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March 12, 2006: Eastern KS
Myself and Roger Graham began the day off in Tulsa, where I work currently. We had high hopes for the day with a 100knt 500hPa shortwave moving into eastern Kansas and western Missouri. The morning observation and models runs indicated that the dryline and sfc low were still farther west than previously indicated. So we targeted Emporia, Kansas, which well west on our target the night before of Columbia, Missouri.
We left after seeing the 1630 outlook still fixed on Emporia. However, while driving north on US 75, some cells developed in Osage county. The bases seemed elevated and no sign of rotation could be seen. This was due in large part to the veered sfc winds across eastern Kansas. The only real backing winds were across the border in Missouri. We intercepted the southern cell of the group of storms in southcentral Kansas near Independence. We continued to flank eastern side for a bit. The problem was the storm motion on these storms was ~55mph. We slowly started flanking the cell to its south, then slowly to the west, playing catch-up. We ended up going north out of Fort Scott, Kansas...bad choice. There was a construction zone with no good east options. The supercell ended up about 15-20 miles to our northeast, pretty much out of range. The sad thing about that was that it was the supercell that went on through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, the "super-duper supercell!!" Oh well.
We bailed on that supercell to await a round two in southern Kansas. We headed back southwest to target Independence, Kansas. Before we made it back to Independence, round two had begun. I think we went north out of Chanute and began flanking these cells trying to stay out in front of them so we could have some visibility of a tornado if it formed. We followed these supercells to Fort Scott again, virtually the same path the first cells took. Again, elevated bases and not much rotation, so we called off the chase. After doing this, we heard Jeff Synder on the ham radio saying the same thing. So we hooked up with them and headed back to OUN,dodging the third round of supercells in southeastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma. Of course my threatnet decided not to work when we were trying to dodge rotating HP supercells. It was very exciting!
Well, to sum it all up, I was very disappointed with the day. I remember one key factor when chasing a day like this; It is almost impossible to chase supercells when 100knt 500hPa shortwave is the driving mechanism. I will definitely consider this next time (easy to say after a unsuccessful chase).
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