Chasers: Mike Umscheid (solo)
. . .Atmospheric Setup. . .
May 10 did not look like the best of setups for tornadic supercells,
however, a potent longwave negative tilt trof was situated over the northern
Rockies, nosing down into northeast Colorado by midday. Small shortwave
impulses were forecast to rotate around the trof over northwestern Kansas,
with the main jet energy /55-65kts at 500mb/ still forecast to hang out
over Colorado through mid-evening. At the surface, a very elongated
surface trof extended from north-central SD to the eastern OK Panhandle
at 17Z. A dryline extended from the sfc cold front /triple point
along KS-OK border north of Gage/ southward through western Oklahoma.
Ahead of this, in the wake of morning convection, a narrow tongue of high
theta-e air /330+ K/ was advecting northward into central KS by 17Z.
With the convective line setting up well ahead of the prime mid/upper level
energy, forecast helicities were only supposed to be in the 125-175 (m/s)^2
range. Surface instability would be sufficient for severe convection
with CAPE values approaching 2500 J/kg in far southern KS in the instability
axis ahead of the triple point. I was chasing solo today, since Jay’s
other commitments outweighed the chase day prospects. I got home
from class at noon. I had Monday penciled in as a chase day since
last Friday, so it would have taken a lot for me not to chase. I
checked surface analyses and all signs pointed to at least severe storm
in central KS: whether it be linear or cellular was question, and it didn’t
appear to be the latter. A targetted Salina simply because of the
internet access I can get at Bosselman’s. I figured if I left early
enough, I would have enough time to get north or south to wherever I needed
to go.
. . .Out the Door. . .
I left Overland Park at 12:45 heading east on I-70. As usual,
I left with dreary conditions, light rain and temps in the low 60s.
An omen of a good chase day ahead. I broke out of the rain at Topeka,
and out of the high cirrus west of Junction City. I reached my target,
Salina, at 3:30 where I fueled and headed to Bosselman’s. I stuck
my two bucks into the internet terminal and pulled up Hubcaps analysis
and 1km visible satellite. At 20Z, the moisture convergence axis
ran from north-central KS down to near Medicine Lodge. The narrow
theta-e axis was becoming better established, and it appared that heading
south into the thicker theta-e would be a wise idea. The hi-res visible
verified this with the best looking tcu west of Hutchinson per the 2031Z
image. I headed south on I-135 to Newton. Along I-135, I passed
a convoy of army trucks labeled “Oklahoma Tornado Relief.” Another
omen? It was exactly one week from the devastating tornado outbreak
that the people of Moore, Del City, Haysville (among many others) endured
from such a terrible ordeal. So, as I passed those trucks, my thoughts
were going out. I switched my mind back over to the “chase mode”
and noticed that the area I was in had some decent vertical cu going up.
I knew the convergence zone was still well west of me, so at Newton, I
continued west on US-50. About ten miles down the road, I stopped
for about ten minutes to try to get a sense of what was going on.
Towering cu were everywhere, so it was time to listen to Mr. Roboto.
I also notice that my magmount antenna fell off when I was along highway
several miles back and broke it. Now all that’s left is a little
stubby antenna. Oh well, I can still hear Roboto. Anyway, Roboto
said “Isolated thunderstorms developing to the west of a Kingman/Hutchinson
(HUT) line”. Time to keep going west.
. . .In Pursuit. . .
As I was now several miles west of HUT, I begin to pick out the silver
lining of some very crisp towers in the distant northwest and west.
This was a good sign. About 15 W HUT, I turn north on Sterling Rd.
from US-50. I can now pick out the base on the impressive vertical
tower to my west. I headed west again on 4th Ave. and can now pick
out the base on the other towering cu to the northwest with a substantial
storm now underway to my north-northwest probably just south of I-70.
I went north again on Landon St. then crossed west again on 95th St. at
Kilbourn’s Corner. I wanted to get in a position where I could see
the updraft base on both the northern storm and the storm to my west.
The storm to my west was taking on LP characteristics. It had a very
sharp updraft with very little to no precip at the surface, or so it appeared.
I went north again at Sylvia Rd. and hung out at the intersection of Avenue
U. about 3 S Raymond in southwest Rice Co. I sat at this location
for about twenty minutes, watching the storm to my west develop a nice
anvil, develop an impressive vault region, and not produce much rain.
It did appear to be a big hailer just by looking at the menacing vault
region to my west about 20 miles away. This was definitely an impressive
little LP storm. At the same time, I was carefully watching the updraft
situation with the storm to my north-northwest. It appeared lower
topped, but it had a very impressive flanking line with knuckle-hard towers.
I was at this location from about 6:15 to 6:40. I had not heard anything
on any warnings or watches, as there had been no radio cut-ins yet.
I then see a lowering develop on the updraft to the storm to my northwest.
This looked very suspicious to me, so I headed north to Raymond, jogged
east on Avenue R to 8th Rd. This suspicious area was now in an area
of precip. I continued north on 8th Rd. to US-56 just south of Chase,
where I hung out at the intersection of 9th and US-56 about 1 SE of Chase.
This is where the fun begins. My initial LP storm to the WSW wasn’t
as LP-ish anymore, although I could still pick out the RFB to its south.
The flanking towers to the storm off to my northwest was looking much better.
I began to monitor a faint lowered area just south of the precip shaft
of the northern storm. If I was to see tornadogenesis at all, I would
have expected it from either that area, or from the RFB area, which now
had lowerings, to my southwest about 18 miles away. At 7:22pm, I
begin to pick out a stubby little funnel look-alike under what appeared
to be one of the flanking towers. I remember saying “I hope nobody
calls that in as a funnel.” Well, I shouldn’t have spoken too soon,
because it immediately began to take funnel characteristics. This
flanking tower was now becoming a dominent cell, with the highest updraft
towers almost directly overhead this newly formed funnel. This storm
was developing between the two I was previously monitoring, which was about
fifteen miles to my northwest. I called NWS-ICT to report a funnel
cloud 1/3 to the surface about a couple miles northwest of Chase.
The NWS person told me there was nothing on the radar in Rice County.
Shortly thereafter, the condensation funnel was at least halfway to the
ground, at which point I considered it a tornado. I called NWS again
and told the person I talked to previously that the condensation funnel
was at least halfway to the ground and thought it was a tornado.
The time was 7:25pm. I told him the tornado looked to be a couple
miles northwest of Chase. He was confused with my report. Well,
the tornado was not a couple miles northwest of Chase, but rather about
fifteen miles. From my vantage point, this tornado was highly visible,
and did not appear to be very far away. It wasn’t even in Rice County,
but rather just west of the county line in Barton County. Sure enough,
it would take ten minutes for Wichita NWS to issue a tornado warning for
Barton County for a public reported tornado 2 miles south of Claflin, or
16 miles northwest of my vantage point just southeast of Chase… in Rice
County.
As the tornado was beginning to wrap in a thin veil of precip, the tornado’s condensation funnel was 100% at the surface from my vantage point, with a stovepipe appearance. Time 7:29pm. The storm structure associated with this tornado was now becoming very well established with a definite mesocyclone appearance. The tornado began to take on a v-shape funnel about 80% to the ground, with contrast increasing once again at 7:35pm. TOR issued at this time for Barton Co. About 7:36, the tornado begins to occlude with the RFD wrapping all the way around the circulation. A second funnel takes shape about this time to the south of the original tornado. This funnel cloud made a very brief touchdown between 7:37-7:39. This mesocyclone was not moving much at all. With this in mind, I headed north on 8th Rd. at Chase and continued to monitor a very intense wall cloud half way to 2/3 to the surface. The contrast was somewhat poor, but there could have been some suction vortices beneath this feature from 7:45 to 7:50 time frame as I was looking west-northwest about 6 miles SSE of Bushton. This rotating wall cloud was about 7 or 8 miles away. I got to K-4 just east of Bushton where I hung out for a bit to watch this feature from a stationary position. The area of rotation was now in the vicinity of Bushton at 7:55. It quickly lost its rotational feature and became part of the developing rain shaft to my immediate southwest. It was time to head east. I went about 18 miles east along K-4 to the K-14 intersection where there was a spotter convergence. I was now far enough away from the core, and I could pick out a very wicked wall cloud lowering to southwest about 15-20 miles away. Between 8:20 and 8:25, spotters indicated a tornado in the vicinity of Bushton. This was confusing to me, because I was watching this exact same feature in the vicinity of Bushton, but I couldn’t identify any condensation funnel. After analyzing Roger Hill’s chase account, this tornado was probably brief and mostly multiple vortex suction spots. I was over 15 miles away from this feature, so I couldn’t identify these with the somewhat poor contrast and with dusk approaching. There was definitely intense rotation in this area. At about 8:30 or so, this area became absorbed in precip, and I pointed myself to another suspicious lowered rain free base region in the same vicinity as where the previous one developed. It was getting late, and I had to get back home, so it was at this point I called it a chase day.
. . .Wrap Up. . .
This turned out to be another high contrast tornado chase day in a
SPC slight risk and yellow box, very reminiscent to my October 98 chase
not too far away near Hays. One thing I did learn from this chase
is that a chaser must be able to identify how far away a feature is from
his vantage point. This can be especially tough in either very high
contrast or very low contrast situations such as the one I was in.
I was definitely thrown for a loop when the NWS person I was talking to
told me that this tornado was more than 15 miles away when I originally
though it was at very a few miles away. All in all, a very productive
chase day.
. . .Stats. . .
Departure: 12:45pm from Overland Park
Target: Salina, KS by 3:30
Total Mileage: 580
Arrival Home: 12:50am
Hours in "chase mode": 6:00 to 8:45 (2.75hrs)
"chase mode" mileage: 61
mscheid@kc.net
last updated: May
13, 1999
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