5/23/2008 - A Cop, a Flat, a Farmer, and Nothing to Show

Well, this day had all the makings for a great tornado outbreak … and it fulfilled that promise. Unfortunately, the non-atmospheric ingredients came together today to prevent us from participating in this outbreak.

We began the day in Hays, KS and decided to target the area along the dryline in west-central to southwest KS. The other possible target was near the outflow/warm front lying across I-70. In hindsight, maybe we should have stayed with that target, but we were reluctant to pick the northern target due to a few reasons: 1) chase hoards were going to be there (i.e., makes for very crowded rural roads with lots of erratic driving), 2) muddy, muddy, muddy roads due to the heavy rain in that area overnight, and 3) the fact that the southern target looked good, with perhaps a bit more isolated convection and slower storm motions. We waited for initiation just southeast of Garden City. Sure enough -- as on cue -- the storms developed over the top of us. They screamed northward. We chased an initial storm east and then north out of Cimarron. However, that portion of the chase quickly came to a conclusion when Deputy Bower of the Gray County Sheriff’s Department (if you can, picture a young, cute, but way intense woman cop with a tattoo on her neck) pulled us over just north of Cimarron. Grady was stopped for “illegal passing” – he had passed a car that was turning left. There was more than adequate room for passing, but I have a feeling the primary reason she pulled us over was because we were in minivan with temporary plates. She questioned Grady outside, and then came back and questioned us. As any well-trained officer would do, she was trying to see if our stories jived. She eventually let us go – sans ticket.

Pics of Initial Convection

After this brief delay, we finally latched onto a storm that had its origins near Liberal, KS. We chased this storm from Montezuma, to Cimarron (where we were certain it was going to tor, but it didn’t … argh!), to northwest of Jetmore … this is where things really go haywire.

Pics of rapidly rotating wall cloud north and west of Cimarron.

Unfortunately, we had a flat tire (due to puncture in sidewall) about 15 miles northwest of Jetmore in the middle of nowhere on a gravel road. That put a quick stop to our chase. We limped to a farmer's house before a left split supercell rolled over us. We picked the right farm! This guy (I'll call him the Chuck Norris of farmers) had all the equipment necessary to break down a tire. As we waited for the farmer to work his magic with a patch, we watched two smaller supercells scream north just west of the farm. They had nice rain-free bases with lots of scud-sucking going on. Anyway, it looks like we missed a confirmed tornado just to the north of where we got a flat … argh! The storm we were on, but had to let go, continued to produce tornadoes as it headed toward I-70. Frustrating, but what can you do?

Tire changing operation.

RFB to the west of the farm we stopped at.

Supercell with wall cloud northwest of our stranded location.

We finally got back on the road and re-routed around a massive supercell that progressed towards the previously devastated Greensburg (see May 4, 2007). Luckily, the community was spared this year. We arrived on this monster at Byers (northwest of Pratt) after the sun had set. Lightning illuminated lots of "hang-me-downs", but we could never confirm anything. Supposedly a multitude of homes were heavily damaged and a few injuries were reported with the tornadoes hidden in the dark just to our northwest. Finally gave up on this storm near Stafford even though it was supposedly producing a tor near St. John.

Then the real fun began about 11 pm – i.e., trying to find a hotel in Kansas. Hutchinson, McPherson, and Wichita were all sold out -- we called the major hotel chains, stopped at probably 10 different motels, hotels, and dumps. I then had the "brilliant" idea that we would just camp in the terminal at Mid-America Airport in Wichita. We asked a cop and he said no problem. We noticed the airport had a Hilton and thought we would try there as a last straw before we bedded in an airport of all places. Luckily for us (or perhaps it was Kelsey’s charm?), they had a room that we were able to grab for way too much. Finally got to bed at 2 am.

Frustrating day, and one we will not forget.