Took an opportunity to head out
to Kansas for another tornado
possibility. The big question going
into this trip was whether the storms would
initiate before dark. My son Ryan due
to work obligations and that storm
initiation question, decided to stay behind
on this trip. Our friend, Lucas
Munzlinger joined Brian Stertz and I on this
trip.
Lucas and I
arrived to pick up Brian around noon and we
headed out to our target of Manhattan,
Kansas. We arrived plenty early in
Manhattan, so we sat down for a relaxed,
extended lunch at the Pizza Hut looking over
the latest data and watching radar for any
sign of storm initiation.
As the storms
began to fire, we headed west to Junction
City, Kansas to meet up with the storms that
were beginning to appear on the
dryline. Wouldn't you know it.
The spot along the dryline where we were
remained storm free.
Hmmm. Move north or south
from there? We decided on moving
northward. We found ourselves
surrounded by severe warned storms as we
moved toward the intercept.
We eventually lined ourselves up
with one of the storms near the town of
Fostoria, Kansas. We found a spot and
watched the storm approach. As the
storm reached us, it began hailing with some
as large as golfballs, so a hasty exit to
the west got us out of the hail core
quickly.
April 19, 2023 
