The last few days in Kansas Wednesday held the last three days back some surprises for us. This is not for the weather because the few Slight Risks that have been emerging for Saturday and this Monday revealed nothing more than a few dense clouds (cu and tcu under cover). The shearing was usually more bad than good and did close on the wedge is always' little bit of arrogance. The so there was no significant storms, we could report on, we talk a couple of other nice stories that have happened in the past 72 hours.
On Saturday we started in Lenexa and went then to another typical motel breakfast (some bagels, bad coffee and some waffles or toast) to the southwest on Interstate 35 to the southwest. The objective was the border to Oklahoma, there was given to a quasi-stationary front, the potential for a few isolated thunderstorms. If the lid had not been stopped, then we might also be a few rich meteorological impressions were, instead, but did extend into the late afternoon, little and we drove across the south of Wichita slightly undulating plains to the east towards Arkansas (pronounced Arkänsas) City . This little nest we reached in the shimmering, sweltering heat of late afternoon (there were so around the 31 ° C at 18 ° C dew point) and we were looking for a dining and drinking opportunities. The fumble was true even for something along the main road north, we made the "Coffee Club", a small restaurant to a Colombian who has specialized in the region, good, real coffee and delicious cakes delivered. On the weekends off and takes place at even karaoke, as we on the superstructures in addition to the tables and were able to find after 17 clock slowly arrive (older) guests. It was factual and correct nice there, especially since the owner of the Coffee Club, a friend from Germany, had the times he promptly called to tell him the fact that a Group of German Stormchaser in the sleepy east of I-35 had arrived.
Not ten minutes later the couple was there and we spent two pleasant hours with the two in the pub. There was a lot to tell, it comes from the Hunsrück, he's German-Americans and four years both live in Arkansas City.
This was really only one of several interesting encounters, we could make in the last three weeks here in the Great Plains. It comes very quickly with people talking and many seem simply to have more time than one is accustomed to in our area. The kindness of many people is a bit unusual, but "we" could be are quite a few slices cut from it.
The evening brought us ... no, again no storms, but a magnificent sunset with a lively, warm, sultry east wind and a few distant CB anvils in the west (see pictures). After a night in the new and great ADAPTED "Comfort Inn" (including pool) in Blackwell, Oklahoma, it went into another day of humidity with a morning sky filled with altocumulus. Once again we arrived at the reception due to the fact that we are actually Stormchaser into conversation and it was not until the motel landlady called her son from Blackwell, who just happened to have time and we only have like a couple of quarters in the city showed the severe tornado moved in 1955, traces of which can be seen to this day ...
afternoon we drove over Wichita East towards Fredonia (oh yes, sometimes the very exotic place names here), where we waited again to initiate (if oppressive 27 over 21!) And a lot of low clouds. At a gas station with a monstrous parking lot we ran into another Stormchaser from Wichita, Kansas. Jay (or Jack?) Waited like us to "Action" and we chatted a little about supercells, the potential of that day and the really bad May and also about the good weather in March and April in which there was already an few dozen tornadoes in the Plains and had been in the Midwest. His SUV was packed with Jay Equipment, from the laptop (to receive data via wireless and satellite) using scanners and CB radios to thoroughly professional cameras was almost all there. At about 17:30 we decided to drive to the north, it should happen in Südostkansas anything, only further east in Missouri. The night of yesterday to today we planned to vebringen in Ottawa, KS. We had chosen for the Travelodge near the interstate. The problem: the smell of the room (it smelled kind of orange, we could not quite place and assumed a prior treatment with any insecticide) and the condition of the beds and towels. After about an hour we decided to stay for a very rapid, premature check-out and drove to Emporia, KS, in a much more pleasant Comfort Inn.
Today then, the last day before our journey home, a day with easterly winds, 28 ° C and a dew point of about 19 ° C. You get used to this air, it's almost pleasant and the humidity of the skin is doing well anyway). The Slight Risk, and the couple of thunderstorms in the south and southeast Kansas we have not considered properly, it's just still not able to really violent weather in the Plains. A bit of frustration as to make the balance sheet is already wide when you consider that you actually "wild weather" particularly for and then you come here only three days of 19 to see something. This May was extremely unusual, far too quiet for the Plains and anyway hats with the large-scale circulation patterns do not cut this time executed. Tomorrow and Wednesday now increases the risk for supercells and tornadoes from South Dakota and Nordkansas ... and we fly home tomorrow. When the time is not the end! But what the hell, we will be back next year, if not come back the following year and again enjoy the Plains, the landscape, the people and the size ... then storms are
Kerstin, and Lars Julian
