09.16.10
Chase #27: Score!
Long story short, saw one tornado about a mile east of Mulvane, Kansas, on the Sedgwick County supercell.
I was chasing with Jeff Makowski…we didn’t leave Norman until 3:18pm, and watched the supercell blow up on our drive up I35. We saw this particular tornado at 6:52pm, from less than a mile southeast of the tornado. The funnel cloud in these photos was most of the way to the ground, and I do believe I saw some dust briefly kicked up underneath it.
We followed the storm to just northeast of Winfield, where we suddenly got hit by RFD. The CGs were so frequent and so incredibly close. We were driving south, away from the storm, but got hit by blinding rain and had to pull off the road into a driveway.
We decided to wait it out, as we could barely see the road and it was starting to hail. The biggest stone I saw fall was over golfball size…I’d estimate about or just over 2 inches in diameter. At this time we were hearing reports on the radio of rope tornado sightings about 5 NE Winfield and 12 NW Dexter…really close to where we were! (Too rainy and dark for us to see anything.)
The storm passed to our east, and we went on our way home. Here are a few of my photos…more to come later, once I catch up on web chase logs and photos! There was some incredible structure as well, though I have few good photos of it.
This was my first September and fall season tornado! This was also my first tornado in Kansas this year, and the 7th one I’ve seen this year.
John F. Hultquist said,
September 16, 2010 at 11:22 pm
Rebekah,
Years ago we taught summer school in Atlanta and when that was over we headed west. We were crossing OK and detoured into the capitol area to look at the oil derricks. I think it was shortly after that when we were back on the highway there was a storm with rain so heavy we had to pull over and did so under an overpass. We went on when we could see again. We were on the road for about 3 weeks after that and it being before cell phones, laptops and all the other stuff you have grown up with (including much better understanding of such storms), we then returned to a small town in northern ID.; we never knew any more about the storm. Maybe that was just as well.
Stay safe. John