7/28/09 DISC: Surprise northeast KS tornado

[Jon Davies]

Veteran storm chaser Doug Nelson sent my wife Shawna some shots of a "surprise" tornado from last Tuesday southwest of Centralia KS near his workshop. With no damage, no other reports, and nothing impressive on radar. I wouldn't have believed it. But Doug is a highly experienced and reliable observer, and he took good pics.

I did a little case study on my blog to try to isolate some ingredients that led to this weak but very interesting surprise:
http://davieswx.blogspot.com/

A subtle boundary and a favorable vertical CAPE environment appeared to be the main ingredients, but you'd never pick this out in real time. An interesting case... thanks Doug!

Jon Davies

 

[Brett Adair]

Very interesting indeed, Jon! Thanks for posting this great analysis.

 

[John Farley]

Great writeup, Jon. I wouldn't believe it were it not for those pictures! Like you say, nature never ceases to surprise!

 

[D. Hayes]

nice. Make me thing of the old question "does a bear crap in the woods?".