Tuesday, April 24, 2007 Nickerson & Sterling, Kansas Tornado

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 8:53 A.M. April 24, 2007

Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 1:36 A.M. April 24, 2007
Total Time On Road: 16 Hours
Total Miles: 648

Tornadoes: 01
Wall Clouds: 02
Supercells: 02
Hail: Nickel
Flooding: None

Today’s chase started out with a moderate risk of severe thunderstorms in Central Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. I determined that my storm chase target for the day would be Wellington, Kansas. Today was my dad’s second storm chase with me, and it turned out to be a pretty good day. I stopped by and picked up dad around 9:30 A.M., and we headed west towards Wellington, Kansas via U.S 160 highway across southern Kansas.

We arrived in Wellington, Kansas around noon, where we met up with fellow chasers Joey Ketchum, Chris Wilburn, Tyler Constantini and Jay Cazel. We set around the Wal-Mart parking lot on the east side of Wellington, Kansas for awhile, until some storms started firing to the southeast of town. This line of storms was mostly junk, and after moving to a better position east of Interstate 35 we all determined that this was not the main event of the day. All we could hope for were more discreet supercell thunderstorms developing along the dryline later this evening. We did get to see the Doppler On Wheels (DOW) truck and the Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV) for the first time in my chase career near the Interstate 35 and U.S. 160 exit ramp.

We ate some lunch in Wellington, and after checking data we made the decision to make the trek to Newton, Kansas via Interstate 35/Interstate 135. We once again checked data at a truck stop near the interstate highway. I got to meet storm chasers Tony Labauch and Verne Carlson here, before Joey, Chris, Tyler, and Jay decided to continue northbound to McPherson, Kansas. Dad and I decided to stick around Newton, where I had data access in a motel parking lot. After sitting on the parking lot for a little while, we started noticing some cumulus cloud towers start to go up to the west of Newton.

To get a better view of the towering cumulus clouds, we drove westbound on U.S. 50 highway towards Hutchinson, Kansas. Dad did a great job of playing the part of navigator, and he guided me to our first wall cloud of the day four miles south of Sterling, Kansas. We stopped at KS 14 highway and West 82^nd Avenue, where we took some photographs and video of a large wall cloud with a pronounced “Beaver’s Tail”. The wall cloud was moving towards Sterling, so we decided to book it on down the road to stay to the east of it. We went north through Sterling and stayed on mostly paved roads to the northeast of town. This supercell quickly became part of a line of storms that we followed to the northeast of Sterling.

Tornado warnings went out for a new storm that formed on the southern end of the line of storms we were chasing. We chasers call the most southern storm associated with a line of storms “Tail End Charlie”. The most southern storm in a line of storms, seem to get the best ingredients to work with. (ie. warm-moist inflow winds not being cut-off by any other storms in the area) This happened to be the case with this particular supercell thunderstorm.

Dad and I ended up intercepting this supercell at the intersection of Aveune Y/West 108^th Ave and 19^th Rd/N. Salem Rd on the Rice and Reno County lines, approximately three miles southeast of Sterling, Kansas. We witnessed a very large inflow band leading to a wall cloud under the rain free base of the supercell. We also witnessed the wall cloud produce at least three or four different funnel clouds, and at times there were two funnel clouds appearing at the same time. We did not witness a tornado (circulation on the ground) at this location. We started to get into a little bit of rain at this location, so we decided to head to the northeast, so we could stay in front of the rain and hail associated with this storm. We barely made it back to a paved road, without getting stuck on the dirt road we were traveling on.

We stopped again at Avenue X and 22^nd Road in southern Rice County, where we witnessed circulation and dust/debris on the ground to the southwest of this location. I took some photographs and video of the weak tornado on the ground, but from this vantage point we could not see a condensation funnel associated with the dust on the ground. We decided to move on farther south, in case the weak tornado started moving our way. As we drove south on 22^nd Road/Nickerson Road, we came within ½ mile of the wide area of dust that was circulating on the ground in an open farm field. This circulation was located on the west side of Nickerson Road/22^nd Road, approximately 1 ½ miles north of Nickerson, Kansas. Numerous storm chasers were on an east/west county road taking video and photographs of the circulation, as we

drove southbound.

We continued on through Nickerson, and then eastbound on West 82^nd Avenue, where we stopped for more photographs at W. 82^nd Ave. and Herren Road. The wall cloud was located to the northwest of this location, but we did not witness anymore funnel clouds or circulation on the ground from here. The low precipitation (LP) supercell did have some incredible storm structure, with a very well defined inflow band/notch, and later on an awesome flanking line. This supercell had some of the best storm structure I’ve ever seen on this type of storm.

Our next opportunity for photographs was at Plum Avenue and Center Street, or about eight miles west of Inman, Kansas. The very picturesque supercell passed to our northwest, but it no longer showed any signs of a well defined wall cloud. The inflow band and flanking line were still visible from this location, but we soon lost our daylight. Shortly after the sun had set, we decided to call it a successful day, and start heading for home. We ate dinner in Wichita, and headed back home via U.S. 400 highway.

I learned to be careful on dirt roads in unfamiliar territory, since we very easily could have gotten stuck southeast of Sterling, Kansas. I also learned a lot more on how to interpret WeatherWorx radar and the actual location of a storm. This was a successful chase, with some awesome storm structure, a few funnel clouds and another close call with a weak tornado.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas