3/7/05 REPORTS: Kansas

[Brian Emfinger]

I wasnt 100% sure this one should go here since there was already a thread under weather and forecasting.

Kinda like mike i was actually heading home but only got as far as arkansas city when all the cu i had been looking at for nearly two hours finally started intesifiying...after sunset of course. Oh well at least i saw something for my 700 miles of effort!

this is how they started...taken right after sunset along ks/ok border on hwy 177
http://realclearwx.com/images/370601.jpg

lightning from the strong storm that moved off I-35 to Wellington taken from just north of arkansas city
http://realclearwx.com/images/370602.jpg

this storm split off the storm that hit enid and ponca city and ran north...
http://realclearwx.com/images/370603.jpg
http://realclearwx.com/images/370604.jpg

[John Diel]

I was in the local NWS Spotter class as the watch was issued. Oh boy wasn't that fun! All of a sudden pagers and phones started going off and it was pandemonium in the hall!!!!

Anyway, my "chase" started about 8:45 pm from Tonkawa to the SVR warned cell NE of Enid. Being that it was indeed dark and I was certainly on the wrong side of this storm (Ahead of it driving into it) I really couldn't see much. Lot's of moderate rain (certainly needed!) and some serious CG Lightning. I posted myself at the junction of OK 74 and OK 15 deciding whether to run after the cell to the north that would move in to Kansas later or stick with the cell that was moving at me at a rapid pace. The storm decided for me.

After looking at the radar loops (after I got home), I found the Billings cell had dropped in intensity rapidly, passed over Billings, and started to intensify again on crossing I-35. By the time I realized what had happened, it was pretty well over for me and though I tried to play catch up, the construction on I-35 slowed me down.

It was an impressive cell that I could see from the backside on US 60 with a nice solid updraft lit by lightning.

Unfortunately, I did not take the camera with me so I missed the "good" shots. My chase ended about 10:30 p.m. arriving at home with way more work to get done before morning than I had time to do.