Chase Report: 6 Apr, 2010, Part 1 - East Kansas Severe Multicell

Depart Hiawatha, KS: 11:00 a.m.
Arrive Austin, TX: 4:30 a.m.
930 miles, Solo chase
3 day total - 2030 miles

Woke up after a nice night's sleep (for a change) in Hiawatha, KS, and drove down to Topeka to eat lunch and plan my strategy for the day. Like on Monday, there were two potential plays. The first would be near the warm front, similar location to Monday, but a little further East and North. The second was eastern KS, down the dryline through Central OK. Parameters were a little better for tornadoes on the warm front, but I opted to drive south and chase in Eastern KS, largely because it was closer to home, and I would be able to chase southward as the day progressed.

The KS target was the first to light up. Unfortunately, mode was instantly multicellular in the form of a long SSW-NNE oriented line. I got to it quickly, as I was only a couple of coutnies away at initiation. Cells were racing NE at 40-50+ mph throught the line, but the line itself was not making much progress eastward. As such, I was able to drive up to it and catch cells as they translated NE.




They were mostly small hail and wind producers. At times, they were quite stunning, with huge dark rainsahafts, green-white hailshafts, and shelf clouds being the order of the day. There was an occasional shelf-cloud lowering which would catch my attention, and maybe one bonafide wall cloud in an updraft region, but I could not keep up with it for long enough to confirm. Various pics of shelf clouds, rain/hail curtains, and mammatus from the daytime storms:









Around 6:30, I gave up and decided to head home. Was on the Kansas turnpike at that time, so I still had many hours to drive. Little did I know that I was in for an after-dark surprise on the trip home...