KS/OK Border
May 8, 2002
Today, I had the pleasure of chasing with the Windom, MN High School class of Craig Wolter.
This is the same group that came down to Oklahoma to see the May 3, 1999 tornadoes. Curtis
Alexander and I had also nowcasted for the group the previous day (May 7), when they saw three
tornadoes. Today, I was not as optimistic about seeing tornadoes, but there was another moderate
risk, and I had just finished my exams (the reason I did not chase yesterday). The forecast target
was the KS/OK border around I-35 or further west to catch "Tail-end Charlie".
The first storms looked pretty decent, and a couple of tornado warnings were issued in Kansas,
including one for our storm. The storm had a decent updraft structure and a spreading anvil
as we stopped to watch it from a point just south of Bluff City, KS.
Our storm as seen in from just south of Bluff City, KS.
After a few minutes watching it from this location, the storm quickly gusted out, and the
event was heavily outflow-dominant after that. Here are a few shots from later in the chase:
Ernani and I
Ernani (left) and Windom High School group.
"Whale's mouth" (underside of shelf cloud) in Caldwell, KS
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