On Friday (Aug 25), we had some fairly rambunxious supercell storms over Southwest Kansas. I had the distinct priveledge to work the event behind the radar desk… problem was, we had no radar. I had to issue warnings/statements using Goodland, Wichita, and Vance AFB’s radar. Vance AFB is near Enid, OK. I had to issue two tornado warnings, but neither verified as the low level wind profile just wasn’t quite supportive of tornadoes… but deep layer shear, moisture, and instability sure were. Our evening sounding here at Dodge City had about 3,400 J/kg of CAPE… which is a lot… especially for August, thanks to near 70°F dewpoint temperatures. Two supercells formed during the early evening hours, one of which rolling right along Highway 50 in northern Gray County causing vehicle damage with broken out windows from baseball size hail. As the northern supercell approached Dodge City, I went outside to take a few photos of the approaching storm structure… and also a very impressive rainfoot denoting severe winds. Anyway, it was good to photograph a decent looking storm after well over a month of not seeing anything really exciting at all weather-related. I have posted about 6 photos in the "Other Storm Photos" album on my webpage.
and do not necessarily represent those of official National Weather Service forecast products,
therefore read and enjoy at your own risk and edification!"
August 26, 2006
Finally some supercells in Southwest Kansas!
August 24, 2006
A few trips to Quivira NWR & Yellowstone in September
I haven’t updated the blog in over a month, but there just hasn’t been a whole lot going on around here lately. No storm chasing whatsoever, as the summer doldrums roll right along here in Southwest Kansas. I’m really looking forward to fall and the change of season to cooler and hopefully more active weather. We’ve had quite a bit of rain around this area recently, with 7-14" of rain for the month of August just north of here around the Ness-Rush County area. I haven’t done an extensive amount of photography, however I have gone on a couple short trips to Quivira NWR on my to and from back to Kansas City a couple times. I got my new Nikon D200 in late-July, and I’m becoming more comfortable with it. It’s definitely an improvement over the D70. I’m really looking forward to capturing amazing images with this excellent piece of equipment… mainly stormscapes… but also both wildlife (mainly birds at Quivira, at least for now) and landscapes. Speaking of the latter, I will be taking a 10-day vacation from Sept 15-25 to do some photography in Yellowstone National Park. My long-time chase partner Jay will be up there for the fall on a sabbatical leave this upcoming semester, so I’ll be making arrangements to stay up there with him. More on that on a future blog post as far as more details are concerned. I’m still researching what I want to photograph and when. I have to somehow work Teton NP in there as well during my trip, but the focus will be Yellowstone.
Here are 4 new galleries since my last blog post, all from Quivira NWR:
August 3rd (morning trip; on my way to Kansas City)
August 4th (evening trip; on my way back home to Dodge City)
August 12th (morning trip; to and back)
August 21st (evening trip; on my way back home to Dodge City from Kansas City)