Well, Jay and I have our seemingly annual high-risk bust out of the way. We left Lawrence around noon for a target near Wichita. Things looked great for supercell thunderstorms, the shear profiles looked good and the instability was very good. Storms formed quickly after 3pm or so and I think there were too many storms oriented along the shear vector such that competition for discrete long-lived supercells was fierce… there was just too much storm interaction and anvil seeding. We caught a storm that went up fast near Augusta, but it was moving into the water-logged Flint Hills so we had to abandon the storm. Other storms went up near Winfield and Ark City but they had the same problems. There were a couple of tornadoes reported out of all this activity in eastern KS on the 4th, but the most impressive event, by far, was way up north in Brown County, KS. Jay and I didn’t even really consider that far northeast in our morning forecast. This event was only an hour and a half drive from Lawrence! Storm chaser Mike Peregrine documented a long-lived, beautiful tornado out of this storm which was very classic and high-contrast. Congrats Mike!
Here is a shot of a shear funnel near Arkansas City, KS:
Jay and I are in Salina this morning, the 5th, and will be making the long drive along with Matt Crowther (who we will meet up in Grand Island or so) to the western Dakotas for what looks to be a decent several days of chasing coming up beginning Monday.
Mike U