Comments (0) Departed with Blair for a single-day chase across the High Plains of New Mexico. We observed a supercell with some decent structure at times north of Roswell. However, this ended up being the storm that didn’t produce a tornado. We followed the storm along Highway 70 before it quickly weakened about one hour before sunset.
Got a late start on the day as initial convection developed near DDC prior to 18Z. Initial target was near the anticipated llvl moisture tongue beneath the upper level cold core near the KS/OK border (just north of Alva, OK). However while en route near ICT, a small storm developed about 30 miles to the north near Mt. Hope. Since this storm was so close and theoretically within a similar atmospheric environment, I decided to take a look. My intial view revealed a fairly robust updraft tower as the low topped convection propaged north along a residual boundary. Met up with Blair just north of Burrton where we briefly observed benign llvl structure. With little overall motion beneath the updraft region, we decided to sample the hail size within the core. We positioned along CR785 about 8 miles N of Burrton where we observed copious amounts of nickel to quarter sized hail as the storm intensified over our location. We continued to observe and measure up to 1″ hail near the intersection of CR556 and CR785.
Interesting forecast challenge in anticipation of this event as two potential targets seemed intriguing. The first area was near the occluding surface low west of ICT where significant low level vorticity was maximized beneath the upper level cold core. The second being near the nose of the dryline bulge where overall steep lapse rates were still in place along with higher llvl moisture values. Met up with Blair and decided to play the dryline option near Sedan, KS. We quickly got on developing convection along the KS/OK border, east of Arkansas City. This storm soon began to take on decent structure with rain-free base, large core, and occasional wall cloud development near Cedar Vale, KS to Grenola, KS. However, new upstream convection ingested into the storm disrupting its organization. The remainder of the convection this day struggled and quickly became outflow dominant.
This day took me by surprise as a relaxing evening before a midnight shift was soon interupted by freuquent rumbles of thunder. I glanced outside to observe vivid white CGs and quickly headed out the door to some familiar foregrounds. The high based convection soon overtook my position so I relocated along MO Hwy 7, just south of MO Hwy. 50. The lightning frequency had diminished somewhat from the early activity, however there were enough visible strikes for a few keeper stills.
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