June
2, 2005 Storm Chase | Disenchantment in SW KS
All
photos © Copyright 2005 Matt Ziebell
What an upsetting
day this turned out to be--so upsetting that I chose this as my last
log to write from the season. The chase ended up being a soft bust
in my book (i.e. able to witness a storm from a reasonable distance), but
it sure felt like a hard bust when the day was over and I found myself back
where I started! In a nutshell, two definite chase targets existed
today. The first being in an upslope regime in E CO ahead of a postively
tilted trough in the N Rockies and the second target of interest was near
a mesolow and progged dryline bulge in southwest KS. I started the
day in Liberal, KS and made a decision to head NW towards Lamar, CO to
play a middleground of sorts between both areas. I stopped for data
along the way at several wi-fi spots in places like Johnson City and Syracuse,
KS. By early afternoon, the data showed a mesolow in far SE CO with
a tightening dryline as daytime mixing wore on. The problem down
here was a firm cap progged by the models while further NW in CO the problem
became limited moisture close to the terrain where initiation would occur.
I continued on to Lamar and then waited, and waited, worked on my tan (!),
and waited some more. At 1540 MDT, the vis satellite showed a narrow
band of enhanced Cu growth along the dryline bulge to my SE (note: these
fired just ahead of the Ci shield spilling over the STJ ridge...probably
just a coincidence w/max daytime heating/mixing as no jet max existed on profilers, or perhaps the Ci shadows provided a thermally direct circulation along the leading edge?). At that point the
chase was on! I said goodbye to the Frontrange and shot south and
east for Johnson City. Looking back, I think sub-consciously I wanted
SW KS to go big time, hence my caving so easily after seeing the satellite.
While driving towards
the KS border my decision was reassured when I saw a crisp anvil take shape
~60mi to my SE. My adrenaline was really flowing by this point and
soon I overheard a SVR warning for this cell. A short while later
that warning was upgraded to a TOR warning after a confirmed funnel cloud
was observed. Among the cities included in this warning was Hugoton.
Now it may have been the intense subsidence and heat behind the dryline,
but for some odd reason or another I was having visions of May 5, 1993
when I heard that city! I was able to close to within 15mi of this
supercell around 1800 CDT when I noticed by this point it was a struggling
LP supercell. I was still to the west of the cell, but slowly the
convection softened, the towers faded, and reality sunk in - this chase
was over. All along the dryline to my west, turkey towers shot up
and collapsed in cycles trying to overcome dry air entrainment, the Ci
shield aloft, and the local inversion. I was worn out by this point
and wondered what was going on back in CO. After watching all the
turkey towers evaporate, I headed back to Liberal for a motel (where I
started today...ungghh) and a check of the data to see what, if anything,
went today. Well, the Frontrange did go, specifically about 80mi
northwest of Lamar in the diffluent upper flow. Oh well, it was a
beautiful HP supercell that several other chasers were able to document
up there. Honestly, I enjoy looking at other chaser's photos from
days like these when I chose to go the other way and busted. Today's
lesson: No matter how much data you have access to, you can and will still
bust!
|
The
image that convinced me to shoot SE
|
Doesn't
look bad at all here, but it will soon
|
Struggling
LP supercell - after funnel cloud
|
Turkey
towers under Ci shield
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