The May 10 storm had been forecasted a full week ahead. The forecast for severe weather remained fairly constant for Central Kansas and moved into northern Oklahoma. A few days before the storm, the National Weather Service had Sedgwick County under a very significant hazard assessment.  I’ve heard that when the threat assessment gets to the highest level, Emergency Management is activated for an impending disaster.  That Monday was the first time in my memory that a day of Riverfest had ever been cancelled.

That day, there were reports of the Vortex 2 team set up in Perry, Oklahoma; the Chicago Tribune and WGN had reporters set up in Wichita; and some reported the TIV II from Discovery Channel’s Storm Chasers had been spotted.  By 1 p.m., a PDS (Particularly Dangerous Situation) Tornado Watch had been issued for Central Kansas.  This means they expected multiple strong tornadoes of EF2 to EF3 strength or dangerous tornadoes of EF4 to EF5 strength.

A large amount of moisture in the area had caused low-level overcast clouds.  The difference between Wichita with overcast skies and Liberal with clear skies was almost 20 degrees.  This is important because afternoon heating increases lift into the storm.  It is thought that the lift causes horizontal rotation to become more vertical. Everything looked like it was coming together for a bad tornado outbreak.

Storms were beginning to fire up out west and down south.  By 3 p.m., we were beginning to see the first Severe Thunderstorm Warnings.  Chasers were beginning to congregate south of Wichita to a supercell that developed a southern hook echo.  Kingman storms were coming together but didn’t quite have the rotation that the storms down south had.

I picked up my chase partner and decided to attempt an intercept at Belle Plaine.  Unfortunately, the haze was obscuring any cloud features, which are what I use to chase.  Reading a storm for me works as well as, if not better than, radar.

Due to the size of the storm and the way it was moving NNE, there was the danger of a possible core punch. Core punching is a dangerous practice by storm chasers and ultimately shouldn’t be done.  To core punch, you drive through the worst part of the storm to reach the wall cloud.  In doing this, you drive through heavy rain, large hail and wind.  By the time you see flying cows, you’re in the area of concern and it can be too late to turn around.

We were on the southern end of Wichita when my brother-in-law called and told us the storm in Kingman was producing tornadoes.  We hopped on K-42, attempting to slingshot around Wichita, and were snagged up by traffic from the Cessna shift change.  We moved through the traffic and were out near Clearwater when the upper-level haze began to get absorbed by the storm.  We could see the storm towers through the overcast.

The environment darkened as we went under the storm.  We stopped to figure out our placement to the storm and gas up.  At the back of the storm, we could see inflow feeding the storm.  We drove south of Viola.  Emerging through the clouds was an area that fed directly into the main part of the storm.  We changed positions a few times in fear of being swept up into a bad area of the storm.  The storm was moving between 45-60 mph, so we only had one chance to intercept before it flew northeast.  The area of “Inflow” that I saw earlier came into a little better view.

My area of inflow was part of the wall cloud.  Wind behind us blasted into the storm around 45 mph.  We watched the clouds dance off the inflow and downbursts and saw funnels attempting to form.  In the wheat before us, the wind patterns were swirling in all directions.  There were a couple short-lived connections in funnels aloft to the rotation in the wheat.  The actual definition of a tornado is a rapidly rotating vertical column of air.  This was invisible, being very short-lived and not having any debris to darken it.  They dissipated as quickly as they formed moving around the base of the wall cloud.

The wall cloud passed overhead and suddenly the air lifted.  What had been strong winds at our back just became very still.  The roar of the air replaced with silence, for the animals were smart enough to seek shelter. Losing the wind at your back shows you’re in a bad area.  If you look at radar, this area of inflow is what drives power into the storm, causes hail to rise and grow in size, and gives hook echoes on radar their distinctive look.

Luckily, the rotation of the storm was violent enough that it caused the entire storm to rotate.  We went from an area of strong updraft back to wind rushing towards the storm.  The storm was rocketing north-northeast and we tried to keep up with it, but chasing a system moving where it wants at 45-60+ mph on country roads is impossible.  We were caught up in the storm, chasing the main cell, and were blinded by rain and hail.

I tried calling in several reports, but there was a lack of signal down south.  Also with a potential tornadic outbreak moving into the Wichita area and a tornado being sighted near the airport, all circuits were full and it was impossible to get a call in.  With the rapid fire knock of hail against the truck, I don’t know if a call would have been audible.

I think the lack of afternoon heating killed the chances for a long-track tornado through Wichita.  We were lucky.  Wichita is past due.  Timing alone would have a killer storm going through the heart of the city; the storm did this around 5 p.m., and from what I understand, Kellogg was at a standstill.  A word to the wise: if a major storm is coming in, stay off the main highways.  Kellogg will stop and the highways will have people hiding under bridges, leaving their vehicles in traffic in an attempt to save them from hail, but forgetting about other traffic.  Don’t park under an awning, because high wind makes them collapse.  Find a restaurant or a gas station; get to the freezer or the bathroom.  It’s amazing how resistant they are.

We drove through the rain and hail, making it to K-96.  By the time we hit northwest Wichita, the storm had passed our location and there was a huge rainbow contrasting the blackness of the storm.  I made my call into the station to report.  A few calls were coming in talking about “scary clouds,” but the storm itself had passed.  Wichita had escaped any major damage.

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