Mark Rader,
Kirk Swain
Target:
Wichita, KS
Distance:
614.0 miles
Duration:
12.8 hrs
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Partners: Mark Rader, Kirk Swain Target: Wichita, KS Distance: 614.0 miles Duration: 12.8 hrs |
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For the second time this year, we had a nice synoptic set up with deep moisture. An outflow boundary was pushing south from an MCS that pushed through Kansas in the morning. The cap was going to be strong, however, we were convinced it would break due to convergence near the triple point, a slow moving warm front, and the aforementioned outflow bounday. I called my boss to get the day off, and left at 1:41pm for Wichita to meet Mark and Kirk. We met around 4pm, checked data for about an hour, and consulted with Matt Ziebell and Randy Baker on the phone. The outflow boundary passed by as we waited, and storms began to fire along it from near Enid, OK in an arc toward SE Kansas. We headed south down I-40 to Exit 4 and made our way east on Hwy. 166. The storms went up quickly about 5pm, due to the extreme instability. Unfortunately, the cells began to split and lost their supercell characteristics just as quickly an hour later. We followed the storms eastward with the hope that they would interact with the south moving outflow boundary, but to no avail. We were hit with strong outflow winds at one point, which made a nice straw "flag" on my antenna. Unfortunately it was the high point of the trip.
We called the chase at the crossroad of Hwy. 166 and Hwy 75 and began to make our way back. In the meantime, a storm we thought dissipated earlier pulsed back to life west of Bartlesville, OK. After speaking with Randy, we turned around and headed south only 10 minutes after we had called the chase. This storm also began to dissipate shortly after maturity, so we called the chase for good, got some food, and headed back to Wichita. I dropped the guys off at Mark's truck around midnight and headed home. It turned out to be a weak day, considering the parameters that I thought were in place at the time. *sigh*
It was good to meet and catch up with a few of my chasecation partners though. BTW Kirk, I did try that burger tip the following weekend...magnifique!
 Updraft of storm to the Sw near Hwy. 166 and I-35 |
 Mark snaps a few structure pics |
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The storm splits as it crosses the outflow boundary |
 A brief wall cloud near Hwy 166 and 15 before the storm crossed the boundary |
 Updraft of storm south of Bartlesville, OK in post-dusk light |