23 May 2008

Ryan and I left GBD (with his son) with the expectation of a big tornado day. Significant tornadoes were possible along the warm front near I-70, and in the open warm sector across SW KS later in the evening. Unfortunately, we wavered on our strategy, driving to DDC, then cutting N to Wakeeney along I-70. This cost us the spectacular tornado near Quinter, but we got in position to intercept the next supercell. Another mistake followed as we attempted to navigate the dirt/mud roads S of I-70, and wasted much of our good positioning. We scrambled back to I-70 and made a direct approach to the supercell from the E. A large tornado came into view, then we hit a police road block! That was the end of that storm for us. Dejected, we targeted another supercell moving toward Ness City and Ellis. Just as we got optimistic and approached from the N and E, the storm started to struggle with outflow. The storm apparently produced a tornado while we were watching, but we couldn't see it. We let the rain-wrapping mesocyclone go to our N because the hook crossed hwy 147, and it later produced a tornado near Ellis at dark (where we were earlier!). A lack of data and poor visibility hampered our decision making, and we eventually settled on a second storm moving toward Brownell. This storm never threatened to produce a tornado, so we agreed to limp back to GBD for the night. We dropped off Ryan's son and then made a hasty intercept of another supercell moving S of GBD from the Greensburg area. The last tornado with this storm was reported as we watched from 8 miles to its ENE, but LTG was not cooperative and there were no power flashes. The storm fizzled as it reached hwy 56 near Ellinwood. A quick "dinner" stop in Lyons left us with one last gasp possibility - the southern supercell moving toward HUT. We ended up driving S through the eastern part of the forward flank core (with good radar data the whole way), and emerged a few miles NE of the mesocyclone. Visibility was terrible, and the best LTG consisted of a strike to a tree about 100-200 ft to our S near Partridge! Needless to say, we never left the car, and decided it was pointless to continue in the darkness as the supercell merged with a line and hammered HUT. All in all, an extremely frustrating day.