Chase Log: June 12th, 2008
Click on any of the SPC products below (Convective Outlooks, Watches, or MCDs) to see the SPC's "Severe Thunderstorm Events" page pertaining to this event.
Total Distance: 440 miles
Target Area: N of Wichita, KS
Chase Area: Strong City to Emporia to Wichita to Rose Hill, KS
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight
Watches:
Mesoscale Discussions (MCDs):
We witness a few supercells, largely embedded within a larger convective mess, to the NW of the Kansas Turnpike between ICT and SLN. We saw a few wall-clouds and RFD punches, but we didn't see any tornadoes. We were making our way to the tail-end charlie activity near Athony, KS, when a cell near us (W of Haysville; immediately SW of ICT) rapidly organized into a supercell. We tried to deploy the W-band in a good parking lot W of Haysville, but the lightning was extremely intense. Wrapping rain-curtains soon developed to our immediate south and southeast as we tried to get ahead of the storm, but we opted to let the occlusion occur to our east (we were in N winds on the west side of the meso) in light of safety issues that we'd incur if we wanted to punch through the hook at the same time it was occluding. We eventually felt safe enough to cut through the hook and got a good view of the storm again near Rose Hill (ESE of ICT). It was also apparent at this time, however, that the storm was throwing out an OFB that well undercut the rain-free base. Since the tornado potential seemed to be nil with this undercut storm, we headed to Wellington to get dinner. One last supercell moved to our north, but it was well after dark, so we let it slip by.
