76 Western KS 25 May 2010

Date: 25 May 2010

Location: Western, KS - Sharon Springs to Ransom, KS.

Chase Partner: Griffin McLaughlin

Summary: Another frustrating day to say the least. More so because we left late for the party. We headed out from Highlands Ranch and before we ever made it to Elizabeth a Severe Thunderstorm watch was issued for Eastern CO and Western KS. Before the watch was issued SVR warned cells were near Lamar and it was evident on GRLevel 3 that initiation was well on its way. As we approached Seibert TOR warnings went up near Sheridan Lake, CO. A storm there produced numerous landspout tornadoes. Anxiety was running high as we approached Sharon Springs, KS. We stopped there to weigh in on our options. New towers were skyrocketing up to our east and there was still the TOR warned cell to our south. Decisions, Decisions. Okay, head south to Tail End Charlie. WRONG CHOICE. As we core punched this storm we emerged to a nicely back lit wall cloud. HOWEVER.....the towers east of Sharon Springs had gone TOR warned. Not to mention we were in the middle of the Vortex 2 Armada and about a thousand other chasers. I kept spying on the Sharon Springs storm which by now was near Russel Springs, KS. The hook on the radar signature was like nothing I had ever seen before. It literally wrapped around the circulation and formed a perfect eye. By this time I was beside myself as the storm I would have bet money on to keep producing tornadoes seemingly stopped as we got there. Then to add insult to injury Garmin gave us some bad info and we ended up having to core punch back down a road we came up in the hopes to stay ahead of the storm. So my truck was baptized by its first hail dents as a result. By the time we reached the Sharon Springs storm it was near Shields, KS and we stopped near Ransom to shoot some structure and lightning shots. We hooked up with Travis Speakman there and then head north and called it a day. We stopped in Oakley at the greasy spoon for some dinner and called in Mark Farnik and Zach Young to join us. About the only plus I can say was that on the way home I tinkered with my HAM radio and got it working right. Yay! Pretty frustrating day.

Rain core north of Leoti, KS.

Structure north of Ransom, KS on storm #2.