KSStorm Blog

The girls and I went to Pratt yesterday because Mom’s computer needed fixing. The first storms of the day happened to form over our head. After they moved east, we decided to start for home. But as we cleared the east edge of town, I saw what appeared to be a wall cloud hanging down from the storms that were south and west of Pratt.

It took a few miles to decide to at least try and get closer to confirm or deny my initial impression. These are a few shots taken when we got stopped, at the corner where K-42 meets the Cairo-Isabel Road (100th East in Pratt county).

Looking NW about 3 miles.

This has a somewhat wall cloud appearance to it. But a careful look shows it’s an optical illusion…this cloud is not attached to the could behind it. It’s a tail cloud, the moisture being pulled into the storm. The rain is to the left out of the photo.

Looking West Toward Sawyer

This view is about 45 degrees counter-clockwise from the one above. I’m looking due West. Now the rain shaft is to my right. You can also see the moisture being pulled into the southernmost part of the storm.

Looking due South

The grain elevator on the left is Isabel. We left just a couple of minutes after this photo. As we drove north, we experienced peak winds of about 45 miles an hour, maybe 50.

An interesting phenomenon — as the rain was blown across the road it was being pushed fast enough that it appeared to be clearing the east ditch and going directly into the adjacent corn field. I’ve never seen that before, so far as I remember. Unfortunately, there was too much water being blown across the windshield at the moment to take a photo, and I wasn’t about to stop in essentially zero visibility.

Not bad results for a chase decision made only 40 minutes earlier, and with no other data than my eyes and the radar on the cell phone. The camera in my HTC Incredible — wow…I can’t believe these are cell phone photos.

I was headed out of town and some storms southwest of Wichita went severe, so I decided on a brief chase. Grabbed this video of a cloud that briefly looked like it might produce. It didn’t.

Looking N into Nebraska from about 25 mi. S of Seneca, KS

Other than the vehicles in the parking lot changing, this has been our view for the best couple of hours. Those who think chasing is all excitement ought to be here right now! This is almost as fun as the day Nolan and I streamed video of a beer sign and an oil storage tank for 3 hours. We’re still hopeful the day will be a bit more eventful than THAT one was!

Severe storms with winds reported as high as 70mph rolled through Iola, KS about 8:45 this morning. The damage photos below were taken between 3 and 4 pm.

The front of this building identifies it as ReadyBrake, but we also saw M&W Manufacturing on one of the vehicles, which is what Google Maps identifies the property as. It is just northeast of Kentucky & US 54. This view is from the northwest.

This is Michaels Truck Service, located east of the building above on US 54. Viewed from Monroe Street, to the North of the property.

Also at Michaels, on the northeast corner of the property about 100 feet from Madison St.

This home is at the corner of US 54 and Oak St. Viewed from the West. Tree looked pretty hollow in the base, but was leafing out, so it was still alive.

This pole and transformer were down in an alley just SW of Allen County Hospital. A gazebo on the hospital property, about this far directly behind me, was undamaged. We saw no damage on the hospital property.

I don’t remember the exact location of this tree, but it is within the larger box on the map below. View is from the North, through the windshield. The property is on the east side of the street.

These are the two primary damage areas we saw. We did not drive every part of town.