Double Rainbow and Lightning June 4th, 2024

 An intense system came though Wichita on Tuesday, June 4th as a result of a cold front and weak upper level disturbance.

NWS Wichita Report

There was a severe thunderstorm warning for Sedgwick and surrounding counties as this moved through. I was at an event and didn't chase until after. 

Coming home I found one of the most intense double rainbows I've seen. I've talked to people that say they thing there may have been even a light third. Possible? A second rainbow is due to refracted light.  Here is more info:

https://www.rainbowsymphony.com/blogs/blog/the-science-behind-fully-double-rainbows

I made a couple of videos.  One was the constant thunder during the storm.  The second is where I grabbed the lightning shot.

May 19th, 2024

There were discussions about a derecho and possible tornados breaking out on the leading edge.  

We drove up to Coronado Heights and watched the storm.  It was coming into Salina so we went a little further north to catch it.  Salina Airport reported 100mph winds.

We were seeing little fingerling funnels form and dissipate on the leading edge.

SPCs summary of the days events.

Tornadoes were west of our location in Russel County. We did not see any actual tornadoes.

Storm gaining maturity. Definite greenage in the center. Didn't get close enough to see what sized hail was coming out. SPC reported nearly 2 inch hail.

The storms leading edge crawling along.

Some rotation in the storm adding striated clouds.

These were taken at Bethany College in Lindsborg. The storm was building to the south.

The large "funnel" near the lights wasn't. Just an amazing scary looking cloud. I watched for rotation and didn't see any, then it dissipated within a minute.

All in all a beautiful storm that caused some havoc for the Salina area. We moved slowly back to Wichita and turned around when Newton to our north went tornado warned. Oddly, we couldn't see the wall of storm coming in. Then suddenly I noticed shelf clouds above us and we were blasted with high winds. There were tree limbs flying around and some power sparking. Luckily, we were able to get out quickly.  Unfortunately, it hit us so quick we didn't take pictures. Live and learn.

 

Aurora

Started hearing about several CME's coming to Earth on Thursday.  A CME is a Coronal Mass Ejection or think of like the sun throwing up at you in zero gravity. It's coming at you, may take a day or two to get there, but it's going to hit and nothing you can do about it. Just like bad State Fair food, it happened multiple times.

The next images are from NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center.

We may get conditions like this once a couple decades. This was an extreme case and we are in solar maximum so the sun is a little more temperamental than normal. 

It's heading to the end of the school year and I'm usually exhausted by Fridays but had to go out.

I hit west of Walton, Kansas by 5 miles and found a lone dirt highway. 

Immediately I saw a slight red tinge to the sky and what looked like upper level clouds. I'll leave the camera magic to show you.

I thought the green Mass was a lower cloud reflecting light from Emporia.

Suddenly, it was like the aurora dissipated and the stars came out.

camera shots 3.5 Fstop, 20 second exposure, broken tripod (don't ask).

I hope to see them very visible someday in Iceland, Northern Europe, or Alaska. Needless to say, this was an experience..