Target: North Central Kansas
This chase started early in the day when I left Lawrence and traveled just south of a vicious thunderstorm which was moving through north central and northeast Kansas. I decided I was not going to chase this storm because the main action was progged to be later in the day in northwest Kansas or southwest Nebraska. This storm was beautiful from my vantage point and even though it was located roughly 30 miles to my north, I was still experiencing inflow winds. Sure enough this storm was responsible for 70 to 80 mph winds across much of north central and northeast Kansas.
I reached my destination of McCook, Nebraska before backtracking slightly to Norton, KS where I met up with Bill Gargan and Dennis Cavanaugh. We stuck together and traveled eastward as storms initiated along Hwy 36 near Phillipsburg. A string of supercells formed along a boundary which had set up along the highway. We chose the eastern cell, which demonstrated the best supercellular characteristics. Although the storm did not produce a tornado we saw nice structure as it entered Concordia. Unfortunately for us, the storms to the west actually produced tornadoes which did damage to farmsteads in Jewell county. As darkness settled in the storms became outflow dominant and weakened. We called off the chase and stayed the night in Hays, KS, and prepared for another chase the following day.
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