I was asked by a fellow chaser about my thoughts as to why convective initiation failed during the afternoon south of the central Iowa activity... Here are my thoughts:
I think the fact that the winds veered a bit ahead of the dryline resulted in less surface convergence. There aren't any upper air soundings from the area ahead of the dryline/pacific front, as TOP is too far west, OAX is west, DVN is east, MPX is too far north... SGF was in the warm sector, but too far ahead of the dryline, which explains the low instability on that sounding. Regardless, there was relatively weak surface convergence on the dryline/front. Weak instability (max of 1000 SBCAPE) created problems as well... With the very strong flow aloft, dry air entrainment was likely intense, so any updraft that tried to develop probably just couldn't survive the hostile environment (very high shear). This strong shear not only likely ripped up updrafts / TCu, but also forced try air into the updraft, leading to evaporational cooling, and thus killing the updraft. We really needed stronger convergence (to allow for more persistant initiation attemps) and stronger instability to allow an updraft to survive the high wind shear and dry air entrainment aloft.
In addition, The vort max swung through eastern Kansas in the late morning, and was located from central MO to Des Moines to northwestern IA by 0z. Differential negative vorticity advection was then occuring behind this wave, which leads to large-scale subsidence across eastern KS and western MO by afternoon. This then leads to warming mid-level temperatures, further reducing potential instability, and yielding a stronger cap. Subsidence aloft also likely diminished convergence at the surface. Meanwhile, the supercells in central Iowa formed immediately ahead of the vort max (the convection aided by strong DPVA ahead of the wave). The position of the jet streak in the upper-levels also places eastern KS and extreme western MO is the left-entrance region, which yields upper-level convergence, and creating more subsidence and weakening surface convergence along the dryline.
A weak shortwave / vort max is seen on the RUC analysis in central OK, which is likely promoting the convective development that has occurred the past few hours in southeastern OK and extreme sw MO.