2015 and caused hail damage to the town of Lucas.  The storm was tornado warned for about an hour and I ran up north to intercept, knowing my chances weren't great to catch anything.

 The storm had accelerated and was showing characteristics of turning into a squall line. We stopped at Coronado Heights and found a great place to see storms.  Unfortunately, by the time we made it to the top of the big hill, a wall cloud that we spotted had fallen apart and the shelf clouds were starting to form.  We stayed and watched lightning form the hill and left before the line caught us.  We hit some of the gust front but made it away before the hail hit.

04/14/2015 storms . . . meh

It's been a busy year for Ruminations of Thunder.  We've had art shows, Final Fridays, and moved. In the midst of moving and house repairs, I decided to chase a severe warned storm heading into the city. It was a beautiful storm that became suddenly outflow dominate before it fell apart.  Lots of movement in the atmosphere.

Waves of an Ocean

Possible big storms on the horizon. Sometimes the turbulence makes the sky look like an ocean.

Storms 04/08/15

Snow 12/30/2014

The flakes were so big this afternoon, you could see their structure looking out the window.

Santa on Norad

Merry Christmas, Ruminators. See you on our next adventure!

Tornadoes in December?

It's been an atypical December in Wichita. This last week had warmer temps than normal, high humidity (with mostly drizzle for the last several days), and the big California storm inbound. Today was thick with overcast and rain, then around 6:31pm, the local National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Reno County. A touchdown was reported 2 miles NE of Harper.  I ran out just for the chance to see lightning before the long winter set in.  By the time I was in place the storm was too far out and had lost rotation.