Kansas Vortex Blog

We spot a Gustnado

2011-04-07T11:15:00.000-07:00

A Gustnado left behind a path of minor damage near Perry, Kansas on Sunday afternoon.

Kent, Tammy, myself, and quite a few other storm chasers were on hand to wittness the event. It has been defined by the National Weather Service as a gustnado. A Gustnado is a small whirlwind that forms as an eddy in thunderstorm outflows. They do not connect with any cloud-base rotation and are not tornadoes.

This was the first Gustnado for us and it turned out to be a nice ending to a beautiful Sunday. After waiting west of Ottawa for most of the afternoon we were ready for some storms to start popping up, and they did.

KMBC t.v. reported they had found a damaged center pivot irrigation system just south of Williamstown, Kan., and also found a shed destroyed by the gustnado southeast of Williamstown. Parts of the shed were scattered in a nearby farm field.

We have pictures and video up on our site so take a look. http://www.kansasvortex.com/

Storm Chasing 5-19-10

2010-05-22T06:18:00.000-07:00

Just gettin' the Ford wound up!

Click on Pictures for full size view

The plan was to get out to OK City and then decide which way we needed to go. Southwest looked good as did north west. Both areas had the right ingredients for severe storms and both areas actually had tornadoes on the ground this day so we would have been good either way, but it looked like the northwest area was going to pop sooner so that's the direction we chose.

North bound I-135

We go north to Guthrie, Ok. and start hearing reports of some supercells building to the west. Time to top off the tank and get in the mix.

I couldn't squeeze that gas pump handle hard enough because this is what we could see just to our west and building fast.

We take off west towards Kingfisher, Ok. and see that we can get to a good intercept point a little north nearer Dover and Hennessey, Ok.. We got to Hennessey just as a funnel had gone over headed east towards Stillwell, Ok. The tornado sirens are still going off and people are taking cover because there's another reported funnel on the way. It was said to be rain-wrapped and hard to see.

We go east of Hennessey a few miles and start seeing rotations in several places, the clouds were really getting crazy.

The farther east we get, the more things are developing and headed right to Stillwell, Ok. . There's chasers everywhere and you could just feel the excitement in the air. Excitement may not be the best term because we are always aware that these storms can and often do become deadly and very destructive. We stopped one place for some pictures and video, had an excellent view to our east until this guy stopped right in front of us. He was lost and wanted directions, of course we didn't know anything around there so we were not much help.

Moving closer to Stillwell, we saw this funnel hanging down several miles ahead of us moving east also. It was visible for a few minutes before rain moved between us obscuring the view. Even though it was small and a few miles away, for us it was an exciting event as this is the first real funnel we have seen. Finally, almost the right place at the right time.

As we get into Stillwell, it becomes dark like night and the storm sirens are wailing all over town. Some chasers are reporting a large tornado moving near the outskirts of town. Reports were that this tornado was skipping along, briefly touching down and then lifting before touching again. As it moved past Stillwell it became rain wrapped but we could see the very dark core where it was located. It was moving parallel to our direction of travel about a half mile away. I got one good shot of it as we went through an intersection.

We went east and a little south to get out ahead of this monstrous cell. Looking back towards it, this is what we saw. A very well defined wall and just an awesome sight to see.

It gradually widen out before losing most of its energy. Of all the sights we observed on this chase, the rotating wall cloud was probably the most impressive. Here it is again as it's starting to come apart.

Before we left Stillwell, I managed to get this great shot of Dollar General. Like I said, it got really dark even though there was still over two hours of daylight left.

We went south intercepting a couple more cells but none that did much more than rain quite hard on us several times.

All in all it was an eventful day for Kansas Vortex, but like always, we were glad to finally get back on the turnpike and be headed home. We had time for one more Dollar General and then it time to get serious about the ride home.

It just poured on us the whole way to Tulsa, 30mph would have been a safe speed for the conditions but we were passed by many semi-trucks that had to be doing 70 - 80mph. Crazy, I know. I found one truck that was moving 45 or so and followed him in to Tulsa. We were treated to the most fantastic light show as we went north out of Tulsa, these storms were moving out to the east ahead of us and it was indeed a sight to remember. The trip was 621 miles in 13 1/2 hours, much of it driving in very adverse conditions.

Storm Chasing 5-12-10

2010-05-13T08:17:00.000-07:00

Made a quick trip to an area west of Wichita, KS. that had a active tornado watch.

Going through Wichita we were passed by two chasers so jumped in behind them. They were moving fast so had to really step on it to keep up. Don't think I've ever gone through Wichita on 400 hwy in such a short amount of time. How fast were we going? I can't tell!

We were headed towards Kingman, KS. where some other chasers were already at, but that threat expired before we cleared Wichita.

Near Goddard we turned north for about a mile and stopped for several minutes. A cell with strong rotation passed over and we could hear the tornado sirens going off in a town a couple miles away. We didn't see anything there and after visiting with the other chasers, who were from the local area, we heard about a funnel on the ground several miles south near Norwich, KS..

This is where the chase turned into quite the adventure. To get to where we needed to be, we had to go through this cell.

We punched through the rain core in probably the heaviest rain I've ever drove in. This is on a narrow paved county back road. The rain was just coming in sheets, the wind was whipping the trees all around us and the lightening was constant. Twice the lightening was so close that it sounded like the big cannon booms you'd hear at a fourth of July fireworks show. Both times the car shook and we could feel the sound inside our body. I only got one picture on this run through here, even though it was only six pm, it got black as midnight outside.

At one point I glanced at the speedometer and remarked that this was crazy, 65mph on this narrow road, but we were up to the task and the chase was on. Thanks to Sean O'Brien, owner of Tire & Wheel Co in Parsons, KS. for his helpful advise on the best tires for driving in wet conditions. Never once did I feel any hydroplaning or lose of control as we blasted through all that water. Finally after about 5 - 6 miles we came out the other side and the view was excellent.

However we were just a couple of minutes too late, a funnel that had been reported on the ground had just lifted about a mile from where we stopped. And then just in a flash, the temps dropped and the threat was over for the whole area. We stopped at another spot for some scenic shots and then it was homeward bound.

So another interesting chase for Kansas Vortex, One of these days we will be at the right spot at the right time to see some good tornado action, until then we'll just keep honing our skill and learning from the experiences we encounter.

Kent

Cell phone service.

2010-03-30T08:19:00.000-07:00

Last year we used AT&T for our wireless Internet and found ourselves with out any radar a good portion of the time. We are using an external antenna but continue to get kicked every ten minutes or so when roaming. Despite this we will still be going with AT&T for our mobile net connection only because my chase partner Kent is grandfathered in on an old data plan at a very,very low cost. The external antenna has given us a boost here in south east Kansas but it remains untested elsewhere. We are thinking about heading to north west Texas later this week if all the conditions are right. I guess that will be the real test for AT&T. You can check us out here..http://www.kansasvortex.com/tornado-chase.html

No tornadoes in February.

2010-03-03T19:05:00.000-08:00

According to the National Weather Service, there were no tornadoes reported during February 2010 - the first time since record keeping began in 1950. It will be interesting to see what happens in March and April. Some chasers are saying it is going to be a slow year and if the cooling trend continues they could be right.
http://www.kansasvortex.com/

Is it spring time yet?

2009-12-15T09:35:00.000-08:00

Here it is only the middle of December and I've already had enough of this cold weather. Here in SEK we've been seeing plenty of night time temps in the single digits. We haven't had any of the snow and ice like they've had further north but brrr it's cold. This is definitely a different weather pattern than what we have got accustomed to over the past several years.

Don't know what this means for the upcoming storm season but word is that it won't be nearly as active as some of the recent years have been. If so then we'll be traveling much farther to observe the severe storms when they happen. In the past there's been plenty of activity practically in our backyard, but things are changing.

We're really excited going into our third season, our storm chasing skills are improving and for the first time we'll be trying to broadcast with a live cam. My wife says she'll never watch it, cause her to worry too much. My dad says he'll watch every minute of it wishing he was with us. So if you fall in between there somewhere, stay tuned...we'll see how this goes.

Kansas Vortex Team

Looking for our first.

2009-11-06T17:51:00.000-08:00

We at http://www.kansasvortex.com/ have chased part time for two years now and have yet to film our first tornado. We have seen a lot of other chasers along the way including chase teams that were being filmed for television. The first time TIV1 came rolling past us we got very excited and wanted to fall in behind the convoy, letting the professionals lead us. However we knew that was not an option for us. We would run our own race, and eventually our goal of photographing a tornado will happen.

Waiting for spring.

2009-10-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

Winter is on it's way and that means a long wait for next year's storm season. I plan on getting my gear tuned up and ready to go before spring. Reading the storm chasing handbook (second edition) by Tim Vasquez, is also on my to do list. Even after reading it several times I continue to learn and hopefully improve my chasing skills. The book is very informative and well written. If you want to know about severe weather and the art of storm chasing this is a must read.