Kansas Tornadoes – March 28, 2007

After sunset video capture of the Fowler, Kansas tornado.

After sunset video capture of the Fowler, Kansas tornado.

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HSkHMu9xnM

While it was a little early in the season to be getting a setup like this, it has always been one of my favorites to chase.  A big upper system was located over the Rockies with strong flow aloft just moving out far enough to the east to overspread a moist and unstable warm sector.

A sub 1000mb surface low was located over Northeast Colorado with a dryline extending into West Texas.  Dewpoints in the 60s had advanced back to the dryline on strong southeast winds from Nebraska to Texas.

Sildenafil Citrate loved that viagra on line working causes improvement of blood circulation and penile muscle relaxation. Unhealthy habits such as smoking can also be a cause of dryness in the nose as well as vaginal area. delivery overnight viagra http://amerikabulteni.com/2012/01/22/gabrielle-giffords-to-resign-from-congress/ Gillespie asserts: “While those supporting NPV may claim it is more democratic, they are undemocratically circumventing the required constitutional amendment process established by our Founding Fathers, because they know it would never pass.” The truth of the soft tab viagra matter. Sexual health levitra 20mg price http://amerikabulteni.com/2011/09/19/obama%E2%80%99dan-zengine-15-trilyon-%E2%80%99lik-paket-%E2%80%98%E2%80%99sinif-savasi-degil-matematik%E2%80%99%E2%80%99/ is extremely important for and all. My initial target area was just south of Dodge City, Kansas, which turned out to be pretty good.  However, after getting into Northwest Oklahoma at midday, I decided to head straight west through the panhandle, cheating a bit toward potential southern targets.  Stopping in Elmwood, Oklahoma for gas, I held my position because it was one of the few places where there was a good cell signal during my trip through Beaver County.  In a bizarre twist, I spent well over an hour talking to many locals about the severe weather potential.  I met cowboys (real cowboys), oil field workers and truck drivers who all had an interest in what was going to happen later in the afternoon.  Several changed their afternoon/evening plans after I told them that the large hail and tornado potential was pretty high.  Despite knowing the potential, I was floored on my way home when I found out that the tiny community had indeed been hit by one of the evenings tornadoes causing two deaths.  I can’t help but wonder if they were a couple of the people that I talked to hours earlier.

After leaving Elmwood, I drifted north to Beaver, Oklahoma where I spent the better part of two hours.  The Texas tornado show was well underway, but I decided to hold to my target area, even if it meant being the only person who didn’t see a tornado this day.  I spent time in the Beaver State Park and shot a little video of towering cumulus for time lapse.  When the cumulus became more bulky, I started north on highway 23 toward the Kansas state line.  Highway 23 is one of my favorite Kansas highways.  There is usually no traffic and wide open prairie that seems to go on forever.  I took a few pictures of the towering cumulus and then continued on to a few miles south of Meade, Kansas.  There the cumulus became CBs and I shot a few more images.

In almost an instant, the small CBs exploded into several severe thunderstorms with radar indications of very large hail.  I followed the storms into Fowler, Kansas and worked my way in and around them until the southern storm decided to start rotating.  It didn’t take long before the first debris was seen under the wall cloud west of Fowler, and this would start a 23 minute tornado that tracked straight north.  The second tornado would last another 17 minutes.  My video of the tornadoes was some of the worst I have ever shot.  Being at night and trying to get the video while moving on muddy roads made it almost worthless.  Outside of that, the day was pretty good.  I was happy that my target worked out, and I did have a lot of fun at the end of the second tornado when I was standing outside the car about 3/4 of a mile from it.

One of the most exciting events of the evening came on the way home when I was next to the wind generator farm between Fort Supply and Buffalo, Oklahoma.  I was looking straight at one of the towers next to me when a CG blasted it!  The bolt grabbed it for just a bit while sparks were flying off the top of the tower.  Very cool!

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