5/8/06 Reports KS, NE, IA

[Eric Treece]

Spent most of the day sitting in DDC. When things started to happen up north, I headed up to Ness City and then to Dighton when things started firing on the southern flank. Before anything ever really ever evolved, it went outflow dominant. Then headed south toward Cimarron and had some nice surface based features develope. There was very little rotation, spotty at best with the wall cloud from what I could see. Looked as though the midlevels had some decent rotation. Continued south to Cimarron and shot the same storm from the airport north of town. Now sitting in DDC pondering tomorrows options. Go figure as soon as I get the truck unloaded, a tornado warning south of town. All in all, was still a fun chase.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Nice structure Eric! In short I left Blair around 10:30 and drove around junk up to the east of Hill City KS. Then went south of Hays before the storms got there in hopes of isolated stuff to the sw. The Garden City storm died before I could get there. The one ene of it went n of Dodge City and had fair structure as it did so. I then got a room and then some KFC. I saw a new cell was going up w of town so I took my KFC and ate it on the west side f Dodge City and tried some lightning stills. The storm turned right so I finished my last piece of chicken and went back into DDC to head south. The storm got a tornado warning as I was cutting south infront of it. I got a couple stills with powerlines in the way from just se of the storm. I then went east with it and it got a pretty cold look to it(much like the first storm). The structure was fair. It was a whole lot better than nw KS offered up earlier in the day. Back at the motel in DDC. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

 

[Kenny Drake]

The storm got a tornado warning as I was cutting south infront of it.[/b]

That cell got tornado warned? I must have missed it while shooting. Funny how we both ate at KFC, you were probably there about 30 minutes after I was. Ended up eating quickly, went back to the Super 8, took a quick glance at radar and was sure the cell that at the time was over Garden City would remain on the tail end of things, drove west out of DDC and intercepted. Pictures will maybe come tomorrow (my camera sucks) but Eric's pics are almost duplicates of what I saw. For a moment there I thought the wall cloud would drop something, but the rotation was rather weak. In the end, still happy with the day. I targeted DDC and it ended up being the right place for the best the day had to offer. Hopefully tomorrow/today (the 9th) will bring better fortune to those who go out. As for me... finals.

 

[Jason Boggs]

Met up with Damon Shaw and initailly targeted the area near DDC. Made a data stop in fowler, KS and decided to target the storms that were going up N of Scott city. Made a data stop in Beeler and decided to go north to see what we could get. Made our way around the Utica and Ransom area and then came back south to Jetmore. We went west out of Jetmore to catch the storm that was NW of Dodge City. The storm looked really good for a while displaying a nice meso with a fairly good wall cloud at times. It eventually became outflow dominant once it neared DDC. Here are some pics of the chase:

NICE RAINBOW NEAR UTICA

STORM PRODUCED SEVERAL WALL CLOUDS

NICE MESO RIGHT BEFORE IT DECIDED TO TURN OUTFLOW DOMINANT (NW OF DDC)

 

[Mike Umscheid]

Whew. Long night on the radar. Was fortunate enough to have one of the supercells come within a good photogenic distance from the NWS-DDC office. I took a quick minute in between volume scans to get a couple photographs in looking north at the striated supercell along the Ford-Hodgeman county line after sunset. Here are a couple of those photos below as seen from the DDC weather office/airport:

Mike U

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

That cell got tornado warned? I must have missed it while shooting. Funny how we both ate at KFC, you were probably there about 30 minutes after I was. Ended up eating quickly, went back to the Super 8, took a quick glance at radar and was sure the cell that at the time was over Garden City would remain on the tail end of things, drove west out of DDC and intercepted.
[/b]

Yes. This was well after dark after the Garden City cell died and the other strengthened and moved just n of DDC. Then as that weakened and moved east of DDC a cell popped up west of town and got tor warned as it moved sw and s of town. I think I got KFC at 9:50 so it was a good bit after that. The cell that gets the warning was just a brand new blip at that time.

Man I'd love to kill the people above me here with the 5000 lb gorilla feet!!!! 3.5 hours of sleep will go a long ways today I'm sure.

 

[J.B. Dixon]

Made it to Great Bend around 5ish, only to realize I forgot to charge the computer battery fully the night before. Scrambled around to find wi-fi and a nice front desk clerk at a hotel to help me out. Took a look at the convection firing N of I-70, which looked like it might have gotten better with time, but I made the decision to stay put. I dropped south later to Pratt, had my first "Woody Burger" (highly recommended!), then headed west to try and got some lightning shots on the DDC cell, as it started to interact with the newly forming MCS behind it. Talked to the Tempest gang who's lodging here at the Days Inn, as well.

It was new chase country for this guy. Wish it could've been better, but I won't beg.

 

[Brian A. Morganti]

After a very long drive from MAF and a flat tire I was able to reach the southern most storms in SW KS just north of DDC. A short summary and a few photos of the brief show are posted here: http://www.stormeffects.com/recent_events.htm

 

[afischer]

I was in SW KS too.. very enjoyable chase. Started in the Rush Center area... but with no mechanism for lift or convergence in the warm sector and the western edge of the cu field continually vaporizing, it became clear that the impulse coming out of CO would be "it." Headed southwest for the tail end of the line and observed three distinct supercells. The structure on all of them was pretty crazy, all things considered. The northenmost was the first to really intensify (right when I got ahead of it), as I looked west from Highway 23 at the Lane-Finney county line (Eric posted a good pic of it)... it pretty much did everything it could considering the marginal BL moisture that far west. The downdraft of that one filled with precip... I headed south and saw the shriveling tail end LP coming ESE from Garden City whose structure included a couple of little "plates". Then the middle storm intensified to my north (I was somewhere noth of Cimarron at this time)... it too developed a similar structure with mid-level plates. Then a beautiful laminar cloud band was suddenly sucked into this storm and a low-based wall cloud developed in its notch (as in Brian Morganti's picture). About this time I saw a cylinder of dust on the ground within the inflow region of the storm and well away from the updraft/rain free base (looking northeast from L Road and 24 Road), as the storm crossed into NW Ford county. A little strange... it dissipated shortly thereafter. Chased the storm to just east of DDC and then headed home... so missed the tor-warned supe that followed.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

First supercell sliding north of Dodge City.

Tornado warned supercell at night south of Dodge City.

 

[Kenny Drake]

Yes. This was well after dark after the Garden City cell died and the other strengthened and moved just n of DDC. Then as that weakened and moved east of DDC a cell popped up west of town and got tor warned as it moved sw and s of town. I think I got KFC at 9:50 so it was a good bit after that. The cell that gets the warning was just a brand new blip at that time.

Man I'd love to kill the people above me here with the 5000 lb gorilla feet!!!! 3.5 hours of sleep will go a long ways today I'm sure.
[/b]

Good thing I got out of there as soon as it was dark because I was completely unaware that the storm was Tornado warned. I had the local radio stations on all the time on scan mode so I would catch anything, I guess the radio stations were not completely up to date. I was moving east out of DDC by about that time or so Im guess-timating.

Anvil of the approaching cell over Garden City at the time:

Hopefully I can get help figuring out what this is, I couldnt find a good position quickly enough, so I made do with this:

Nice sunset, and the "plates" previously mentioned:

I think my camera is capable of taking better pictures, I just have to figure out the focus. That middle one I understand is bad because I was shooting in the car while parking. The first two pics were on US 50 west out of DDC, and the third was north of DDC on a side road.

 

[Kenny Drake]

About this time I saw a cylinder of dust on the ground within the inflow region of the storm and well away from the updraft/rain free base (looking northeast from L Road and 24 Road), as the storm crossed into NW Ford county. A little strange... it dissipated shortly thereafter. Chased the storm to just east of DDC and then headed home... so missed the tor-warned supe that followed.
[/b]

I witnessed that too and have a video capture of it. Here is a screenshot from it, and yes it was well away from the base. In the video I keep moving back and forth between the wall cloud and the dust. I'm sure there is a good explanation of it, my reasoning at the time was an RFD.