May 27, 2013: central Kansas storms and cloud acrobatics
May 27, 2013: I chased today with Greg Stephens, Dayna Vettese and Brad Rousseau, Mark Robinson and his crewmate Jaclyn Whittal, Scott McPartland, Dave Lewison, Bill Hark and Robert Balogh. We started our chase near Plainville, Kansas, choosing to ignore the messy rotating storm cluster to our north near the Nebraska border that eventually produced tornadoes. We split up during the chase, which was a fairly typical non-tornado chase - pretty storms but no major drama. Still, it made for interesting video, especially the mesmerizing time-lapse of the retreating aforementioned rotating storms at sunset.
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Pretty storms in central Kansas lead your photographer on a merry chase on May 27, 2013.
Click on the thumbnails to see a larger image.
Our group stopped near Plainville and watched the storms developing to the north while waiting for action in our target area in central Kansas. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com
So much of storm chasing is waiting. That's Scott, Dave and Bill looking into the car of Dayna, Brad and Greg. Robert's truck and The Weather Network vehicle with Mark and Jaclyn are behind them. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com
The convection picked up to the north near the Nebraska border, but since it wasn't isolated, we stuck to our guns. Later, tornadoes were reported in the mess to the north. Photo by Chris Kridler, SkyDiary.com, ChrisKridler.com
East of Plainville, Kansas, this convection looked pretty nice to me. Storms were going up everywhere. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com
I stop to look back west at the towers and convection. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com
While most of the group went south, I played a storm just to the north. Here I'm looking southeast at a hail shaft, south of Osborne, Kansas. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com
I chose instead to chase this storm. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com
It looked promising for a while, with rotation and an attempted wall cloud. Here I'm on Route 281 north of Luray and south of Osborne. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com
Pretty storm! Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com
I couldn't resist photographing the storm from Cawker City, where the World's Largest Ball of Twine is surrounded by ugly power poles and lines. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com
I could see both storms over Waconda Lake. Here's "mine," to the north of me, but between the rotating cluster and the southern storm. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com
Here's the one to the south that my friends targeted. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com
Since I was getting near the rotating mess north of my storm, which was being subsumed into it, I decided to check it out. There was broad rotation at my location. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com
I let it pass me by and watched the pretty convection building on the western end. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com
Ah, sunset - the balm for mediocre chase days. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com
The sunset lit up the strongly convecting tower on the west end of the tornadic storm cluster. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com
The mammatus were pretty nice, too. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com
The light changes as the sun sets on the mammatus clouds. Good evening, Kansas. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com
