Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 12:30 A.M. (Next Day)
Total Hours On Road: 13 Hours 11 Minutes
Total Miles Traveled: 525 Miles
2008 Pontiac G6 Yellow 2 Door Passenger Car
Tornadoes: 00
Funnel Clouds: 00
Wall Clouds: 01
Hail: No
Flooding: No
The Storm Prediction Center and many local National Weather Service offices really played today up as being a huge day for large long tracked tornadoes. This was mainly due to the fact that the shear with these storms was going to be outrageous. I woke up in Salina, Kansas with a High Risk of severe thunderstorms over most of Northern and Eastern Kansas. A greater than 10% chance hatched area for tornadoes was also outlined in this same area.
After getting up and around, and checking data I noticed that things were going to start gearing up sooner than expected. At about 11:00 AM, storms started developing northeast of Dodge City, Kansas, and they were screaming northeast at about 50-60 MPH. I packed up my gear, and I proceeded to plot a route where I could intercept these storms northeast of Great Bend, Kansas.
I intercepted my first storm of the day northeast of Bushton, Kansas, location in southern Ellsworth County. The storm moved by so quickly that I didn't get to watch the updraft portion of the storm for very long. I sat east of Bushton for quite awhile, and I witnessed a wall cloud with one of the storms that moved through.
I did not see any lower level rotation, but I didn't even attempt to keep up with these fast moving storms. I would drop to the south and east of the storm that passed me, and I waited for the next storm in the line to move towards me.I let at least three different storms come to me, as I knew that I did not stand a chance in keeping up with them. Most of the storms showed to be more outflow dominant. I intercepted a very photogenic shelf cloud north of the lake in Kanopolis State Park. The area west of the Smoky Hills Bombing Range made for a few good photographs of the shelf cloud as it rolled through the area.
I experienced 60-70 MPH winds with this gust front passage. I did see a few medium sized tree limbs and other debris blow by while sitting near the north entrance to the Kanopolis State Park lake. I reported this to the Wichita National Weather Service via the Spotter Network. As I crossed the dam on the lake, I did see a small non-rotating wall cloud to my east. Just like with the rest of today's storms, this would be the only time I would see the updraft portion of the storm, as it was flying by at high speeds.The next storm I let come to me was between Lehigh and Hillsboro, Kansas. This storm had really tall tops as it moved towards me at 70-80 MPH. I got a couple of photographs of this storm's tower, as it passed me.
It produced a brief wall cloud as it zipped off to the northeast. This storm would later produce a tornado near Manhattan, Kansas. I attempted to keep up with the storm, but I finally decided there was just no way that I could. The network of roads in this area were just horrible, and the storm's speed was just too fast.I decided to head towards home, as I knew that any additional storm development would likely result in a squall line. I was right, and I was treated to a small shelf cloud south of Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, near Bazaar.
I was traveling south on scenic highway 177 in the Flint Hills of Eastern Kansas. This has been one of my favorite places to chase in Kansas, since there is nothing like the beautiful rolling Flint Hills. If you ever get the chance to travel highway 177, it will definately be worth your trip.I let the shelf cloud and squall line pass over me near Bazaar, Kansas, and there wasn't much wind its passage. I kept hearing of many high wind reports southeast of my location, as this line of storms kept developing into Northern Oklahoma. I got ahead of the squall line again to the east of Eureka, Kansas. I didn't experience any high winds as I drove through the storm and out the east side of it. I kept driving east until I decided to set southwest of Erie, Kansas in order to sample the winds with the gust front again. The winds with the gust front were about 45-50 MPH as it passed overhead.
I met up with Joey Ketchum west of Girard, Kansas. Joey was out weather spotting. The only other thing to report out of this storm was that I experienced an estimated 60 MPH winds just north of Frontenac, Kansas on Highway 69. The wind was strong enough to rock my vehicle around and blow one of my magnetic mounted antennas off the roof of my vehicle. I called this report in to the Springfield, Missouri National Weather Service Office. I got back in front of the gust front again along Highway 43 in Western Barton County, Missouri, but the winds with the storm was not as strong as just a few minutes before.
I learned a lot from my chase today. The first thing I learned was forecasting severe weather is not always perfect. Another thing I learned was to stay away from severe storm days where the storms are forecasted to be moving over 50 MPH. There were no strong, long-tracked tornadoes that occurred today in the high risk area of Kansas. With the very, very fast storm movements today, we are really lucky there were no long-tracked tornadoes, as many people would have been injured or killed before they knew what was going on.
Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas
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