44 Cimarron KS 8 May 2006

Date: 8 May 2006

Location: E of Friend, KS to Dodge City, KS

Chase Partner: Alone

Summary: Got off the Mighty Vessel Joe Block on May 6 in Duluth, MN and headed for the Kansas area as it looked to be a potential chase day right off the bat. Spent a little too much time on the 7th in Hebron, NE before heading toward Western KS to catch the tornados near Garden City. Never really felt the urgency to rush since the 500mb winds that day were so weak, but as Mother Nature proves once again, you can take nothing for granted. Way to go fellow Colorado chaser Verne Carlson for bagging those naders. Meanwhile I ended that day in Dodge City and woke up the next morning with the target right smack where I bedded for the previous evening. I ended up going to the east side of town and waiting for things to happen. When they started happening, they were happening way north of where I thought initiation would occur. North up near I-70. It really looked like garbage up there so when things started to fire down the dryline, I headed north and then west to Dighton, KS. After I got to Dighton I watched a really ragged storm go outflow dominant and began to have serious doubts about the day. Headed south out of Dighton and about 15 mi south a nice cell bloomed near Friend, KS and started to get some decent surface based action going. It produced a really nice sun backlit wall cloud and continued to grow. Another cell formed on the SW flank near Garden City and was looking really good on the dar. Definitely a "tail end Charlie" storm. I basically walked the line between the two storms since both looked really good. The Friend storm was really photogenic, but I didn't want to miss a tornado either. After about an hour or so, the GC storm collapsed and I headed from Cimarron to DDC and shot a few more pictures of the storm that originated near Friend.

Nice wall cloud forming near Friend, KS

Looking North on Kansas State Road 23 North of Cimarron

Same cell between Cimarron and Dodge City.

And just a little further toward DDC.