5/8/08 REPORT

Whew! I'm finally getting around to posting a report. I had initially targeted Liberal, KS as the dryline was just to the west and parameters looked pretty good for an isolated supercell in the area. I waited at a roadside park just to the NE of town. I noticed the cells going up in NW KS and I didn't really pay much attention. After about an hour or so with no convection in my area, I started getting a little nervous.

Looking at radar, the cell in NW KS was tornado warned and it had a pretty distinct hook on it. I still waited around Liberal for convection to fire. After a few more minutes, I said the heck with it. I began my journey to catch this lone supercell that was luckily heading my way via a SE motion. My initial plan was to intercept the storm N or NE of Dodge City. I hauled tail on US 54 up to Mead and then went north to US 56 and eventually on into Dodge City. I kept on track on US 54 and started seeing storm features near Spearville, KS. I stayed in this location for a while and then worked my way slowly up US 56. As I got just west of Kinsley, I started seeing large hail on the ground. Some of it was tennis to baseball size.

As I got just to the east of Kinsley, a wall cloud developed with some intense motion. I truly expected a tornado to form, but one never did. The inflow was extreme, with winds easily gusting to 70 mph. I went east a little more and saw a few power poles snapped. As luck would have it, I lost my internet connection near Lewis. I called off the chase at this time. As I headed back west, I lost visibility due to extremely heavy rain. I had to stop in the road a couple of times because the visibility was zero. All in all it was a pretty good chase. Here are some photos from the day's event.

PHOTO #1 DISTANT SUPERCELL TO THE NORTH AS I TRY TO CATCH IT
PHOTO #2 LARGE HAIL NEAR KINSLEY, KS
PHOTO #3 WALL CLOUD NEAR KINSLEY, KS