March 23 2009 Central Kansas

A dynamic early season system ejected into the central plains on Monday, March 23rd. Moisture was going to prove to be the big difference maker with this one, but I had the week off so I decided to bite the bullet and give it a shot when I otherwise might pass. Tia and I gassed up and left town around 6:30 PM on Sunday and arrived at Dick McGowan's place in Olathe, KS around 1 AM on Monday morning. We discussed the night's weather models before heading to bed for a 9 AM wake up. Checking the morning data, things were still falling into place, aside from adequate moisture return. Overnight showers along the warm front had exited the area allowing for extensive surface heating with temperatures quickly warming into the mid 70's in the warm sector.  A moderate risk for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes was in place in our target area of south central Kansas. It looked as if convection made hold off until later in the afternoon, so I did not hurry out the door even though towers were already increasing along the dryline around 11 AM. I left McGowan's place in Olathe around noon, heading west for Interstate 135,  with an initial target of Salina. I had an overall target of Wichita, but with the fear that storms may not fire that far south along the dryline until later, I targeted further north for earlier convection with the option to dive south for better storms if and when they formed. This was not the case however, as I did not bother running data for whatever reason until about an hour down Interstate 70 when I had Tia fire up the laptop, only to find intense convection already firing along the dryline across Kansas into northern Oklahoma. I decided I needed to dive south as soon as possible for storms in southern Kansas as they may have the best chance for tornadic activity with the better moisture still being that direction. Storms were struggling to organize, so we stopped for fuel and a quick bite at Subway in Junction City. While eating I watched a supercell quickly organize to my southwest. The surface winds were REALLY howling out of the south now, actually blowing the cover off the huge Subway sign and wrapping it around the gas station canopy outside. Power was also briefly cut out in the Subway while we finished eating. I decided I'd drop south along Highway 77 and intercept the supercell in progress, and ditch it if it did not get it's act together for further south storms. The supercell initially weakened considerably, but since it was my best bet and I was already in position for intercept I decided to pull off on a dirt road and watch for a bit. I noticed convection on the updraft of the storm rapidly transition from a whispy appearance, to hard cauliflower like convection with a new hard anvil. Sure enough, radar appearance rapidly intensified and regained supercell structures. I pulled out and headed back north on 77 to get ahead of the supercell as the rain free base came into view. A large area of scud quickly was sucked into the base and a wall cloud developed on our storm. Coming into Herington, Kansas it became apparent we did have some rotation in the wall cloud. I approached a black Ford Mustang on the side of the highway and knew who that would be, so I quickly pulled over and gave a quick hello to Mike Hollingshead as we discussed the annoying storm motions and lack of moisture for the day. It became apparent we needed to keep moving north to stay with the supercell so I hopped back in my car and we raced north along side the storm. Give another me a 60F dewpoint over our current 55F and I'd guess this storm puts down a tornado, but it just didn't have what it took. While exhibiting some rotation, an RFD attempted to pull around and tightened things up briefly but the storm quickly accelerated northward leaving me in it's dust, before eventually falling apart in north east Kansas. I stopped for a bit to check out data, and while the storms to the south were not super impressive it was the only shot. I was asked afterward why I didn't drop south faster, but with the option now to just head back to Illinois at a decent hour, or commit south to an environment that was not any better than the one that did not produce further north and likely delay the trip home to the next day, it was not a very tempting trip. I finally decided I was out there already, so I might as well poke around. One supercell had gone tornado warned in far southern Kansas, so I made a plot to intercept it near El Dorado. I blasted through El Dorado, and actually picked up the supercell near Fall River. It had a decent lowered base and wall cloud, but it became apparent that while the supercell as a whole exhibited some rotation that it was not making it to the lower levels on a small scale. Another RFD wrapped around, briefly tightening things up again, but things quickly went downhill from there. The best storms were again, to my south, and I was not falling for it again. The only tornadoes reported during the day were of the dust poof variety, and it wasn't worth strapping on rocket boosters and plunging south for, so I headed back north. I stupidly picked a tiny gravel road to take me back north to Highway 54. After a 30 minute trip sliding all over the place, I am one mile from Highway 54 before my road becomes a river. Not a river, as in standing water on the road. It literally went down a hill, and into a running river. Not sure what happened there. What I did know was that I had to backtrack a couple miles back south to the only other option to get to 54 without dropping back the entire 30 minute journey to an alternate highway. Another thing I knew was that this tiny road was not big enough for a three point turn around, so I would be driving in reverse for the next 1/2 mile until the sides of the road were not too steep for such a maneuver. I briefly tossed around the idea of marathoning back to Illinois with a 4 AM return time, but opted for safety first since I was in no hurry to chase the forecasted garbage in Illinois the next day and arrived back at Dick's place in Olathe around midnight. Dick and I shot the breeze for an hour or so before passing out. Hit the road around 9 AM and was back in Champaign around 4 PM on Tuesday, beating the nice wall of rain back home.

Video of the two supercells near Herington and Fall River.