Heading Into Summer

So with temperatures pushing 90 recently, it was time for Millie to get her summer haircut. Despite her funny look, I think she really appreciates the short hairstyle for the summer. You just can't believe how thick the undercoat really is, and it takes almost an hour to complete the haircut. And when she is swimming this summer, she'll dry off faster... and there is less hair to clean up around the house.

Hope you are having a great holiday weekend. The weather pattern is about to change and look like summer for the next several days. Western Kansas could be flirting with upper 90s and 100 later in the week. It's too early to get that hot, but it is definitely possible looking at the long range forecast. We'll hope it doesn't get too dry too fast, or else we'll be hurting as we head into the long summer months.

Ironic

The farmhouse used in the filming of the movie "Twister" was destroyed by an actual tornado last week in Oklahoma. While most of the movie was filmed in Wakita, the farmhouse was located near Fairfax, OK and took a fairly direct hit from a tornado. So yeah, I find it a little ironic and more proof that you shouldn't test Mother Nature. She'll surprise you when you least expect it. There were no reports of flying cows, so this picture obviously came out of the movie. I thought you would get a chuckle out of it.

The temptation to go storm chasing in Oklahoma this past week was very high. Millie and I almost ventured down to Enid to see if we could spot a tornado, but by the time we finished our other chores, storms were already firing up and we decided to hold back. But wow, it was another very intense day. OKC is getting the springtime version of what Washington D.C. had this winter. Storm after storm.

If you read this in time, Sunday night at 10 on KWCH, we are airing a special piece that takes you behind the scenes here at Channel 12. It will give you an inside, detailed look at how we cover storms during severe weather season. Millie didn't make the cut this time around, but I couldn't tell that her feelings were hurt. She's just about over this TV thing; ready to move on to bigger and better things. Have a great weekend.

Active Week... Now a Break

We've talked over and over about the slow start to severe weather season, but suddenly this week, May showed its ugly side. Monday as we expected was a very busy afternoon with severe weather, but if there had been more sunshine, we probably would've had stronger storms rolling through. Wichita was definitely spared because the tornado finally lifted just before the storms moved into the city. The picture here are from Monday's storms. The hail fell in Inman, the shelf cloud was taken near McPherson at about 7 in the evening, and in the far right picture, you can see a funnel cloud that occurred near the Ness/Lane county line.









We had another big weather day on Wednesday. Big hail, strong wind, and 3 different tornadoes kept us busy through the afternoon and evening. It's safe to say now, severe weather season is well underway, but it may be another week or 10 days before the pattern supports widespread severe storms. That would bring us close to Memorial Day weekend, and it seems like every year, there are severe storms on a holiday weekend (sometimes it's 4th of July).

Have a great weekend. May is half over, can you believe it? The next few weekends will be full of graduations.