April 5, 1999       SC Kansas Morning Chase

Overnight, a powerful storm was expected to cruise out into the C/S Plains. This
situation is usually not an ideal setup for tornadoes, but there would be enough
spin and shear for a few tornadoes as shortwave raced to the northeast. Since
both Brian and I were unsure about how the situation would unfold, Brian and I
held a late night storm vigil just in case something serious developed over the
S.Plains. Oklahoma and S. Kansas remained strongly capped during the late night hours. However, we were concerned that once the cooling aloft approached
from the west, supercells were likely to explode over N. Oklahoma and S.Kansas.
After we caught the updated SPC severe storm outlook, we decided to catch a
little bit of sleep. Whatever was going to happen was going to be closer to sunrise
so we had a time cushion to work with. We slept for about 3 hours before we were
awakened by the weather radio tone alert. A tornado watch had just been posted
for much of C. and N.Oklahoma.

We quickly called up the NEXRAD images from the Vance AFB and Wichita sites,
and sure enough there were already strong circulations developing over NW/WC
Oklahoma and SC Kansas. Right away we knew we were in trouble!! The storms
were rocketing n-ne at 50-55 mph. This would be a very difficult chase since we
were 100 miles east and the storms were racing nearly due north. A cluster of very
intense supercells was concentrated between Wichita  KS and Enid OK. Over the
next 15 minutes we watched these storms grow meaner. Several tornadoes were
being reported over Alfalfa and Grant Counties in N. Oklahoma. Eventually we
decided to commit to chasing a cluster of storms that was developing around the
Clinton OK area. Our main goal today was to get far enough ahead of the storm
so the supercell would track for us. We did not want to play catch up. Sunrise was
still another 1-2 hours away so yet another night chase was in store. Dave Frost
from St.Louis was still in town so we picked him up on the way out of town. Talk
about your military wake up time!!

We had planned on the storms taking more of a northeast track as the base of the
upper level trough approached Oklahoma. Unfortunately, this did not happen. In
fact, the storms picked up speed and were now moving north at 55-60 mph, some
even faster than that!! We headed straight north into Kansas from Tulsa continuing
to believe in our theory of northeast movement of storms. We conitinued to watch
the storms on radar closely. As we crossed the Kansas state line, the storms were
becoming more linear on radar, and the storms over Oklahoma were fizzling. We
plotted an intercept for the strongest circulation on the developing line of storms,
and we were thinking that the area east and northeast looked to be where the supercell was headed. We turned on KFDI radio in Wichita to monitor the storm's
progress. Ahead of the supercell we planned to intercept, a kink in the line of
storms developed rapidly just to the southwest of Wichita. This kink was the early
formative stages of a LEWP(line-echo-wave pattern) on radar. Sometimes, these
features can produce tornadoes. More commonly, though, they are associated
with strong damaging winds. With time, radio spotters were indicating rotation in
the vicinity of this feature and large hail on the backside of this circulation.

KFDI did an excellent job warning resident's of Wichita about the circulation that
was intensifying over the city. Spotter reports were right on the money with what
radar indicated. Surprising to us was that a severe t-storm warning was all that
was in effect when the circulation crossed the city. Storm spotters indicated very
strong rotation right over Wichita. Eventually radar started to indicate strong enough circulation that a tornado warning was issued. Very quickly, tornado
damage reports and tornado reports were broadcast in the vicinity of Kellogg and
Oliver on the east side of Wichita. We were near the town of Eureka in Greenwood
Co. when the tornado was reported. We had to decide if we were going to commit
to this supercell or wait for yet another supercell developing in N.Cowley Co. We
made the decision to be patient and waited for the Cowley storm to approach as
this was this famous "tail-end charlie" storm. The storm rapidly moved right for us
so we did not have to go anywhere. We held our position at the Butler/Greenwood
Co. line. The storm was fairly low topped, but dry air was surrounding the storm and very strong inflow was feeding the storm. The day's first satellite photos were
now available to us. This storm was the classic "stinger tail" on satellite, but there
was not enough low level shear to create rotation. We basically said hi and then bye as the storm raced by us at 60 mph. At this point we decided to call it a chase as we were exhausted. Later that day, we learned that numerous tornadoes were
reported in NW Missouri, SE Nebraska, and SW Iowa. Storm chasing is often a
situation of "if only..." and today was no exception!!