Sunday was a very interesting chase day. I headed out with Connor McCrorey and David Reimer of TexasStormChasers.com. Originally we targeted somewhere near Emporia/Ottawa, Kansas. After deciding to head further north, we spotted towering cumulus development to our west. After watching it rapidly develop for several minutes, we began getting echo top returns on radar. Being that the storm was north of the cold front, we were skeptical if we should go to it at first... until we noticed something very unusual. It had appeared the storm was bending the cold front to allow for it to pull inflow from the warm sector to the south of the front! The storm rapidly intensified into a beast. It produced large hail and possibly the most intense gustnado of all time, near Perry, KS.
Just west of Lawrence, KS... Base becoming visible to the left.
Gustnado near
This is the first storm we were on. A classic supercell, you can see it modifying the cold front to allow for inflow to come from the warm sector. This radar image is roughly 15 minutes before the gustnado was observed.
After the first storm began to move into the KC Metro area, we decided to intercept some hailers developing along the cold front/dryline.
This was a very fun chase, with some very photogenic moments. I just regret not trying to get closer to the gustnado!
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