April 14 tornado outbreak coverage

What a day to remember....I was lucky to help participate in the warning process with Jay Prater, CBM and the folks I used to work with at KAKE. No deaths....the entire KAKE team did a wonderful job and I am glad that Chad Berryhill Eric Duncan Jon Behle Brice K, Jared Cerullo and myself as well as others and I were able to help.

My First Tornado!

Going through some old pictures tonight in search of pictures of my sister who passed away on Saturday, I ran across a few of my old weather pics and one included a shot of my first tornado that I actually chased as a stormchaser. The picture below was taken on April 26 1991 just north of Sooner Lake on 177 HWY southeast of Red Rock Oklahoma. The tornado at this point was very wide...probably close to 3/4 mile wide and was rated as an F-4! It was on the ground for 65 miles and was well documented by many many chasers including me.



April 26 1991 was a day that made such an impression on me and is the main reason why I chase today. Actually it was dumb luck that I even saw a tornado on this day as I had no real idea what I was doing or even what I was looking at. The chase started for me after I heard the tornado watch being broadcast on local TV and I decided I was going to go out and see a tornado. I thought it was really that easy.....if there was a tornado watch I could drive to it and see a tornado! Wow.......talk about a newbie!!!

Tornado Outbreak possible!

Possible tornado outbreak for Northern Kansas and most of Nebraska later today. As seen above, WRF is painting strong convection sometime around 23z to 00z in far Northern Kansas and then sliding north into Nebraska. Both GFS and WRF show decent dew point returns with CAPE values 2000-2500j/kg and -4 to -8 LIs....would not be surprised to see a few strong tornadoes in this area. Eric and I should be chasing this event as it unfolds.

People in these areas need to stay tuned to local media outlets and local NWS offices.

Tornado outbreak?

After painstakingly looking at each model run since last week, it looks as though the ridge starts to slide and or break starting Wed. with some gulf air sliding North.

GFS has been consistent with the placement of the low and although I hate to call something this far out....it looks like we have a good chance at a tornado outbreak from Kansas through South Dakota. It will be interesting to see how the boys in Norman(SPC) call this on the latest day3.

ECMWF runs have been good overall but place the low further....either case, still would suspect the possibility of tornadoes and all modes severe weather it be South Dakota or Kansas/Nebraska.

Simulated CAPE values exceed 4500j/kg with 175-225M2/S2 at this time. This of course can and will probably change seeing as we are still 4 days out at this point but it still needs to be looked at carefully.

As the time frame gets closer I will try to update as I can

Tornadoes later this week?

Well, it looks as though this "death ridge" is finally going to try and break down. Models have been consistent with pushing it to the east and opening the gulf back up for us.....this may get interesting come the middle to later part of this week and even into the weekend. If the model runs verify we could see a tornado outbreak across the central plains. We would certainly have enough instability 4500j/kg plus and wind shear from GFSx looks 35-45kts.....the only question should be the moisture return and how shallow it may be.
I have put the film crew on standby for Wed. Hopefully we will get something.

Although I have not done so as of yet, I wanted to address the situation with Mr. Barnes and the West Texas deputy of Crane Co.
First of all there is no doubt a violation of constitutional rights for those of you who don't know or are just stupid, I am referring to our FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY not to mention in no way was Brian obstructing anything...you can clearly see this in the video.
I hope that Mr. Barnes and his legal team sucks the living daylights out of the that deputy, county, and any of its elected officials.
Enough said about that.

As Dick M would say, "written poorly by me"