jaredleighton
EF1
I joined this case late, and immediately recognized it as April 22, 2010 as I chose the Kansas target that day. This was a very strange day up in Kansas. I set up at Liberal, KS since I analyzed the Warm/Stationary front near the KS/OK border. Cells initiated north of Amarillo and moved north toward my location so I sat tight near that decent thermal gradient expecting those storms to become more interesting once they reached that baroclinic zone along the WF. Meanwhile, while I was waiting for those storms to move into my area I noticed the cell become tornado warned near the KS/CO border. I largely ignored it because it was in the cooler air north of the SF. While letting it get further and further away the storms in TX died as they moved through the OK panhandle, so the race was on to try to catch the cell near Garden City. After a 60-70 mile drive north we finally caught the tornadic cell near Friend, KS, but due to the very low LCL's that day contrast was poor and ALAS I have no decent photos of that storm. Everything went to HP mush shortly after some structures near Scott City were hit by the tornado.
Two things puzzled me that day:
1. Why the storms in the TX panhandle died as they approached SW Kansas. My main theory was that they encountered some upper subsidence associated with the upper jet nosing directly into that area. (BTW, if you look at the report map, my position in Liberal had no activity).
2. Why the storm north of the warm front did so well in the cooler air. My guess is that the cool air at the surface wasn't deep enough to cause the storms to become truly elevated. Looking at the obs from that day, it wasn't an extremely tight temp gradient.
Thoughts on these aspects from that day are welcome. And thanks, Matt, for putting the case together. It was certainly a very interesting case.
Jared
Two things puzzled me that day:
1. Why the storms in the TX panhandle died as they approached SW Kansas. My main theory was that they encountered some upper subsidence associated with the upper jet nosing directly into that area. (BTW, if you look at the report map, my position in Liberal had no activity).
2. Why the storm north of the warm front did so well in the cooler air. My guess is that the cool air at the surface wasn't deep enough to cause the storms to become truly elevated. Looking at the obs from that day, it wasn't an extremely tight temp gradient.
Thoughts on these aspects from that day are welcome. And thanks, Matt, for putting the case together. It was certainly a very interesting case.
Jared
