| Saturday, June 5:
Weak flow aloft continued this day thanks to the ridging over the Rockies,
but sfc dewpoints over SW KS were higher than yesterday as the weak boundary
over OK began lifting slowly northward. SW KS south to the TX Panhandle
looked good for a target, but it appeared that the convection would again initiate on the
higher terrain and by the time it made it to the deeper moisture, linear
storms would be underway. Still in Garden City, I chose to play the
area up by Hays, KS as the MCS debris had cleared out by late morning and
a weak cold front was sagging southward. If something went here,
it would likely start out cellular and have a better chance of putting
on a show given the low 60 dewpoints already in place. However, the main
kicker for me was the 15Z RUC progging higher low-level CAPEs up here than
around Liberal, so I caved. Now outside of Hays, I see a couple of sharp
anvils well to my southwest where I originally started (so much for initiation
on the higher terrain idea!), but a few sharp TCu start up just to my north
along the boundary so I remained in place. I chased the first Cb
up here about 20 miles NNE of Russell when it did what I was hoping...organize!
The cell did present a circular updraft at times (see 3rd image) but it failed to
maintain this structure early on. I ended up w/a nice non-rotating wall cloud and 1" stones later on before I
broke off at the 209 mile marker on I-70 thinking the show was over.
Now at the motel, ICT's radar is not showing this activity lining out but
turning right...straight to the south. D'oh! I gave up too soon
and missed out on two supercells as they drifted to near Hutchinson w/baseball
size hail and highly visible mesos. See here for Jon Davies' account. Oooh that hurts! |
