Storm Chasing

A couple of days ago on April 24th, I had the opportunity to do some storm chasing in northwest Kansas. I had the day off from work, and thought if something did develop in my own area, I wouldn't be needed. I left home around 1030 am, after a fitful night's sleep the night before. I guess I was just giddy about the first chase of the season. All data continued to point to severe development across southwest Nebraska or northwest Kansas. There was some debate among chasers that southern Kansas would be the hotspot. Indeed, the weather parameters were off the charts there, but alas, it remained capped, and nothing happened down there.

I arrived in Arapahoe, NE by mid afternoon, about 4 hours in advance of anticipated development. This was also the first chance I had to use my new data connection through Alltel. It worked great. Upon arrival, I analyzed the mesoanalysis data for about an hour, and decided that I needed to shift further south toward, Norton, KS. Upon arriving in Norton, KS, I waited for another hour, and started to drive to Hill City, KS, but stopped and decided to head west. This proved to be the right choice as I intercepted the second warned cell of the day, which would eventually develop into a moster supercell that would roll eastward across Kansas for the next 5 to 6 hours.

I encountered a couple of hail cores, both about 1" in diameter, and also was able to position myself directly under the wall cloud. It was very cool. I also was blasted with rear flank downdraft winds in excess of 60 mph, which created a horrendous amount of blowing dust. I also heard this weird, howling sound, which was likely the RFD, but it almost sounded as if a sound engineer were somehow adding the sound effects from Twister.

After chasing the supercell storm for about an hour, darkness fell, and I realized I couldn't see the character of the dirt roads anymore. I couldn't tell if they were wet or dry, couldn't see the ruts, etc. I attribute this to my recent LASIK surgery. I may never have "good" nighttime vision again I'm afraid. So, I decided to get back onto paved roads and follow the storm east. The storm actually followed Highway 24 exactly, so was able to follow behind one or two miles for another couple of hours.

By late evening, I was very tired, and decided to let the storm go. In another one to two hours, it produced a 15 mile long tornado after midnight. I doubt I would have been able to follow it as it veered off the main highway, given my poor nighttime eyesight.

All in all, it was a great day. I put about 825 miles on the car, had a great chase opportunity, and overall had an awesome time. My equipment worked well, and I estimate that I had a cell phone data connection 95% of the day. The new mobile computer desk worked great. I do need to gery-rig some supports to keep the laptop from sliding off, but that's an easy fix.