{"id":15015,"date":"2016-05-08T00:00:41","date_gmt":"2016-05-08T08:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/?p=15015"},"modified":"2016-11-29T23:00:21","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T07:00:21","slug":"may-8-2016-trego-tornado-and-victorian-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/2016\/05\/08\/may-8-2016-trego-tornado-and-victorian-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"May 8, 2016 Trego Tornado and Victorian Sky"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"160508_1422_Victoria-KS\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Start, Oakley, KS; end Russell, KS; 296 miles; lunch Jimmy Johns at Hays<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Tornado potential looked good today from western OK northward into much of central KS. \u00a0SPC splashed a nice, big 10-percent hatched tornado area from about Hays to Altus, and then trimmed back on the northern part a bit for the 20Z outlook. \u00a0As it turned out, the day was a huge bust tornado-wise for chasers who targeted OK and the southern half of central KS. \u00a0Our group started the day in good shape, at Oakley in northwest KS. \u00a0After a look at the models, I saw little reason to venture down south towards Dodge City and Woodward or Altus. \u00a0Shear and instability looked more than adequate for tornadic supercells just a couple of counties to our east.<\/p>\n

SPC Day 1 Convective Outlook (20Z)<\/a><\/p>\n

spc-mesoscale-discussion-557<\/a>\u00a0 W and C KS\/3:20 p.m. CDT<\/p>\n

spc-mesoscale-discussion-560<\/a>\u00a0 C KS\/6:30 p.m. CDT<\/p>\n

We headed to Hays for lunch, and then sagged southward a little to wait for development. \u00a0Storm towers developed to our west and southwest, and we watched from the Ness City vicinity. \u00a0We stayed east of these as they dragged us NNE-ward. \u00a0We stopped along U.S. 283, north of Ransom and south of Cedar Bluffs Reservoir, in southern Trego County. \u00a0A cell to our west looked to have some decent organization, but was overall just ho-hum. \u00a0Other updrafts were screaming skyward about ten miles to our east. \u00a0The atmosphere was exploding in that direction. \u00a0The base of the storm to our west continued to our northwest, and appeared rather benign. \u00a0But a skinny funnel cloud emerged, and a small dust whirl kicked up! \u00a0This was a really slinky and skinny and ropy tornado. \u00a0The ground contact was well-removed from the area of the cloud base from which the funnel emanated. \u00a0This tornado was perhaps 7 miles distant, west of U.S. 283 and Cedar Bluffs Reservoir, and 5 miles SSW of Trego Center at 6:07 p.m. CDT, according to the SPC log. \u00a0It persisted for several minutes.<\/p>\n

From here we scooted northward to I-70, and then east towards Hays to try to get into position on the newer cells to our east. \u00a0There seemed to be a lot of storms now, and it was getting a bit messy. \u00a0We went north before getting to Hays (in western Ellis County) to check out a storm base. \u00a0It looked good but it got away from us. \u00a0Our nice road went to wet and muddy, and we had to turn around. \u00a0This storm went on to produce a tornado or two northwest of Catharine and Emmeran, not too far to our east, also in Ellis County.<\/p>\n

The big show was becoming the look of the sky. \u00a0The back end of these storms had a wicked and turbulent look, and the wide-angle lens came in quite handy! \u00a0We hurried east to Victoria to shoot the storm at sunset.<\/p>\n

This link from NWS Hastings<\/a> has some additional details on this day’s severe weather, including a radar loop. \u00a0I was not able to find any other tornado pictures online from KS from May 8.<\/p>\n

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