May 11, 2002 Kansas Supercells

Every once in a while, the atmosphere strings storm chasers around the countryside like yo-yo's and this was one such day! Our initial idea was to target northern Kansas near Concordia along a quasi-stationary frontal boundary. Model forecasts of low-level winds suggested that near-surface flow would have at least some easterly component in northern Kansas/southern Nebraska where mid-level winds would be strong enough to yield deep-layer shear supportive of storm rotation. We went with our plan but soon found ourselves "storm jumping", hopping from one storm to the next down the front as one new updraft after another formed progressively further southwest.

Raggedy lowering develops beneath a smallish updraft in northwestern Washington County, KS.	Tour participants stare at the sky, willing the undersized storm to tornado. The storm dies shortly thereafter!	Jeremy takes one last look at the sky before the group heads south to find another storm.	Radar shows a number of thunderstorms along the stationary front in Kansas. By 6:30 pm (the time of this image), the strongest storms are over southwestern Kansas. At this time we're playing the storms farther northeast.
Our first true supercell of the day was intercepted near Oak Hill, KS. Note the ominous tapered wall cloud and cyclonic feeder bands wrapping into the storm overhead.	Another shot of the same storm shows a rear-flank downdraft cutting into the storm base.	A wider perspective of this wet northern Kansas supercell. Note the rather "wet" look to the compact, circular storm and "beaver tail", marking the interface between channeled inflow moving in from the east and cool outflow to the northeast, extending off the right hand picture edge.	After much traveling, we found a new storm to play with near dark just east of Kingman, KS. Note the funnel cloud protruding from the RFD-clefted cloud base.