2012--Day 2

Day 2

Left Pratt, KS around 12:45 pm or so after a weather briefing with the idea of heading south toward Oklahoma, where there was a moderate risk of severe weather (wind and large hail the major threats).  Before we left, I got to see some nice wave clouds outside the hotel.

After making our way south on US 281 into Oklahoma, we headed west toward Woodward as storms started to fire in Texas.  There were others to the east, but they weren’t as ‘interesting,’  

Quite a frontal boundary extended across Kansas, with a 25 degree temperature difference between Russell to the north and Pratt to the south.

We continued west into Texas, where we attempted to get on the southwest side of a supercell that looked healthy.  Got to see some decent structure (anvil, lowering base, some minor mammatus), but after traveling down some county (read: dirt) roads, the storm petered out.  Sorry, only one picture (I was driving).

After giving up on this one, we headed back east toward Oklahoma on I40 toward Oklahoma City.  The Day 2 outlook has a slight risk of storms across the lower Mississippi Valley, which is outside our chase zone, so we made arrangements to tour the Storm Prediction Center in Norman on Thursday.  After a mediocre meal in Clinton (where we learned that one of the students really hates bugs) and a rowdy ride to OKC, we heard the EAS signal on the radio alerting us to a severe thunderstorm warning for the area we were heading for.  We arrived at the hotel around 11:45 pm CDT, just as the gust front pushed through the area (and yes, we felt it).  Just before we looked north in time to see a well-defined shelf cloud, which managed to be visible even in the dark. 

Final tally for the day: 522 miles, meaning we covered over 1000 miles in just the first two days.   

2012--Day 1

Day 1

Arrived without incident in Colorado.  At least this year I managed to get some sleep.  After picking up the van (starting mileage 3647), we finally started out on I70 toward Kansas around 3 pm local time.  Already a pretty raucous bunch, but that’s a good thing. 

One thing…our Chevy van has a VERY tight suspension—you feel every rut in the road.  Gotta be careful on the dirt roads.

We’re committed to Pratt, Kansas (about 470 miles from DIA) for tonight, which (hopefully) puts us in a good place for a moderate risk of severe weather on Wednesday.  Pratt is in south-central Kansas, about halfway between Wichita and Greensburg.  The latter was the site of a F5 tornado a few years ago, which basically leveled most of the town.  Our location should be good for Wednesday and Thursday, but it looks like the action later will be the Front Range, which means driving to Kansas/Oklahoma/Arkansas, and THEN back to pretty much where we started.

Passed through the town of Genoa, CO, where there was an actual sign that said ‘Point of Interest,’ but didn’t see anything interesting.  On the other hand, I swear I smelled salami while we drove through it (others did too).

Once we crossed into Kansas, all the kids hopped out of the car and took their pictures underneath the ‘Welcome to Kansas’ sign—never gets old.  The kids seemed genuinely excited.  Apparently I70 is the ‘Main Street of Kansas.’  While on Main Street we saw a section of newly paved highway with very crooked white lines—someone must be drinking their lunch (or breakfast).

While driving past a Kansas state trooper going well under the speed limit (75), I concocted a story about how Gustavo and I are pastors in a church group: The Church of the Vertical Rotation,  Our motto: we abhor CIN.

After a quick dinner in Colby and what felt like 49 hours of travel, we finally arrived in Pratt around 11:30 pm CDT while getting a distant lightning show to the southeast.  Final tally: 492 miles.  That’s a wrap!

Here we go again...

Well, it's Memorial Day weekend, and in just a few days the 2012 version of ESC 477 (Storm Chasing) begins.  Stay tuned for highlights!