Arriving in Denver feels like coming home. This year’s stormchasing trip marks the 10th year I’ve been out in the MidWest chasing severe weather. Every year has offered something unique, and always spectacular and this year started with a Tornado warned storm on day one!
The potential targets for Saturday were either Kansas South of Wichita or Eastern Oklahoma. Since we were starting the day in Denver, we opted for the Kansas target area, with better odds of an isolated supercell and a bit less suseptible to storm chaser convergence! Once again, Dan’s forecasting was spot on taking us directly into a severe warned storm.
Heading South from Wichita this was our first view of the forming supercell that would be our target for the day.
One of the challenges with chasing in the region of Kansas we were in on Monday is the hilly nature of the terrain. Fortunately, Dan’s local knowledge helped get us to a great viewing spot to watch and enjoy the development of our storm.
As the storm got it’s severe warning, we decided to relocate in order to stay in a good position on the storm. The storms were moving fairly rapidly across the ground at between 35 and 40 knots, this meant the biggest challenge on Saturday was staying in the right position relative to the storm.
We were able to watch the storm continue to develop with increasing rotation that would soon trigger a Tornado warning.
After seeing rotation and the Tornado warning go up, we relocated again to stay in position.
We didn’t get a ton of photos after getting back on the road as we were playing a game of cat and mouse with the storm, hoping to avoid hail and the likely rainwrapped Tornado.
Shortly after this we stopped just South East of where a Tornado was reported, there was an ominous rumble that didn’t sound like thunder and we think could well have been the sound of the Tornado on the ground.
After following the storms progress up route 2, staying just behind the worst of the hail, we came across the path of the Tornado it had contained. It was a stark reminder of the destructive reality of what we are here to witness.
As we made our way back to Wichita for the night, we were treated to an impressive lightning show with lightning lighting up the storms around us.
A great start to the week, off to Missouri next.
Glad to see your back on the road stormchasing again this year. There have been some terrifying storms already, so take care. Great pictures, and the usual informative commentary. Thanks, Sean.