Wednesday greetings to all! We arrived back in Wichita, Kansas around 1:30 am this morning after a day long trip out to the rolling plains of western Oklahoma-not far from the Texas Panhandle. There, the terrain rolls gently and wheat fields extend to the horizon in all directions. What an amazing place from which to watch the weather! It's really quite beautiful!
A tornado watch had been posted by the time we arrived Tuesday afternoon and towering cumulonimbus clouds would indeed breach the day's storm and cloud-thwarting cap and anvil out before the day was out. The air was humid and warm--seemingly supportive of the storm development which occurred. The amazing thing in that part of the country is the absolutely unobstructed view one has of any storms which form. But in the end, while severe severe weather warnings were issued in response to several of the more energetic thunderstorms which formed, overall, the day remained comparatively quiet. It was quite surprising to us that more lightning wasn't visible from some of the distant storms. We had thought--and frankly anticipated-- we might see quite a lightning show at one point. That never happened.
After spending the day and evening surveying that area, and after feeding our evening report back to Chicago by way of our satellite truck, our WGN team began the long trip back to Wichita in the late night darkness Tuesday evening.
We had been so busy all day, we hadn't taken time to eat, other than for the snacks producer Pam Grimes had fortunately assembled for the trip, and were hungry for something more substantial to eat. We ended up stopping at a Sonic restaurant where we encountered a whole group of storm chasers who pulled in after their own long day on the road. The group included Reid Timmer, who is widely known from his storm chasing episodes which air on the
Discovery Channel. What a nice group! There is amazing comaradery among the storm chase community and it was evident as all of us talked and exchanged stories on how things had gone that day and offered glimpses of the thinking on what might be ahead. That group had apparently made their way to this region of western Oklahoma much as we had with the expectation of monitoring any storm development which might occur.
Though the evening's storm evolution ended up following its own course--nature has a mind of its own, even in this era of spectacular computer models and observational tools--- there had actually been good reason to believe the region was an area in which storm development might take take off in Tuesday's evening hours--and we did see and photograph some spectacular towering thunderstorms which included stunning anvils (the fan-out of the cloud tops which occurs as a storm's updrafts reach the top of the troposphere, through which temps drop with height, then spread out horizontally in a vast shield of ice crystals as the rising air encounters the warming temps of the stratosphere (the next layer up as parcels ascend through the atmosphere).
CAPES, an energy measure, had soared to 5,000 j/kg--amazingly high values which suggested that any trend toward storm development might well become fairly explosive. The region was also juxta-positioned with the dry line and just west of the axis of the strongest low level southerly winds. That's a region of "speed convergence" in the atmosphere--where fast winds encounter slow moving air and a pile-up takes place which encourages upwelling of the air--a critical step in storm development. Upper air forecasts off our models had indicated jet stream winds were diverging over the region and that instability (the rate at which temps cool with height) was high. All the ingredients appeared in place. But the atmosphere doesn't always respond as one assumes it will--and that was the case Tuesday. There are triggers--or in this case, a lack of critical atmospheric triggers---required to contribute that final critical "kick" to initiate storm formation--- that aren't always easy to measure. Nature still possesses its mysteries!
We are to meet soon this morning with our storm chase leader Jim Reid and plan strategy for the day ahead. This area (Wichita) of southern Kansas is outlooked for possible severe weather development this afternoon and tonight--but so are nearby areas of Oklahoma and Missouri which are within driving distance. We will satellite a report back to Chicago for the WGN Midday News and be heading off!
Check in here when you can! We keep you posted on developments here in the field. We intend to be on the road traveling where any storms that develop take us. It's good having you with us!
Tom Skilling
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