James Gustina
Summary: Fun bust in central Kansas with Zach Elliot, Cj Sayre and Andrew Lyons. Went out on the slight possibility of suprcells along the dryline but low instability and weak forcing precluded much of anything. Ended up hanging around with Ben Holcomb, Mike Boik, Dillon Killoren and a whole host of other people in Pratt to end the day.
This day had potential several days out. Andrew and I had been keeping an eye on it for the past week and the night before we figured out our chase plans. A deep trough was ejecting out of the Rockies with modest instability on the order of 1500 j/kg of MLCAPE. The turning in the lowest 1 kilometer was not great but enough to get the job done had any discrete storms gone up in a more favorable environment.
The morning of we rolled out of Norman around 10 with a tentative target of Alva, OK. Around noon we stopped in Watonga for lunch at Pizza Hut. Meanwhile outside tumbleweeds the size of a child were rolling all over creation.
Side Story: Sometime between Watonga and Cherokee, we went past a farm with a single horse standing alone in the field just staring at the road. We decided to name him Eddy the Awkward Horse. Eddy wasn't like the other horses, Eddy wanted to dance. This led to a whole slew of inanimate objects with dreams to break to the tedium of driving through northwestern Oklahoma.
After lunch we decided to cut north towards Cherokee. Nothing but some very flat, uninteresting CU was present just along and ahead of the dryline. Shortly after crossing into Alfalfa County we ran into Ben Holcomb and Mike Boik. We ended up sitting for awhile just off US 281.
After about 30-45 minutes we continued on with Ben and Mike to Alva. A brief stop at the McDonald's didn't help our view of the prospects. Cumulus along the dryline continued to look thin and mushy. Nonetheless the SPC threw out an MCD around the same time.
We continued north through Medicine Lodge and then through Pratt. At this point there were a few somewhat agitated towers going up. We continued north towards Great Bend, running into Dillon and a few other people on the way. Unfortunately nothing ever could quite get going. We ended up hanging around on a dirt road somewhere between Great Bend and Pratt before heading back to Pratt for dinner at Woody's.
Headed back into Pratt we noticed a large tower going up to the south. This turned out to be an LP cell that went right over where we had been earlier.
We had a fun time at Woody's, despite how it being at best, subpar. Afterwards we packed up, flashed the Dominator as it came driving through Pratt, and then were on our way back towards Wichita to cut back down onto I35 for Norman.
Chase Stats
Miles Driven: 526
Cost: $45
Tornadoes: 0
Hail: None
Winds: None
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