May 29th was advertised as a High Risk from the Storm Prediction Center. It seemed all ingredients were in place for a significant severe weather event, including strong to violent tornadoes. We decided to play the warm front along the KS/NE border area and as far west as we could. The first supercell of the day formed north of Mc Cook and became tornado warned almost instantly. It produced the Kearney, Nebraska tornado that caused significant damage. We followed the storm to east of Kearney when it became totally rain choked. We then dropped south into north central Kansas and caught the cyclic tornadic supercell from Tipton, Kansas, northeast towards Jewell, Kansas. The storm was a sight to behold!
May 25th Kansas Supercell and Tornado
May 25th was a day I wish I had been in Iowa. However, good shortwave energy, good shear, moisture and instability would keep me in Kansas. I caught two nicely structured supercells this day, one of which produced a landspout type tornado that persisted for about 5 minutes. The first supercell, south of Hays,, was tornado warned and actually produced a few very weak brief touchdowns. We had chased farther west on a tornado warned storm that ended up VERY high based, and thus missed the initial “dusty multivortex” tornado report. I fully believe the report based on what we saw. The second storm just east of the first had pretty structure and produced the landspout.
May 22/23rd, 2008 Kansas Tornadoes
May 22 and 23 were advertised as big days for the central plains. Moderate and High Risks were issued by SPC and well justified. Numerous supercells exploded, especially in Kansas both days and we were fortunate to intercept a few of them. On May 22nd, we were on a storm that would produce tornadoes near Collyer, Kansas, but due to a flat tire we couldn’t keep up with it. The day was salvaged as we intercepted a massive supercell near Wakeeney, Kansas that produced two confirmed tornadoes.
May 23rd would be the best of both worlds where we would intercept two sets of supercells that produced tornadoes near Quinter, Kansas with one being EF4. However due to the state patrol rightfully blocking the interstate, we were only able to get about 4 miles from it. Check out the video stills below. I didn’t shoot many stills due to having to spend my time navigating to keep up with these rapidly moving supercells.
May 1st, 2008 Kansas Supercells
May 1st promised a set up that contained good shear, a sharpening dryline, but questionable moisture. All indications were that storms would form, initially high based, over southeast Kansas and possibly northern Oklahoma. As the evening went on, models showed moisture deepening and storms becoming quite intense. We played the area around Independence, Kansas. By late afternoon, storms formed, a few becoming supercells. They quickly became a cluster of supercells, with embedded mesocyclones, but just couldn’t get the job done to produce a tornado.
A couple of isolated supercells developed in northern Oklahoma and one produced several tornadoes not far from Stillwater. However, we just couldn’t get there to chase it. Finally after dark, one intense supercell, tornado warned, developed on the tail end of the line of storms near Altoona, Kansas. Photos and video revealed a bowl shaped wall cloud, possible funnel, but nothing could be confirmed touching down.
April 24th, 2008 Northwest Kansas Supercells and Tornado
April 24th was going to be a touch and go day. Strong shear, but sparse moisture would be forecast in Kansas, while much better moisture, but a strong cap would occur in Oklahoma. Hence the ages old question, where to chase. I finally decided that north would be best where a weaker cap would certainly result in initiation, even with meager dewpoints in the mid 50s. We arrived in Colby as two high based supercells developed. We would stay with these storms throughout the evening as one storm would become dominant. It even produced a nighttime tornado that shows up clearly at a high ISO. After we left it, it produced a 1/3 to 1/2 mile wide tornado near Beloit after midnight. We awoke the next morning in Kearney, Nebraska to snow.
April 23, 2007 Texas Panhandle LP Storm
April 23rd was a very disappointing day for me. I had two targets, one in southwest Kansas and the other in the Texas panhandle. I chose the wrong one, the Texas panhandle. A nice rotating storm that was tornado warned developed south of Amarillo and moved northeast. What I failed to anaylize was that earlier convection spewed out cold air that was pulled into this storm, thus never allowing it to become as intense as it could have. It stayed in the LP state for its entire life, while two other storms in western Kansas became tornadic. Just goes to show you that you win some and you lose some!
August 7th, 2007 Colorado Severe Storms
August 7th was a set up where there was little shear, but good moisture and instability. Flow was weak, but enough to push storms that developed off the mountains eastward onto the plains. A line of storms developed from outflow boundaries originating with the mountain storms. These storms congealed into a wind machine as the marched across eastern Colorado into western Kansas. They produced marginal hail, winds to 75 mph, and awesome lightning.
June 19th, 2007 Kansas HP Supercell
After spending the night in Hays, Kansas, June 19th’s catch was an easy one. We were on the first cell of the day, a beautiful tornado warned classic supercell near Hill City. A second supercell developed to its south and became the show of the day. It right turned and built southward all the way south of Dodge City. However the original supercell produced a tornado that we did not see, since we had blasted south in front of the new supercell. I do not regret missing this tornado. You almost had to be in the wrong place to see it! This was one of the largest HP storms of the year.
June 13th, 2007 Ashland, Kansas Tornadic Supercell
June 13th ended up being a better chase day than I thought it would be. We started in Valentine, Nebraska after our South Dakota chase the day before and had to blast south quickly to get into position for this day. A boundary, decent shear, decent moisture and instability would set the stage for what we thought would be landspouts this day. Instead, we got a northwest moving supercell that produced baseball sized hail and a brief tornado near Ashland, Kansas.
May 22nd, 2007 Hill City, Kansas Tornadic Supercells
May 22nd brought us to north central Kansas to play along the dryline. By mid afternoon it became apparent that north central Kansas would become the focal point for strong instability, good convergence, good shear and fair moisture. Enough to generate a few supercells, one of which became tornadic. We had great positioning for them all, and at one point in time we had 3 in our view at once. Quite a sight! The photo above, was from the tornadic storm just southwest of Hill City. This storm produced two tornadoes, both of which were fairly brief in nature, less than 5 minutes each.
