CHASE ARCHIVES
Great Plains 2009
My very first chase trip to the Plains. Three chaseable days in Texas and Kansas. One successful tornado intercept in Kansas on June 14.
June 13, 2009 - Amarillo, TX
Intercepted two rotating severe thunderstorms directly over and to the northeast of Amarillo. The Texas panhandle was under a slight risk of severe thunderstorms and a 5% tornado risk this day. While there were tornado warnings and tornadoes reported southeast of Amarillo, only severe thunderstorms were over Amarillo and north to the OK panhandle.
June 14, 2009 - Kansas
The day began with a severe thunderstorm in Haskell County, KS that had originated in extreme eastern Colorado. I intercepted it as it entered Haskell County northwest of the town of Sublette. It produced an EF-0 elephant trunk tornado along US 160 just east of Ulysses. The tornado lasted only 4 minutes. I chased the storm all the way to Minneola before it gusted out. After dark more storms began to reorganize farther east near Medicine Lodge, which went tornado warned. I continued to follow the storm all the way through Arkansas City where the storm became tornado warned once again, producing a tornado just to the south of US 166 and west of Maple City. The tornado tracked parallel to US 166 just ahead of me and was illuminated by lightning several times, captured in my video. The storm eventually weakened and I abandoned chasing it just south of Dexter.
June 15, 2009 - Kansas
The day began with a Moderate Risk and 10% tornado risk in central Kansas. Best target choice initially was in the Dodge City area. I targeted this area and staged northwest of Dodge near the town of Kinsley as numerous tornado warned severe thunderstorms broke out in the area. A storm that had moved from the west towards Kinsley became tornado warned and produced a brief tornado south of Kinsley and a stronger tornado near Macksville. Initially I watched its wall cloud west of town until it had advanced eastward directly on top of me. I witnessed intense circulations overhead with several brief funnel clouds. as the storm accellerated eastward into Kinsley I raced to keep up with it, witnessing near-ground scrubbing scud bombs and wall clouds. As I entered Kinsley's west side the storm became tornado warned. I made a wrong turn and ended up south of town while the storm continued east into Macksville. I was unable to find a road option to continue pacing the storm at close range, and decided to abandon that storm altogether. The rest of the afternoon/evening I observed and paced a severe thunderstorm moving east through Greensburg, Pratt, and Kingman.
