05/12/05 TALK: Southern/Central Plains/Caprock

[Ben Prusia]

I'm about ready to head north to the Leavenworth area and then west to around Holton, which is just north of the boundary that has prompted a tornado watch for northeast Kansas and northwest Missouri. Good luck everyone!

EDIT: I saved myself from another bust, storms turned into a line way too fast, good thing I waited around monitoring the radar loops from EAX, TWX, and ICT

 

[Mike Peregrine]

Line is forming near Beatrice to the south just west of Hiawatha, Kansas. Going to head over to this line soon, as the individual cells appear to have the potential to take on supercell characteristics and are moving into favorable sheared environment. Nice temp/TD spread on this boundary.

 

[Glen Romine]

Re: Nice

Originally posted by Adam Atkins
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the storm that appears to be rooted on the CF north of Lubbock.....Storm looks to be turning right into better moisture air adding to the meager storm relative helicity, could go tornadic.

It has a great radar presentation - but is riding on a northward kink in the cold front - which arches back to the east the next county row north. If this cell is going to get it done - it will have to do so quickly. Suspect this is a routine that will be followed by several more cells - generating in the same area - and fighting to cross over to the warm side - kicking the cold front a hair further southeast with each successive event. Will be fun to watch what happens.

Glen

 

[Adam Atkins]

Yep

Let the madness begin. Tornado Warning north of Lubbock and east of Plainview, TX, for Hale County. Velocity scans in low levels don't pick up much rotation but that could be due to the location of the radar relative to the storm location.

 

[Glen Romine]

Originally posted by Mike Peregrine
Line is forming near Beatrice to the south just west of Hiawatha, Kansas.

Line is right! Boy, this region is filling in fast. Trying to find a region more favrobable for some discrete action - and it eludes me at the moment. Cell near Beattie appears to have the best thermodynamic environment, but won't encounter favorable low-level winds for about an hour - and there is a lot of surrounding activity. Hopefully cells will sort themselves out shortly. Good luck to those out chasing this area (Guess that is Mike P&H, Ben and JH).

Glen

 

[Mike Mezeul II]

Ken Fugate, Mike Bak, and myself are in Childress right now. We will be leaving here within the next 5 mins heading westward hopefully to intercept the tornado warned storm a few counties west of here!

 

[Anthony Petito]

Cell coming out of Maryville, KS and into Tecumseh (Pawnee County) seems to be spreading itself out in front of the other cells. I would keep on eye on this one.

 

[Dick McGowan]

heading west to meet up with marcus opitz in topeka within an hour hour and a half.......6 hours of daylight..........here we go!!!!!!!! good luck to all.........we're gonna try and play west of topeka where terrain will be more flat (north of holton and west of atchison sucks!) good luck to all.........

 

[Tim Stoecklein]

Unfortunately I will not be chasing today even though it's in my backyard. I've made some promises that I'll only leave the office if called out by the county. It looks to be a rain/hail event primarily, I'm not sure you could get a discrete cell out of any of that mess.

I think SE KS could see a better chance for discrete cells later on. Good luck to all, and watch for localized flooding out here after yesterday's rains!! It gets pretty hilly up there with poor drainage along some of the roads!

Tim

 

[Glen Romine]

Looks like the southern edge of the southern complex (KS) might be the best hope at this point for the action in this area. Cell now west of Seneca still showing poor organization - but is likely ingesting relatively clean inflow - with increasing low-level helicity over the next hour. Other cells trail this one - offer perhaps a second chance intercept with the cluster. Appears the Falls City could offer a place to watch - with easy crossing of the river if things remain interesting.

Glen

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

Yeah, looksl like the only hope right now on the northern option is the tail end charlie, which is down in KS. Too far for me, today.

That's a nice little squall, though. I'm on the west side of it -- would be fun to get east of it and snap some end-of-the-world-is-here type shots -- squalls looks scarier than supercells, sometimes.

 

[JHadorn]

After I threw my laundry in the dryer I went out. Got a funnel northeast of Beatrice. Got a blurry picture of it, too. Can't upload because my broadband is down (I'm getting fed up with Charter). No tornado warning on the storm, though.

 

[Glen Romine]

Apparently the northern action has now started to produce - first report in the Nebraska City vicinity...

http://kamala.cod.edu/offs/KOAX/0505122119.wwus53.html

That circulation is now moving rapidly to the northeast - would estimate to be between Tabor and Randolf (IA) at 4:25. Wonder if Mike stuck with it. Lots of convective debris around it - so would have been tough to get a good view, if at all. Still think the convection now in Richard county will be able to produce - again should track just north of Falls City. New convection developing to it's southeast though, along the outflow boundary, which could quickly intensify.

 

[Dick McGowan]

sittting in topeka, watching the blob to our west form.................guess we'll wait for outflow boundary......question is .......where?

 

[Jeff Wear]

Two supercells continue in the southern TX panhandle - one near the Swisher/Hale County line and another near the Briscoe/Floyd County line. These areas (especially southern Briscoe/NW Floyd Counties) have probably seen a significant amount of rain and hail this afternoon though so would not be surprised to see that stuff become outflow dominant. Meanwhile new storms appear to be going up on the dryline further south near Lamesa.

Looks like there are some pretty decent storms going on in far SW TX between Alpine and Fort Stockton and also in the Cohuila Province in northern Mexico as well.