May 5th was a High Risk day from the SPC. Everything seemed to be coming together for a significant tornado outbreak. We decided to target storms in southwest Kansas east of Dodge City. A strong dry punch, intense wind shear and strong instability would set the stage for tornadic supercells. Storms struggled till early evening with the strong shear ripping apart about any storm that tried forming. Finally a supercell developed near Pratt that became tornado warned. It produced a weak tornado and many funnel clouds. About an hour later, several supercells developed and produced numerous tornadoes. We were able to intercept 6 more tornadoes, including a few that were strong.
April 24, 2007 Nickerson, KS Tornadic Supercell
April 24th was a day that held great promise. SPC had a large MODERATE RISK all across the central and southern plains. I decided to play the area along the dryline/warm front intersection in central Kansas. We waited and waited and waited for things to finally get going. Every updraft that went up suffered from entrainment issues and finally the tail end updraft near Nickerson went crazy. This storm developed beautiful structure and produced at least a half dozen weak tornadoes.
February 23rd and 24th, 2007 Texas Panhandle and Central Kansas Supercells
I can’t believe the 2007 chase season has started for me. The models had shown a great potential pattern for this two day period for several days, so I couldn’t resist heading out to clear the wintertime cobwebs from my head. On the early morning of February 23rd, I picked up Jon Merage, who owns the copyright to some of these photos (web.mac.com/mistertwister), two SLT Local customers, and off we went. My target was the Texas panhandle east of Amarillo. Everything showed the dryline sharpening up there, along with decent moisture and great shear. We arrived to see shallow cumulus towers developing on the dryline and soon the first weak cbs developed. Several storms formed southeast of Amarillo, with each one getting stronger with each successive attempt. A tornado watch was soon issued. Finally a few weak supercells developed. At 5:50 PM one storm approached I-40 near McLean and produced an 11 minute long tornado, that skipped along the ground, occasionally making contact and producing a dirt/debris cloud. As the tornado roped out, my van blew an oil line (that had JUST been replaced!), and that finished our evening. After having the van towed back to Amarillo to a Ford dealer we rented an SUV and continued our chase.
February 24th looked like a decent cold core chase in Kansas. By late morning we arrived in the Wichita area and around 11:30 a tornado watch was issued. You could see serious convection developing along the dryline/pacific front intersection and see the towers moving northwest and intensifying. We headed north from El Dorado to the Florence/Marion area as a tornado warning was issued. A tower directly in front of us was quite low and rotating wildly. A nub funnel appeared, but never did touch down. We continued north with the storm and then drifted northwest towards Abilene. Several low topped storms developed, with a couple becoming severe and even tornado warned. We headed west on I-70 to Solomon as a very low based storm developed. It was right on the boundary with the now occluding low and tried everything it could to produce a tornado. Numerous funnels developed and extended halfway to the ground. At one point we were under the shear line of this cell and directly in front of us winds cranked up quickly out of the west. Directly north of that, winds were crazy out of the east. Tumbleweeds, corn stalks and hay were pulled up into the air! We think there was a weak tornadic circulation on the ground! Directly overhead there was strong cyclonic rotation with a rotating lowering/funnel! Shortly afterwards the cell weakened as it moved into the cold air. We ended up spending the night in Salina as all roads back into Colorado were closed due to blizzard conditions.
August 30th, 2006 Eastern Colorado Hailstorm
August 30th showed some potential for initially high based convection to get better organized as it moved east off the Palmer Divide into better moisture. That is exactly what it did. Nice upslope flow underneath 30-40 kts mid level westerly flow would provide strong enough shear for storms to become supercellular and produce large hail. Several storms developed on the eastern side of Denver, then most east into a line. However the tail end storm, as is often the case, became a nicely rotating supercell that produced hail to golfball sized. The structure was very nice with HP type characteristics. As the storms approached the Kansas border the dissipated.
May 29, 2006 South Central Kansas Severe Storms
May 29th was a higher instability but low shear day. Several pulse storms developed in Kansas, with a couple of embedded supercells. The prettiest thing about these storms was their electrification. They also produced hail to ping pong ball size.
April 23rd, 2006 Kansas Severe Thunderstorms
April 23rd was a day that had plenty of dynamics, but questionable moisture, as has been the case many times this spring so far. I caught an outflow domimant severe thunderstorm complex east of Dodge City early, then caught the best supercell of the day near Salina, as strong lift occurred near the warm front. The outflow dominant storms produced lots of lightning and strong winds, as shown above when lightning sparked an intense wildfire east of Great Bend. The Salina supercell was rooted in the boundary layer and tried hard to produce a tornado. It also produced hail to golfball size.
July 1st, 2005 Northwest Kansas Supercell
I didn’t expect much on July 1 with limited moisture and large temperature/dewpoint spreads. We did catch a nice high based hailer northwest of St Francis, Kansas. This storm had decent structure and produced tons of hail to golf ball size. Unfortunately this hail clobbered numerous cornfields and did considerable damage.
June 30th, 2005 Neosho County Kansas Possible Tornadic Supercell
June 30 was a surprise day! Things did not look that great to start, but intense instability along with an old outflow boundary would provide the focal point for severe thunderstorms. Elevated storms developed during the morning and early afternoon, followed by surface based storms along outflow boundaries later that day. We raced east from Wichita to catch this beast as it became an intense supercell. It produced at least one if not more tornadoes. One tornado was reported after we left it with a damage path of 500 yards!
June 16th, 2005 Southwest Kansas Tornadic Supercell
This day was actually a surprise. An old outflow boundary across southwest Kansas into northwest Oklahoma would provide sufficient convergence and lift to develop supercells this day. One such beast developed near Garden City and intensified as it moved southeast. It produced a landspout and had beautiful structure.
June 9th, 2005 North Central Kansas Tornadofest
June 9 had that feel to it. Everything was coming into place for a significant tornado outbreak. A triple point was situated over northwest Kansas, slowly drifting east. Very unstable, moist air was streaming in from the south, and with an approaching short wave trough, it was only a matter of time before rapid severe thunderstorm development would occur. I sat north of I-70, southwest of Hill City and watched the storm of the year develop from a small cumulus tower and become a prolific tornado producing monster.
