Another Day of Heartbreaking Tornado Damage

As of 11pm, there are no reports of deaths in another day of tornadoes in densely populated areas. People literally owe their lives to meteorologists. 


Today was a day of multiple tornadoes over multiple states. Kansas was the hardest hit with two long-track tornadoes. You can scroll down if you wish to view some of the forecasts.
Red triangles = tornado reports
The more serious of the two occurred in northeast Kansas and northwest Missouri.

Kathleen and I chased the northeast Kansas tornado and, based on what we were hearing from the Topeka radio station to which we were listening, the field reports were helpful to other meteorologists. For example, I took, tagged and tweeted this funnel cloud photo (below) when the rotation was between Lyndon and Overbrook (lower left on map, above).

Like the Joplin Tornado, this tornado was rain-wrapped and nearly impossible to see. Here is what rain curtain containing the tornado looked like when it was near Lawrence. Photo taken looking north northeast.

Here is the tornado a few minutes later looking west. I added an arrow to denote the inflow area
Via Twitter
and I circled the (very low contrast) tornado. Fortunately, people had faith in the television weather coverage and the warnings from the NWS and took shelter even though they could not see it coming.

I listened to my friend Bryan Busby covering the weather on KMBZ-FM out of Kansas City and he was excellent. So was the meteorologist on WIBW in Topeka. I believe his name is Dave Holliday.

Like most tornadoes, this one had its share of oddities.


I'll have more tomorrow, including some spectacular photos of a storm over the Flint Hills.

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