26 April 1999
Southcentral
Kansas tornadoes
26 April 1999
The photographer was located about 4 miles northeast of Pratt at 30495 NE30th Ave. These pictures were taken about 8:15PM on 26 April 1999. Note: to the left of the picture is east and to the right is south. The event lasted a couple of minutes and then slowly rose back in to the cloud layer.
Pre-chase forecast discussion:
Date: 26 April 1999
Time: 18Z (1pm CDT)Discussion:
Heading out on the first chase of the year! Target area: P28
Overall pattern doesn't look favorable for tornadic events, but certainly some severe hail possible.
From everything I've looked at this morning, and here at the noon hour, area over NW OK/SC KS starting to look interesting, especially in the P28 area. For the last 2 hours, the Short Fuse Composite from DDC has shown this area to be destabilizing in the area of decreasing clouds and moisture convergence ahead of dryline in WRN OK. KICT also showing outflow boundary has pushed through P28. Cap strength is minimal, and with approach of cool pool aloft (-18 to -21 deg. C) and PVA, area looks prime for what Roger "Rogelio" Edwards would call "mushy, multicell pile of crap!" convection.
Area profilers aren't too promising with the wind fields, but with numerous boundaries in the area, and the aforemetioned cold pool, I'm wondering if some mini-supercells aren't possible. Jon Davies has written a couple of articles in Storm Track about these storms. We'll have to see if this is again the case with today's scenario.
The Chase:
I left ICT just after 1pm on this afternoon. I wasn't too optimistic about the chances of seeing anything good, but hey, it was an off-day for me, so what the heck? I arrived at my target area of Medicine Lodge (P28) around 2:43pm, but I was still in a broken, low level cloud deck, so I decided to push on southward into OK. Just before arriving in Hardtner, KS, I clicked a few pictures of some developing convection to my SW, but these (and many other subsequent updraft attempts) turned out to be "orphan anvils." After stopping about a mile south of the KS/OK border, I took some more pictures of the weak attempts. Around 3:45pm, I decided to head farther south into OK, arriving in Alva, OK just a little after 4pm.
For the next hour and 15 minutes, I set up camp 3-4 miles W of Alva, then about 1 mile W when one of those orphan anvils starting dropping some rain on me. However, the best sustained, but still weak-looking convection was to my south. The storm base seemed a little high, and there was a little precip falling out of the storm, but overall the appearance was rather putrid. Around 5:20pm, I decided to head south and west toward these towers, just to get a closer view. I took a county road to Avard, OK, then west to OK-14. Around 5:40pm, as I closed in on 14, I noticed a small, thin protrusion hanging from the base of the cloud. I turned south on 14 and sure enough, there was this little, persistent needle-shaped funnel! It was about 1/2 way down and had that "landspout" appearance to it, with a sheath enveloping the main, small funnel. Still driving, I clicked three pictures of the funnel (hope they turn out!). Around 5:45pm, the funnel was gone, but the storm was still in front of me.
I made it through the "maze in the roads", better known as Waynoka, OK about 5:50pm, and continued south on US-281. Roughly 3-4 miles south of Waynoka, I met up with Fritz Kruse, a forecaster from WSFO DDC. He was accompanied by a Malaysian film crew, and had also seen the funnel. In fact, they got some close-up video and stills of the event (they were much closer!). As we sat along the side of the road and chatted, the updraft acheived a little more vigor, and it really started to explode! Soon, we had a warning for this storm to our SE, but it's visual appearance wasn't anything to write home about, that's for sure! I took a number of pictures of this storm as it was going through its life cycle.
A little after 7pm, we noticed development to our north, in KS. We headed back north of Waynoka, and stopped for some pictures.
Fritz and the film crew were setting up some shots, and I thanked them for their help, and went on my own way, intent on seeing the KS storms on my way home.About 8:20pm, I arrived back in KS, and had caught the Severe Thunderstorm Warnings for this storm, over on the radio, and through my pager. Visually, they didn't look too bad, but certainly nothing extraordinary.
At 8:35pm, I pulled over to the side of the road to watch some of the show and to get some information over the radio. The storms stretched from SE to NE, and there were some mammatus clouds on the NW side of the anvil. It appeared I'd be able to make it to P28 just in time for the storm to slide to my southeast. I departed the site, and continued north on US-281.
However, I would not be prepared for what I saw at 8:45pm. I was about 10 miles S of P28 and as I crested a hill, another flash of lightning illuminated a "feature" to my NE. I blinked, shook my head, and looked again. Could it be? Another flash. Between the lightning and the last remaining ounces of twilight, I could see a tornado! It assumed a classic, elephant's trunk appearance, much like the Clearwater, KS tornado of 16 May 1991, except maybe a bit thinner. I grabbed my cell phone and found a place along the road to pull over. Just as I stopped the truck, KFDI came on with the Tornado Warning. Spotters and the public reported this tornado to my NE, which I could certainly confirm! I called work and told them I could see the tornado clearly! After watching the tornado for a few minutes, I continued north to the next intersection, so I could find out exactly where I was located.
I made it to 1400 SE Sumac/US 281 at 8:54pm. (my approximate location is the red "x" below)
By this time, all I could make out was a large, wall cloud to my NE, just to the east of P28 and just northwest of Sharon, KS. (Sidenote: Sharon is the childhood home of Martina McBride, for all of you country fans out there.) Lightning was still frequent, but I couldn't see anything on the ground. I called work again and let them know what I was seeing. At 9pm, I left the location, and headed back south, hoping to reach K-2 and then go east in hopes of intercepting the storm again. As I drove south, I heard my (now former) boss on KFDI relaying my report, and explaining to listeners what the radar was showing.
After reaching K-2, and making it to Kiowa, KS, I headed NE out of Kiowa. I stopped at the K-2/Rattlesnake Trail intersection around 9:20pm. The wall cloud was still there, just to the right of the road, which runs from SW-NE in this area. The lowering was illuminated by occasional lightning but only once could I see a point from where I was located. Man, I hate chasing at night!
Another call to work ensued, and they wanted to set up a live report for the 10pm newscast. We did that, and I continued to watch the storm. After the "up weather" segment, I left the spot and headed NE, back towards ICT. Just east of Midway, and west of the K-2/SW 80 Ave. junction, I encountered the remains of the hail swath. Drifts of hail had collected along each side of the road, and I took a few pictures. I found numerous hailstones that were 1" to 1 1/4", a good 30-50 minutes after the event!
About this time, I met Perry Lambert, a spotter/chaser from the ICT area. He said he had been even closer to the tornado and managed to snap some photos of his own. Unfortunately, they did not turn out.
On the drive home to ICT, I called my chase partner Matt Foster, who was getting ready for a midnight shift at WSFO SHV. I made it home just after midnight, with 325.4 miles on the Ranger. What a day! I had not expected to see a tornado this day, but you won't hear me complain! I then engaged in an internet chat sesssion with another chase guru Kevin Polston. Kevin was quite happy with how my chase turned out!
Post chase discussion:
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 19:23:26 -0000
From: Rodney Price <old email address>
Subject: P28 tornado of 26 April 1999I won't waste the bandwidth here with my account, but if you'd like to read
about my chase of the Medicine Lodge, KS tornado last night (4/26), head to
my homepage:(AUTHOR'S NOTE: I make a reference to an old URL.)
I hope to add pictures and other images sometime soon, but for now, this is
the best I can do.Enjoy!
Rodney Price
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At 07:17 PM 4/27/99 -0000, Rodney Price wrote:
>Bored? Then head to my homepage to read my account of the Medicine Lodge
>tornado that I witnessed last night. Quite an interesting chase, and
>definitely not what I was expecting when I left the house yesterday
>afternoon.
>Classic! Way to go Rodney. Another classic case of the cold pool
mini-supercells. I was watching the western OK mini-supercell spinning
like a top on radar, wishing I was there. The P28 cell developed near
sunset if I remember right, northwest of P28. Just looking at archived
data, these cells were right under the coldest contour of H5 temps <-20C>,
and there was still sufficient moisture convergence, even though no
southerly winds were involved (northwest/northeast converging sfc wind
fields). I am astonished that these storms thrived in, not only just
500-750J/kg of SBCAPE, but SR Helicities from 0-3km were also very low..
50-80 (m/s)^2 as well. Wind profiles were all pretty much from the
northwest in the vicinity of these storms. I would like some input from
the meteorologists on this. Would this be a special case where absolute
vorticity values in the mid/upper levels, from say H5 to H3, would cause
storms to rotate like a top and produce tornadoes? Also.. I am unfamiliar
with the term "Streamwise Vorticity". What is the definition of this, and
how would it be calculated?Mike U
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Mike Umscheid <> freshman, Johnson Co. Comm. College
mscheid@kc.net <> Overland Park, KS <> "Meso" Chaser
'Under the Meso!' ~\_/~ http://www.kc.net/~mscheid/mesopage
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Mike:
I saw your post to Rodney about his chase the other evening along with some
questions you had. FYI, here's my perspective from working that evening,
that I posted to another discussion group read by Doswell, Rasmussen,
Edwards, etc:>A small cluster of storms producing penny to
quarter-size hail formed over S.W. Reno/S.E. Stafford/N.W. Kingman/N.E.
Pratt counties between 6:30 and 7:30 pm. These moved straight south and
appeared to be multicellular on radar, and prompted svr t-storm warningsby
NWS. Around 8:25 pm we got a call from KFDI radio news saying law
enforcement had spotted a tornado in extreme eastern Pratt county doing
"damage" (trees?), info which we forwarded promptly to NWS ICT. On radar a
cell was over S.W. Kingman county with the west edge over S.E. Pratt
county, but there was no organized velocity signature we could find using
our limited displays from ICT and Vance.>A few minutes later tornado warnings for Barber and Harper counties were
issued for a tornado on the ground in N.E. Barber county heading south.
Rodney Price was chasing (he also saw Fritz' cold
air funnel in N.W. OK earlier), and called to report he could see "an
elephant trunk" tornado looking N.E. from Medicine Lodge. By this time, a
hook had formed on the west side of the reflectivity gradient for this
cell, accompanied by a fairly well-defined velocity couplet. The storm
continued south across the Sharon and Waldron areas, eventually taking on a
bit of a bow shape as it moved into Oklahoma and weakened.>I understand a local storm chaser from Wichita may have gotten some photos
of the tornado, which I'll attempt to track down. Thankfully, the storm
appeared to hit in N.E. Barber (DDC did well with the warning) in an open
area with few farms and towns.>On this event from a radar perspective, the radar detectible circulation
didn't seem to appear until after the initial tornado, but then built
upward and became quite visible on radar, both in the reflectivity pattern
and the velocity. This is similar to a tornado event in S.E. NE on 5/8/95
that Rich T. and I talked about recently.>Looking at "the number estimates" using 01z sfc data and the 12 hr FD data
valid at 00z, there was a localized area around P28 with LFC-500mb lapse
rates 8.5-8.7 deg C/km, vertical shear was weak (BRN shear < 8 m/s or 32
m2/s2). Detectible SRH (0-1 or 0-3 km) was less than 50 m2/s2, CAPE around
900 J/kg, VGP < .18, EHI near 0, but s-r flow in the 3-6km layer was around
20 kts with the southward movement. The EL level looked to be around
25-26,000 ft AGL. This sure looks like a "stretching-dominant" (low
shear/high lapse rate) tornado event that evolved into a mini-supercell. I
was kind of halfway looking for something unusual to happen with the cold
air aloft, but this certainly exceded my expectations.>I'm familiar with several of these events now that evolve into tornadic
mini-supercells in weak vertical shear environments. The key components
seem to be 1) steep lapse rates in low to midlevels 2) fairly weak
vertical shear 3) strong s-r midlevel flow, due largely to storm motion.
The conventional "supercell" parameters (e.g., SRH, VGP, EHI) don't help.
Note, too, that vertical shear (e.g., BRN shear) and storm-relative flow
are _not_ the same thing.>If I find out more about this event, I'll share it.
That's my .02 worth... Hope this helps...
Jon Davies
Additional comments from Jon: (2/16/01)
My opinion is that this storm was a non-supercell at the time, and that
this is a non-supercell tornado. (AUTHOR'S NOTE: at the time that the pictures Jon Henry took)Copyright 2005 "Chase On!" Productions.
