Friday, May 23, 2008

Frustrating day!

We awoke to a great severe weather set-up across west central KS and headed back to Scott City, KS after staying in Phillipsburg last night. After a PDS tornado watch was issued, we were able to get on the first storm that initiated near Dighton, KS. I have to say, we have been making very good decisions as far as initiation is concerned. This storm produced a photogenic supercell with attendant wall cloud, but just couldn't develop enough low level rotation for a tornado. After drifting north all the way to Wakeeny, KS with this storm we learned about a tornadic supercell that was crossing I-70 just to the west of Wakeeny. This storm produced several tornadoes and I have already seem some great pictures from other chasers of what appears to be a large wedge tornado. Overall, we were basically bouncing back and forth between supercells and ended up not seeing a tornado. The storm we followed to the north had LCL's of nearly 100 m and was very hard to tell what was going on. We later found out this storm was producing a rain wrapped tornado. Oh well! Looks like we will camp in KS tomorrow and sit out the chase in eastern NE and western IA tomorrow and try to catch some storms in southern KS on Sunday. Frustrating day, but to be expected every once in a while...

Severe thunderstorm near Scott City, KS.
Intense inflow sucks up dust from a field.
Funnel cloud just north of Scott City, KS.

No comments: