The day
was once again looking to be another potential big day out
in the plains, so we made the arrangements to head out for
another chase. We knew we were good for one day of
chasing, but also had the wild card days following if
things worked out.
My son
Ryan and I headed out about 5:00am heading for Kansas City
to pick up our friend Brian Stertz. He was scheduled
to work a 1/2 day at his new job that he had just started
and could not maneuver any more time off. On the way
out, Ryan and I had a little extra time before Brian's
work day ended, so we made a snake hunting stop and got a
few snakes.
After 30
minutes or so, we continued on as a quick storm
approached. We were treated with a little bit of pea size
hail in a blinding rain (so no pictures). We stopped
for a quick lunch before picking up Brian. With a
target of Salina, Kansas, this put us a bit behind as
storms were scheduled to pop earlier than when we could
get to them. We had a quick turn around time as
Brian got off of work and headed out Interstate 70 toward
the target. As we got to Topeka, Kansas, a new,
growing cell caught our attention right in front of
us. It began showing strong rotation, so we made a
last second decision to exit at the Valencia Road exit on
the northeast side of Topeka and scooted north. This
road would dead end in the Kansas River valley, but as we
got to the dead end in a large valley, the storm was
coming right up to it. We got some wild rotation and
thought for sure it would drop a big tornado.
Although it did not drop a big tornado, it did manage a
small tube and another rather unorganized funnel. We got a picture
of the tornado just before the rain came in and
hid everything in the downpour. The storm carried on
northeast on the other side of the river and we had no way
to follow it.
We
back-tracked to Interstate 70 and continued west with more
anticipation. Another cell was showing great promise
a few more miles up the road. As we got to Highway
99, the road north to Wamego, Kansas, the decision was
made to go north and intercept this storm as well.
We hustled our way up to the storm that was just about
ready to head into Wamego. We caught the wall cloud
just southwest of town. As we pulled up, it was
obvious the circulation was going to produce a
tornado. Within seconds after pulling over to the
side of the road, fingers started to appear out of the
wall cloud and dirt was starting to be thrown around in
the field. This continued through the field as the
fingers became more and more visible and then a cone began
to develop.
As the tornado moved right
toward the town, we got back in the car and followed
it into town. As we crossed the Kansas River, we
could clearly see where the tornado crossed the river
as the trees were snapped in half and a house had its
roof and some walls removed. We followed the
circulation through town. Luckily for the town
of Wamego, the tornado was not firmly on the ground
the entire time. Many tree limbs, snapped trees,
and even a trampoline littered the side of the road as
we drove through town. The true damage path was
a few blocks west of Highway 99 as we went through
town.
As we got to the north side of town, we
turned east onto Highway 24. As we went a bit
east, the tornado began to cone out completely.
We pulled over and watched as the tornado grow larger
and larger.
Eventually, a second wall cloud appeared and put down
another funnel cloud that briefly touched the
ground.
Meanwhile,
back in the haze, the original tornado continued in the
rope out stage with a very white appearance for a long
time.
As the storm pulled away and became hidden
in the haze, we were able to look back and see another
cone tornado back in the haze.
After the storm seem to run out
of instability to the north, we worked our way back
through Wamego. We took a short detour to make
sure one of Brian's friends who lives in that town
was OK and then back to Interstate 70. At that
point, there was some indecision as there were pros
and cons for going east as well as pros and cons for
the original targets out to the west and
southwest. Nothing seemed to be taking off, so
we ended up in Emporia, Kansas for dinner as there
was nothing that was looking promising
anywhere. On the way out of dinner, we were
treated to a nice shelf cloud following us back.
Was interesting that we were back to Brian's
place by 10:00 with tornadoes in the early afternoon.
TOTAL
MILES: 927
Click To Enlarge
|
Click
on the link below to see video of some
of these storms.
|
May 26, 2016
