Chase Day near Meade, Kansas
Beginning City: Childress, Texas
Ending, City: Goodland, Kansas
Total Miles Traveled: 555 for the day, 4482 for the trip
Written by Megan Matheus and Grant
Francis
The plan for our tenth
day on the trip was to drift northward from Childress, TX, and reevaluate in
Pampa, TX. The models showed an almost equal probability for storms to happen in
southwestern Kansas or in western Texas area that we had been chasing in for
several days. I think most of us hoped that storms would happen to the north so
we could chase in a new area after being in Texas for many days in a row.
Kansas looked probable
for storms when we evaluated around 11:30am, so we continued northward to
Liberal, KS, arriving around 1:00pm. A cell was firing just outside of the
city, so we followed it for about an hour. However, another cell just thirty
miles north of us looked more promising, so we decided to change course and
head north. We drove through Meade, TX, and started northward. Just as we left
town, Dr. Frye pointed us toward a lower part of the storm cell. When we crested a hill we saw a
large funnel on the ground: our first tornado! It occurred around 5:15 pm Central Time near Sublette, KS, about 15 miles from us. It likely did not hit anything, especially
since it was on the ground only briefly. But it was an adrenaline rush to see
one!
We got to see some
good hooks form on several supercells in the region, and we got good pictures
of text-book wall clouds and supercell thunderstorms. It was a very
successful chase day. We finished the day with a long drive to a hotel in
Goodland, KS, which is in the northwest corner of Kansas. Due to a late arrival to the hotel all we have is the write up for now. We will try to update in the morning before we head out with any pictures.
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