Storm Chases
Storm Chases
Quick Chase to Clearwater, KS 8/14/2010
Aug 15th
It’s been quiet awhile since I’ve gone storm chasing. The combination of several major events in my life have really prevented me to get out and witness nature’s fury. However, today’s setup allowed me to quickly take the short drive from Wichita to the Clearwater, KS area.
Many readers probably know we typically get storms along a frontal boundary. While this was certainly true on 8/14/2010, I wanted to go a bit more in depth with the meteorology to explain how this particular front developed.
On the evening of August 14, 2010, an upper level trough was situated throughout central Canada which extended into portions of the Northern Plains. As indicated by the 300 mb chart below, an elongated jet stream was present along northern Utah into portions of the great lakes. A weak jet streak was defined in southeastern South Dakota. In relation to Kansas, the general jet circulation provided an area of divergence across the region. This is typically referred to as the right rear jet entrance zone, which nearly always means divergence aloft.
Further downward into the atmosphere, the 500 mb chart also showed the upper level trough with its center located in south central Canada. A key point I More >
Oklahoma Tornadoes – Successful Chase Today!
May 11th
Oklahoma Tornadoes – Successful Chase Today!
Today we headed south to Enid as our target area. Thankfully we got there in good time as storms started up early. We went north from Enid where we got ourselves into good position to capture many funnel’s and eventually a couple tornadoes. We where able to keep up with the storm for maybe 20 minutes before it pushed beyond us, we did rather decent considering the storms were moving around 50-60 MPH. Here are a couple of pictures, the rest you can find on our facebook page. Be sure to fan us…”Like” us.
I’ll go more in depth on the day tomorrow. As well as get the tornado video up. Be sure to check back for that!
4/29/2010 Preliminary report
Apr 30th
Just a quick update here.
Had a late start to this chase due so I some fellow ATMO majors at KU could join. Storms were forecasted to initial by or after 00Z, however, the first convection began at 21Z north of Salina, Kansas. Storms quickly moving off to the northeast along a cold front orientated from SW to NE. More details of the setup and what evolved later will be posted in a few days, however, we ended up having a success chase despite the late start.
We planned to head northward from Topeka and eventual west along highway 16. We soon realized that it would be difficult to catch these storms but somehow we did it. We finally arrived near the Maryville, Kansas area where we could finally start seeing some storm strucutre. At this point we noticed lowering in the distance and it soon became apparent that this was a well defined wall cloud. We finally caught up to other chases who were all witnessing a pretty well organized mesocyclone. Unfortunately the entire system became disorganized once we got into good viewing distance. However, considering the time we left Lawrence and the unexpected result of storms initialing earlier than expected, More >
Busts and Tragedies
Apr 26th
This weekend brought two things you never want to occur in the world of storm chasing and meteorology, a busted forecast and massive loss of property and life.
Friday April 23rd 2010 brought my first experience of a busted severe weather forecast at a weather office. The funny thing about this day was I was actually planning on storm chasing somewhere across southeastern Nebraska, but I decided the weather service might need some help on a “potential” severe weather event. Turns out I made a great choice not going to chase because there was absolutely nothing until about 7:30 pm, which gave very little daylight to work with. Although I do like how my forecast panned out that southeastern Nebraska would be the best “play” of the day, I thought the convection would form much earlier in the day.
Across northeastern Kansas, not a single area of convection formed until much later in the night and I don’t believe there was a single severe warned storm that day. Sitting in the weather office anxiety waiting for anything to show up on radar or to see if any cumulus tops were exceeding any noteworthy heights, I couldn’t help but think, “so this is More >
Remembering My Storm Chases From Last Year
Apr 22nd
With the season upon us and me a few weeks from heading out to start chasing, I thought I’d make a quick review post about last year.
Last year I got in 2 good chases. I was out there during the entire month of May, and we remember how not so well that went! Sadly, I missed all of the good June chase opportunities. Not even a week into getting out to Kansas to join up with John, I believe it was the first of May, we took a chance on a decent set up southwest of Wichita Falls, Texas. After a long drive from Lawrence, Kansas, we got down there right as things where brewing. We took a stab jumping on the developing storm northeast of where a current tornado warning was issued on the storm southwest of it. We were still getting into position from our long drive, so the storm to the northeast was our easiest play as well. It’s a good thing we did so, as we would of missed out on both storms if we would have attempted going after the southern most cell first. All those hours of driving for nothing was avoided!!!
We went after More >
A few pictures from last year posted
Apr 19th
Greetings, I’ve posted some of my shots from last year’s storm season. The majority of these were taken in early June across northeastern Kansas into southeastern Nebraska. You can find these on our Flickr account located Here.
There was also an interesting article written today by a forecaster in Norman about the correlation between a slow start to tornado activity and how the rest of the season behaves. (found here: http://www.norman.noaa.gov/2010/04/can-tornado-activity-through-april-portend-may/ ) To be honest, the season can take its time because I will be very busy with finishing up school and graduating. I’m all for a busy June again
- John
Had some fun in Texas!
Apr 17th
I was on a business trip heading out to Texas on Tuesday. I saw there was very slight potential for some severe weather down in the southwestern part, which was the route I was taking. But the chances of anything were slim, plus I was leaving from Phoenix early that morning, so who knows when I would get out there. But as it was, I was just driving and a cell popped up right near me, and not delaying my trip by more than an hour, I decided I would give it a little bit of attention.
So technically, I had my first chase of the season! South of Pecos, TX!
Enjoyed at first a ton of dust being kicked up from it, eventually noticing some downdrafts. Very cool seeing that and watching the dust get kicked up and thrown out. Very quick movement of the dust near the core of it to, but I was blinded from seeing a big majority of that due to rain shafts.
So wonderful just getting to hear the thunder in the distance, those distant rumbles are just beautiful! Chase season is almost here!
More on Flickr
