6/10/2009 - Southwest Kansas Tornadic Storm

Wednesday was a tough forecasting day ... 1) push east from Wichita to an area (not featuring the best chase terrain that) the models were highlighting, but observations were not supporting (milky cirrus from OK convection clouding things over) or 2) head west and "hope" for storms to fire ahead of a bowling ball vort max moving across far southeast Colorado into what would be a narrow instability axis. I made the initial decision to head east, but the veered winds in the low-levels, thickening cloud cover, and more and more trees the further east we went made me rethink my decision near Fall River, KS. We then double backed to Wichita, getting caught up in horrible traffic along US-400 as we traversed the city. We finally pushed westward along 400 and kept an eye (via radar) on some small thunderstorms that were forming near the juncture of OK/CO/NM/KS. We continued west, grabbing dinner in Greensburg (nasty gas station pizza). We finally intercepted the storms near the junction of US 83 and US 160 -- at this point, the storms moved into deeper moisture and a bit better instability (thanks to some brief, but good heating). The storms quickly transitioned into a big ol' HP monster and produced beautiful sunset structure opportunities. The storm produced a tornado at about 8:30 pm, though we had a low contrast vantage point to the east-southeast, looking northwest. Tony Laubach had a bit better perspective to the north, looking down the pipe. I suggest checking out his site for better pics. Anyway, we finally let the storm roll over us (as we took shelter in an abandoned car wash) just west of the town of Meade, KS. Overnighted in Garden City, KS. A rewarding day considering how I double backed and was thinking it was a real gamble to head west.

Storm morphing into a supercell southwest of Sublette, KS, looking west, northwest.

Storm wraps up along a dirt road off US 160, looking north.

Another view looking northwest; getting ready to produce a tornado at the kink in there.

Contrast enhanced to bring out (admittedly, ever so slightly) the tornado. Again, much better view on Tony's blog. He was to the northeast, looking southwest; providing better contrast.

One last view of the supercell before nightfall. Watch out trucker ... that storm looks hungry!

Time lapse video of the southwest Kansas supercell. High resolution video available here.