Last Night's Freakish Storms in Kansas

By -
Those of us who live in the Great Plains hear that fairly often in the summer. Since we can see storms (literally) hundreds of miles away we can see more weather than we can actually experience.

But, for The Smith House, the weather really has been going all around us the last two weeks. I thought we had a decent chance of a thunderstorm last night.
Curses, foiled again! Very nice rains occurred in southwest Kansas but our home was missed completely.

Now, look at the last week. It really has rained everywhere but my house! According to my rain gauge, we have had a "trace."

Congratulations to northern and southwest Kansas on getting some badly needed rain. 

But, speaking of southwest Kansas, winds of 100 mph caused quite a bit of damage from southwest of Dodge City to just west of Greensburg last night.

Here is what the storm looked like. The yellow polygon is the severe thunderstorm warning issued by the National Weather Service in Dodge City. The thin blue line from Minneola to Bucklin is U.S. 54

We switch from the conventional radar image to the Doppler wind image.
The almost white under the "a" in Minneola is where cars and semis were blown off U.S. 54 (near the small town of Bloom, KS), grain bins blown over, windows at a home blown out, power lines down, etc. Winds were estimated to 100 mph which is confirmed by the wind sensed by the radar. On the north side of the storm (bluish colors), the wind gusted to 62 mph at the Dodge City NWS northeast of town.

By about 10:15 last night, the radar was sending winds just over 115 mph (!) just about the ground in a very rural area north of Bucklin. I marked the speed on the scale of 51.5 meters per second (meteorologists use the metric system amongst ourselves) which is just over 115 mph. I doubt the wind was quite that strong at ground level but the winds were still causing damage at this time.

Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 4, 2012 at 2:29 PM

    I know how you feel. My guage has not seen measurable rain in 60 days but the rest of the area has been at least grazed by an isolated cell.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hilary's Forecast Path Shifts West; Updated 9:20am PDT

By -
Image
The forecast path of the center of Hilary has shifted a bit to the west. This increases the threat to the Southland, especially in terms of flooding.  Rainfall Note the heavy rains are forecast for Los Angeles County. Serious flash flooding may result. Because the forecast path has shifted to the west, that increases the threat of serious flooding in Los Angeles County north into Yosemite and the southern Sierra. It lessens the threat in Utah and western Arizona. While the threat of widespread flooding in Utah and Arizona lessens, note that some thunderstorms with localized heavy rain show up on the map.  In Nevada, the more western path increases the risk of serious flooding around Mt Charleston and into the central part of the state.  Here is the updated  (9am PDT) flash flood risk map. Wind There are already about 40,000 people without power in California, mostly in the center of the state.  The maps above are the peak gusts forecasted with the storm. The highest winds, in general,
Read more

Dangerous Travel Conditions - People Reportedly Stranded

By -
Image
-- Note, more current info available. Scroll up. --- Updated Information as of 8am PDT You are risking your life if you attempt to travel through the purple area.  While the rain has not begun in coastal California, I would urge you to use this time to make any preparations. Power outages have occurred already in southeast California. Here is the latest radar as of 7:55am PDT. As of 6:40am PDT , the radar indicates moderate to heavy rain falling over desert areas of Southern California and far western Arizona (click to enlarge).  Rainfall amounts for the 24 hours ending at 7am PDT show more than two inches have already fallen. There are reports from reliable sources that roads are already washed out and that people are stranded in isolated parts of the desert.  Below is a high-resolution computer model's rainfall forecast from 5am PDT to 11pm PDT Sunday. More than a foot of additional rain is forecast to fall. This will lead to catastrophic flooding.  Here is a map of current watc
Read more

Update on Tornado and Wind Potential; 12 Noon PDT

By -
Image
There was at least one tornado and at least one funnel cloud yesterday.  --- original forecast --- Hilary (the swirly symbol) continues to move NNW paralleling the coast of Baja California, Mexico. The area outlined in red has a significant risk of tornadoe s the rest of the afternoon.  Below is a list of peak wind gusts so far.  Peak winds may increase farther north as the afternoon progresses.  Addition at 12 noon PDT: Sure enough, winds have increased.  Note: If you are in the San Diego area, I recommend not  traveling east on I-8. Heavy rains may cause flash flooding that will involve the highway. 
Read more