May 25, 2024 Tornadic Supercell near Hazleton, Kansas

Start: OKC End: Pratt, Kansas

This was a fun chase day between Tours 4 and 5, as Tempest staff was doing the shift of operations from OKC to DEN. I had Carol with me and a couple of Tempest vans trailing behind. SPC was going moderate with a 15 percent hatched tornado outlook. The day did not go nuts with regard to tornadoes as the early stuff went rather HP and messy. SPC thought that the evening increase in the low-level jet might cause consternation with maybe some high-end tornadoes in OK and KS, but that did not eventuate.

We got in front of a developing supercell near the OK/KS border, around Kiowa. Winds were backed nicely and dews were in the upper 60s. Around Hazelton, KS, the base sported a large lowering as the RFD kicked in. We had a great look as the action area advanced upon us. There might have been a weak tornado with this storm as we dove southward to get out of the way. As the storm passed by quickly to the north, the storm DID have a tornado…at least a weak tornado. The action area had become rain-wrapped, and my heavily-enhanced photo below shows something nasty in there.

Well, that was about it for us! The storm had become a fast-moving HP. It was moving to the east, and we needed to head towards Denver.