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Wed, May 18, 2005 Eastern Kansas 1630z SPC Outlook: SLIGHT Chase Partners Jon Van de Grift Verne Carlson Amos Magliocco Scott Eubanks Eric Nyguen Scott Blair Scott Currins

Chase Miles: 317 Career Miles: Storm Intercepts: 1 Tornado Count: 0 Largest Hail: None Flooding: None Other Chaser Reports Amos Magliocco

An incredible lightning show from a derecho in Kansas.

A crazy day which started in Colby, Kansas and ended in Emporia, Kansas. Actually, most of the day took place in Emporia before we finally hit the road and circled around the Kansas Turnpike to get caught up in a crazy derecho which swept over us after we milked the storm for some great lightning shots. Eric measured a peak wind gust of 72mph with sustained winds close to 60mph for nearly 10 minutes. While mostly rain fell from the storm, some small hail rocketed against the car (which may've been rocks) and created a tense few mintues while radio silence followed my questioning of flying debris! Quite a fun and exciting day!

DAY 1 CONVECTIVE OUTLOOK
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
0245 PM CDT WED MAY 18 2005

VALID 182000Z - 191200Z

...MO/KS/OK...

EXPANSIVE HIGH LEVEL CLOUDINESS ACROSS THE SRN/CNTRL PLAINS APPEARS
TO BE THINNING AND SHIFTING SEWD IN RESPONSE TO UPPER TROUGH AXIS
SHIFTING EAST ACROSS THE PLAINS. BACK EDGE OF THIS CLOUDINESS IS
NEAR THE SFC WIND SHIFT IN SWRN KS WHERE CU FIELD IS GRADUALLY
THICKENING. WITH STRONG HEATING EXPECTED OVER THE NEXT FEW
HOURS...CAP SHOULD WEAKEN AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP FROM JUST
AHEAD OF WEAK SFC LOW...NEWD INTO NERN KS. THIS ZONE SHOULD BECOME
FAIRLY ACTIVE...CONVECTIVE-WISE WITH EARLY STORM MODE POSSIBLY
EXHIBITING SUPERCELL STRUCTURES. WITH TIME...CONVECTIVE EVOLUTION
SHOULD ALLOW AN MCS TO EVOLVE BEFORE SPREADING ESEWD ACROSS SERN
KS/WRN MO INTO NERN OK. STEEP LAPSE RATES AND MLCAPE VALUES IN
EXCESS OF 2000 J/KG FAVOR LARGE HAIL BEFORE STRONG WINDS BECOME THE
PRIMARY THREAT WITH MORE LINEAR MODE LATE THIS EVENING.

..DARROW.. 05/18/2005

This was the SPC discussion which drew a lot of laughs from the chasers gathered in Emporia today. The "convective-wise" became the trademark phrase of the rest of the trip as we laughed and poked fun at the discussion! Fortunately, things did eventually get active... convective-wise.

What is the answer to this derivative? Click Here to See!

Scott and Eric chillin with Popsicle-sticks! Haven't seen these in ages.

I love this picture! Not sure what Jon and Eric were looking at, but it couldn't have been good!

So we finally leave Emporia after the southern storms in the developing line. These were shot after a long way around the Turnpike.

We chased the storms around til dark where we got treated to an incredible lightning show. The lightning stills below are a testiment to what we saw. These six shots were taken with my Canon A85 Digital Camera with 15 second exposures.

After the lightning, we began to trek west back to I-35 when the derecho we'd been trying to stay ahead of FINALLY overtook us. We were forced to stop in the middle of US Hwy 75 when the blinding rain, small hail, and 60 plus mph winds got too much to safely drive through. The winds and rain beat on us for nearly 10 minutes as the storm pushed eastward. When it finally cleared, I-35 was shut down in both directions due to the massive amount of damage caused by this storm. Between water ponding and blown over semi-trucks, it was quite the mess. Scott Eubanks, Jon Van de Grift, and myself returned to Emporia after our Wendy's dinner where we pitched camp for the night.

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