10SatantaKS27May2001

Date: 27 May 2001

Location: Satanta, KS

Chase Partner: Lou Rohrbacher

Summary:

Departed Denver at 0630 for target area near Hugoton, KS. Arrived in Hugoton at 1200 and hung out there for 3 hrs til storms started firing. At 1435 a Severe Thunderstorm Watch was issued. Things started happening N of us near Garden City, so we headed up to Satanta, KS. At approx 1700 a very large shelf cloud/ squall line approached Satanta from the North. We had observed a severe storm to the W of our location that looked promising, but then kind of petered out, so we chose to sit where we were and watched the huge squall from the N. When the shelf reached our location we were rocked by winds of at least 60 mph and had heard reports of 80mph gusts. Many irrigation systems running E/W were toppled over and near Liberal, KS we observed telephone poles that were snapped as though a buzz saw cut through them and then reinserted them back into the ground leaving the lines connected to them intact. In Copeland, KS we saw a brick garage that had collapsed onto a car.

Squall line taken from near Satanta, KS

Squall is about 1 mile North of us and closing

Lou is scared!

Here she blows!!

Blowing dust from the fields restricted visibility to less that 1/4 mile

Very ominous sky as we enter Sublette, KS

One of the DOZENS of irrigation systems blown over

27 May Confirmed from SPC