3/7/09 REPORTS: KS

[Verne Carlson]

Tornado 1 22:13z Abbeyville, KS west of Hutchinson. Estimated 2 minutes on the ground

Tornado 2 22:18z Patridge, KS west of Hutchinson. Estimated 3 minutes on the ground

Tornado 3 22:29z Whiteside, KS southwest of Hutchinson. Estimated 2 minutes on the ground

Edit: Reviewing the video I may have caught a fourth tornado at 2:00 mins in here: YouTube Video Here!

 

[Joseph Tyree]

Chased today in S Kansas with Justin Teague and Greg McLaughlin. We intercepted the Hutchinson storm shortly after the reported tornadoes and watched the storm go outflow dominant. After dark we intercepted a nice LP sw of Wichita near Viola, KS... here are a few pics from the chase... overall not too bad of a chase considering the setup and time of year...

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Gabe Garfield and I headed to southern Kansas today, initially targeting anything along the boundary/front, with a preference for activity farthest east (where the better moisture resided). The obs at P28 and nearby were pretty bad, and I wasn't expecting much. We stopped in Wellington for gas, and during this stop the storm W/SW of Hutchinson rapidly intensified. We headed N on 35 then 135 towards Newton and then Hutchinson, but we missed the tornado(es) by ~20 minutes. We got near Burrton (IIRC) and headed northwards to get a better view. It looked a bit messy and quite wet, and, over the next couple of hours, we watched it move ENE, and remain rather "wet" (HPish at times, actually, with what looked like a sweeping shelf cloud on the RFD gust front as it passed N of Florence). We abandoned it near sunset and headed back towards Newton to get some food.

We finally got back into data range to notice a decent cell down in Harper county, shortly before hearing of a tornado warning for that area. We postponed food to intercept it. From radar views, it looked to be LP in nature, with the best rotation occasionally displaced some ways S of the precipitation in relatively classic LP fashion. We drove through western ICT and towards Viola to get into position. We ended up stopping a just NE of Viola on Hwy 2/42 to watch it... At the time, it had a rather gorgeous appearance, with a decent wall-cloud underneath. The lack of low cloud-cover helped to make the updraft sides quite visible, and the moonlight and stars made for a very nice scene. The storm began to weaken after watching it for ~10+ minutes, and we called it a night. We had some coordination with another vehicle with some STers, but they ended up taking a different path, so I'll leave their report to them if they so desire.

Overall, it was an enjoyable chase. It stinks to have missed the HUT tornadoes by 15-20 minutes, but at least we went out and were able to see the storm. I wasn't too "fulfilled" after following that wet supercell (wet classic? sometimes looked HP), though it did exhibit some very nice banding structure while it was still W of I135. I did very much enjoy the LP after dark (in the moonlight) SW of ICT, however! For some reason, I dig those -- and I've seen a few in the past couple of years -- and it really helped to cap off a nice, albeit tornado-less, chase.

Bonus to Gabe for convincing me to head out today. I had very low expectations, but obviously gave it enough of a chance to drive out there. I'm quite surprised that supercell was the mode for some time, since I can't remember too many situations in which we saw such a storm mode with storms moving along a front... In my experiences chasing, it seems that such an alignment of the front and storm motion / deep-layer shear quickly yields line segments or a backbuilding, training QLCS-type organization, particularly when we have such strong upper-level flow to aid downshear seeding. Instead, we managed to sustain some supercells despite such conditions... Heck, I'll take it!

 

[Brandon Ivey]

I was on the Reno/Harvey County supercell and got a brief tornado that spun up underneath an area of rapid rotation overhead. No condensation all the way to the ground. Good chase overall. Measured 1.00" hailstones at one point during the chase. I don't think I added too many new dents to the new chase vehicle, which was good. Nice chase for March to say the least. I think the backed low level flow is what really helped to keep the small cells isolated today. If 850mb winds would have been parallel to the front, it would have become a linear mess in a hurry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlDiA1rMuq0

 

[Michael Carlson]

Short Description: Headed west of Wichita Kans. Found a deep gash in the lower radiator hose, replaced it. Then headed north to catch the tornado warned storm near Hutchinson Kans. Managed to see the last of the tornadoes the storm produced and dropped south after that to catch the remaining storms. Met Dick McGowan and Darin Brunin for the first time finally. My chase partner was Dann Cianca.

MORE PHOTOS

 

[Mike Weiss]

Left the NSWW after lunch. Headed north on I35 with initial target of Wellington. After cell got going, we decided to go further north and finnally caught the TOR cell near Moundridge. The storm was basically in the dying stages, but we did get a couple nice pics of a lowering. All in all just a quick excursion to check the equipment and vehicle. Props to my newest chase partners on thier 4 door Toyota Tacoma. Very nice truck.

 

[sdienst]

We decided to give things a shot in central KS and things worked out pretty well. Started the day off in Wellington and didn't have to wait long for storms to get going. Watched early on as storms struggled but then the Reno Co. storm began to take over. We drove north along Whiteside Rd until crossing KS-61 and stopped to evaluate things. Here we noticed at least 2 brief tornado spinups. After that, raced east on a bad route right through Hutchinson observing some power flashes and quarter sized hail in town.

One of the Vid grabs...
http://www.servimg.com/image_preview.php?i=7&u=13230763

 

[edward oneal]

3-07-09 chase

Chased west of Medicine Lodge along Hwy 160, with my son Jarret and his girl friend. Only bad thing about that was had to break off chase just as storms started to intensify. They needed to be back in Dodge before Dark. Was on the storm I think that went on to have tornado reported just North of Medicine Lodge. Have one picture of that cell as we stopped on the way home and looked back as the cells were exploding.

 

[Brian Emfinger]

I wavered back and forth about going all morning and didn't end up leaving till afternoon. Got up there around dark just in time for the tornado warned cell heading towards Wichita to start dying. I got a few shots of it and then messed around with trying to get lightning and then made my way back home. If I had to do over I am not sure I would change anything other than maybe just not go as the setup was just not very exciting (at least as far as the forecasts were concerned).

Previously tornado warned storm sitting over Wichita.

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

We also intercepted several tornadoes yesterday in C Kansas. The first two were near Hutchinson, one of which lasted several minutes and had INTENSE rotation above it. The third tornado was seen near Halstead? I think and was a nice tapered cone before becoming rain-wrapped and becoming more cigar shaped. The final tornado was seen near Hesston and was a nice cone that almost fully condensed but failed to. The structure was wild on this storm as well!

The chase continued after dark intercepting a tornado warned cell near Viola, KS that was illuminated by the moon making for an incredible scene.

 

[Chad Cowan]

Took my little brothers on their first chase and watched the Hutchinson supercell for about 5 hours. Don't think we saw any tornadoes but we got the new stream up and running. More pictures and video soon @ ChaseTheStorms.com

 

[Scott Roberts]

Picked up Matt and left from Wichita about 4. We missed the Hutch tornadoes by about 20 minutes, but had chosen to go up the Benton/Halstead road to try and get east of it. Intercepted the wall cloud pictured below at 48th NW and Halstead road (SW of Hesston). Stayed with it through Peabody, then tried to get back down to Viola for round two. (Missed most of that, though.)

...reminder to self: you're out here to see the SKY, not the comptuer screen!

(More on the blog, including a short video)

 

[AndyGabrielson]

Left MN for this event at abut 6am. Got to Lamar,MO and headed west, on the way the severe t- storm watch was issued and I got on the tornado warned storm that had produced tornadoes near Hutchinson. Got a few nice shots and alot of video, this storm was interesting and while i was trying to reposition I noticed something going and took 2 of the worst stills I have ever taken, it appears to be a landspout possibly. West of Cottonfalls, KS near dark, anyway, was a fun chase, streamed live video back to SevereStudios.com throughout the day and I wanted to thank anyone who watched my stream yesterday!

 

[Dick McGowan]

Report and Pictures are here on my blog: http://stackedplates.blogspot.com/

 

[Bryan Stokes]

After seeing the first cumulonimbus cloud on vis satellite imagery, Jennifer and I quickly packed the car and left Derby around 4:20pm. We missed the Hutchinson tornados, but intercepted the storm on K-15 just east of Hesston. We enjoyed a disjointed wall cloud for about 10 minutes, but did not see any rotation. We made a futile attempt to keep up with it as it moved off to the NE. Knowing that the storm speed was approx 45kts and that sunset was not far away, we decided to drop back and intercept the next cell that was coming up from behind.

We caught the next cell just south of Halstead as the sun was setting. It was nothing more than your average thunderstorm, but we did enjoy the smell of rain in the air, some phenomenal hues of red and pink poking through the sides, and the sound of lightening and thunder rumbling overhead. It's magical moments like this that always seem sweeter as the day comes to a close.

We decided to head back, so we missed the after-dark moonlit LP that others saw, but we did enjoy an excellent post-chase meal at Sabor Latin Bar & Grill on the east side of Wichita. All in all, I was quite pleased! A backyard chase in early March is always welcomed (134 miles) and it was a great way to knock off the dust before the real chase season begins.

Bryan