Harvest Help

I had a chance to help my parents harvest wheat this week and the crop was very good. There was some worry that the wheat would be damaged with the late freeze, but it didn't affect central Kansas as much as the southern part of the state and especially those in Oklahoma. The yields were good and so was the quality. Millie and I lucked out on Thursday when a storm developed in Rice county. On the way to the elevator, we saw the heavy rain and wind, which actually looks like blowing dirt from the dust bowl days in this picture. The rain cooled the air and temperatures fell back into the 70s and 80s for the rest of the evening. It felt really good.

Friday was hot with highs in the 90s and the humidity has just been unbearable. We should have a nice break from the excessive heat for at least a little while, but headed into July we know it will soon be back.

What are your plans for the 4th of July? It won't seem like much of a holiday this year since it falls on a Saturday.

Active week

It has been a very busy week for the Storm Team. Some very impressive storms Sunday, Monday, and then Tuesday, one storm just popped up in Cowley county that could be seen from northern Kansas. We've received some great pictures from viewers and I'll post some of them here.









It is definitely feeling like summer. Still in the upper 80s at 10 p.m. at night is definitely summerlike weather.

I'll be away for a few days enjoying my new nephew. If you are familiar with previous blog entries, you already know about Wade. He now has a brother, Pate. Should be exciting. Stay cool for the rest of the week and into the weekend. Millie is loving her haircut when it gets this hot. I may be in the harvest field at the end of next week. Hope the weather is hot and dry for the farmers.

VORTEX 2 Bust?

Alright, so the VORTEX 2 crew has been chasing for a month now and they have only intercepted one really good storm and that was in Wyoming last Friday. The video is very good, so if you haven't seen it, check it out:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94qCoLdpRIQ

I was hoping Kansas would come through with a good tornado for them to study, but alas, we get beat by the Cowboy State.

The only difference between this video and the one from the movie Twister is that there are no flying cows and combines in the video. And, this is not a very strong tornado, so image how it would be inside of an EF-5. This just hasn't been a good year to study tornadoes. We spent the last half of May under a huge ridge of high pressure, which meant no storms in the central or northern US. VORTEX 2 was in Kansas on Tuesday and guess what, there were no good storms for them to intercept.

We had some isolated storms pop up over parts of Kansas Tuesday afternoon. Just one tornado was reported in southwest Kansas near Greensburg. Mother Nature is just playing dirty with the residents in Kiowa county, so luckily we didn't have any major damage. The storm structure was quite amazing and that's the picture that I have for you this week.

By the way, the float trip in Missouri was fun. The weather was nearly perfect and fortunately, I remembered my sunscreen. Millie came back dog tired on Sunday. Have a great week.

Storms Return

After a rather quiet weather pattern the last few weeks, we are seeing a change in the weather pattern and getting back into a stormy period.

We watched a few storms roll across southwest Kansas on Tuesday that produced a few tornadoes. There was no damage to report and more importantly, we had some nice rainfall in areas that always need moisture. Harvest is getting closer for farmers in southern Kansas. Hopefully we don't have any real crazy weather between now and then.

Millie is enjoying the warm, summerlike weather. We are going to make an appearance at a KFDI event this Friday. Then we are off to Missouri for a float trip down the Niangua River. I'm sure I'll have some pictures for the blog next week. Enjoy the rest of the week.