2013-04-07 REPORTS: KS

[Marcus Diaz]

After baking in the sun in Greensburg for a couple of hours, I decided we had to make a play on the SVR warned cell that was near LaCrosse. I didn't feel the urge to blue sky bust when there was a supercell an hour away. So off we went and came up to the storm when it was just north of Great Bend. The storm looked amazing but somewhat elongated from our perspective. We made a couple of stabs near the storm, but the cool outflow and lack of low level organization made me call it a day.

 

[STexan]

I decided to avoid being out in front of that hail machine and opted to go around behind and hope for a photogenic sunset shot but it wasn't terribly photogenic
I was also hoping to maybe capture a long exposure lightning paint of the structure at sunset but alas, this particular cell had practically no lightning associated with it. why do some larger structures have so little lightning and some smaller associated cells have a lot of lightning?

 

[James Gustina]

Nearly got left for dead in SW KS yesterday evening. We went after some of the small CU that popped near DDC but they ended up shriveling fast. We had our view of the storm to the north near Great Bend obscured by orphan anvils for a time but about 3/4 of the way to Greensburg we got a view of the updraft, turned back towards Pratt and ended up making it in time for some structure. Ended the chase around 8 southeast of Great Bend when the storm started to drop off a bit.

 

[edward oneal]

Started the day by going to the north of Bucklin, and waiting and soon knew if wanted to get in to anything had to move north on the way saw a brief funnel SW of Lacrosse on a cell trying to develop but soon after the funnel it died. Got to Lacrosse just in time to get right in the middle of 2" hail, and more dents in the car. followed the storm on to Great Bend then shut the chase down there. Here are a few pictures.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I left St. Louis at 7:30AM (immediately after working a mid shift), targeting the triple point in the KS/OK border area. I arrived in Medicine Lodge via Highway 160 around 5PM. Due to the lack of a cumulus field in NW OK, I chose not to drop any farther south. I also did not want to leave the KS/OK border area, in the event it fired late. I did not jump on the storms developing to the north due to the meager moisture they would be working with. At sunset, I conceded that the triple point was a lost cause and started the drive north to the hotel in Hoisington. I stopped briefly to get a few images of the Great Bend storm to the north from Pratt and St. John: http://stormhighway.com/blog2013/april713a.shtml

 

[jaredleighton]

Left Lawrence, Kansas around 9:15 am with the intent to get to Greensburg to catch a cluster of supposed supercells that short range convective models were hinting at occurring in southwest Kansas later in the day. After sitting in Greensburg for a bit, we adjusted north since it seemed as though updraft towers were doing a little better north of our location. Once we got to Rush Center one of the towers took off and morphed into a moderate supercell just west of La Crosse, Kansas. We intercepted the core of the storm near La Crosse and got into golf ball to tennis ball sized hail. We emerged from the core just east of La Crosse and followed Highway 96 through Albert keeping up with the forward flank of the storm. It looked as though it tried to get some low-level organization a couple times, but the highlight of the storm was definitely its mid level structure. Eventually the storm picked up its pace and got in front of us, so we had to cut the storm loose just east of Great Bend.

Probably the most impressive period of the storm (structure-wise) was as it passed north of Albert.

For more photos see my chase summary....
Slightrisk.net - April 7, 2013

 

[Albert Rodriguez]

I left Dallas around 11:00 a.m. headed to NW Oklahoma. Once west of OKC I lost signal (sprint) till I arrived in Alva where I met Amos and some other chasers. Amos and I went north after sitting awhile looking at data. By then it was too late to intercept the Great Bend cell that everyone was on. To my dismay I watched it while driving back to Wichita.

 

[Skip Talbot]

A fun practice run for Jennifer Brindley Ubl and me, we intercepted the Great Bend, KS storm. I'd call the chase a bust due to lack of substantial structure from our vantage under the base, although it was a pretty little storm. Full log, map, photos, and video:
http://www.skip.cc/chase/130407/

Watch video >