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3:02pm
- the first supercell of the day evolved on the western flank of convective
debris from an initial storm originating over Kingman county. I
watched the updraft scream northward and then north-northwestward through
Ellsworth county at 60mph or better. i followed it as far as the town
of Juanita, but I didn't anticipate the moisture or shear in this set-up
would support tornadoes in a storm wrapping that far to the northwest. |
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3:08pm
- looking back south at the eventual storm-of-the-day, which was organizing
rapidly over northwestern McPherson county. I headed back south and
east. |
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3:43pm - I got the feeling this convection--now approaching Salina--was
trending toward an outflow-dominant mess. I kept heading east, and
shot this "over-the-shoulder" photo of a wall cloud and scud on the flanking
line of the storm. Apparently a brief F1 tornado occurred right on my
heels two minutes later, northeast of New Cambria! |
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A wifi
radar grab in Abilene lit a fire under my butt, as an angry supercell with
an appendage had clearly evolved just northeast of Salina. Not a
moment later, Topeka tor-warned the cell. I headed north on Jeep Road,
then up Highway 15, pacing the cell now to my west as it sailed
north-northeastward at 50mph. The radio station announced a tornado
had been sighted southwest of Manchester. I squinted at the high
rain-free base and by 4:16pm spotted a truncated stovepipe tornado on the
horizon to my west-southwest. I was shocked, considering this was a
rather young storm in a high-shear environment and boundary layer moisture
was obviously rather poor. I headed west on some road to get closer to
the tornado. |
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4:21pm
- The first minute or two of my video ended up being slightly crappy, as I
was concentrating too much on driving and getting closer to the tornado to
gain contrast. However, by the time I got within a couple miles, I
managed to focus the camcorder directly on the tornado. It looked very
pretty as it crossed the road a mile or so ahead of me, as the condensation
tail had lowered almost to ground level and displayed some little "snaky"
motions from side to side. A moment later I snapped this photo, but
with the flash inadvertently on. |
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4:22pm
- the only normal photo I got of the tornado, as it stretched and ropes out. |
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4:22pm
- while all of this was going on, I was also trying to take in the wonderful
structure of the storm. A very compact low-level mesocyclone was
seemingly "sitting on the ground" immediately north of the tornado, with a
stubby little inflow band feeding into it. A dynamic collar cloud
above produced strong anticyclonic rotation, including a funnel seen here.
It was a awe-inspiring and ominous scene, and unfortunately only glimpses of
it can be seen on the video. Maybe someday i'll get some video
captures. |
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4:38 -
I headed north on Kiowa Road as the blustery wet RFD came across the road...
then back east on Ninth Road to Highway 15 again. This photo is from
somewhere south of Clay Center, looking northwest at the reorganization
phase of the large-scale meso. |
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4:39pm
- another shot of the mesocyclone. If I'd known a 1/4 to 1/2 mile wide
tornado was buried in there beneath the collar cloud, I suppose I would have
tried harder to get closer. As it was, I drove into and then quickly
east of Clay Center... and saw nothing. |
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6:38pm
- Another nasty storm had formed south-southwest of Manhattan and I headed
east instead to try and intercept that storm. I have no doubt it would
have been tornadic at some point in its life, had a left split from a storm
farther south not collided with it at 80mph. I got a view of the
result of this collision southwest of Westmoreland.. was not much to see.
This photo shows some final linear storms in Jackson county, marking the end
of this wild day. |
