Today is the 23rd, and the friggin snow has stopped me here in Salina. I should have checked the weather closer before I left Lawrence — I could have just stayed there. But nope, was anxious to get home and along the way, I had run into the snow near Junction City. In short time, the snow was coming down fast and furious — rapidly collecting on the interstate. Prevailing speed had slowed to 35-40mph on the interstate, and by the time I reached Salina, I was exhausted from the tight-gripped, white-knuckler. It was snowing hard. A quick 2-3" had accumulated by the time I reached Salina, and I said enough was enough and decided to pack it in for the night — I’m just flat tired, even though the back edge of the snow is not that far away. So here I am at the Super 8 along I-70… I’ll get up early in the morning and resume my trek back home to Dodge.
The Douglas County EM Severe Weather Symposium went quite well. Speakers were myself, Jennifer Stark (the Warning Coordination Meteorologist at Topeka), Jon Davies, and Chris Novy. At the end of the symposium was a roundtable discussion centered around topics such as the new Storm-based warnings by the National Weather Service and other topics such as "tornado emergencies". It’s always great to have a discussion like this among the spotter community (the audience), National Weather Service meteorlogists like myself, and on-camera meteorologists from the local media. Several representatives from the Topeka and Kansas City market were there including Joe Lauria and Bryan Busby. I’ll make another brief post tomorrow when I get home in the morning and perhaps add another couple images from the Utah trip.