5/23/2010 - Kansas Supercells and Tornado

Another long drive on Sunday ... from Mitchell, SD to the Scott City, KS area. The day had a bit of potential, but it wasn't nearly as "perfect" a setup as the previous day. Essentially, a warm front would be surging through the western Kansas area and would provide the focus for storm initiation. I targeted the area between Tribune and Scott City. I waited north of Scott City for about an hour ... finally storms to the south began to ramp up in intensity as they approached my area. I went east along KS-4, hoping to move north on KS-23 toward the Gove region. Got to the turn ... only to find that the road was closed 6 miles ahead. Ugh! So, I then had to move well east and take a horrible dirt road for about 30 miles up to I-70. What a long, long drive. Of course, I did have a nice perspective of the storm off to the west ... though, it was a bit further than I was hoping. Once I got to the interstate, I moved westbound toward the Oakley area as the initial storms I was on were looking less and less impressive.  As I slid west, I kept my eye on a developing supecell to the west of Oakley. However, it was another storm even further south and west that eventually went on to produce a wall cloud and tornado near the Brewster area. I was a bit far away, but did have a nice back lit view of the tornado as I neared the Winona area. Again, I need to get a zoom lens ... a wide angle and 17-40 mm don't cut it on these long distance things. Anyway, tried to move northbound on a county road only to have my path -- once again -- cut off. This time by some guy who (somehow, someway) ended up straddling his truck across the road. Argh! Ended up going west and the north, but failed to ever catch back up to the nice lookin' supercells north of Goodland after twilight. I did get to watch a beautiful intracloud lightning display though to close the night. The next day I drove home to DeKalb ... COD Trip 3 starts Friday. So, more storms and photos in the offing, I hope.

Storm north of Scott City ... ahh, would have been closer ... but that damn closed road!

Interesting cloud formations west of Oakley.

Somewhat surprisingly, a wall cloud quickly forms in this previously innocuous storm south of Brewster.

Well, this is about the best pic I have of the tornado ... I was driving and only had my 17-40 mm lens at this time. That won't cut it when the tornado is this far away. I can confirm that it was indeed on the ground. A few folks were closer, so I'll have to search for their pics. 

A minute or two later ... this ends my chase.

While stuck trying to figure out how to route around this road closure, the storm off to the northwest appears to tornado again; however, I can't confirm if the obvious funnel under the base here touched down.

 Pair of supercells north of Goodland after sunset. 

 Amazing lightning-illuminated bell updraft. This storm was apparently producing at this time in rural areas northeast of Goodland.