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.

Millie Out Fishing... and Vortex 2

While visiting my family on Friday, we decided to try our luck at fishing our cattle ponds close by. There must be some validity in the fact fish bite better when a storm is approaching because Friday, we didn't have a storm coming in and the fish bites were few and far between. My sister did manage to reel in a few small ones, and it had me thinking, it was the first time Millie and I had been fishing together. I don't think she was that amused by it, but I never heard her complain. =) (That's the shadow of my head in the foreground, in case you were wondering)

VORTEX 2 is out and about seeking tornadoes again this year. Remember last year, I had talked about it some on this blog, and had a chance to visit the University of Oklahoma for VORTEX 2 media day. I learned so much about this aggressive research team that will be studying tornadoes up close and personal through June 15th. Last year they intercepted just one tornado in Wyoming, but hopefully this year, they'll get their fill and find a few good twisters. I'm sure on Monday, they'll be camped out in our area somewhere, just waiting and hoping for something to blow up. It still looks favorable for severe weather early next week, so be tracking the weather with us as we head into Monday.

Country Music Capital Flooded

As I write this, the temperature is 73 degrees with light winds and sunshine. It is very difficult to be stuck inside doing work; definitely a day you want to be out and about. But I guess if you suffer from allergies, it may not be so good outside.

As we watch areas to the southeast of us cleanup after a weekend of heavy rain and tornadoes, we are still in amazement at the lack of severe weather in Kansas this spring. There's no way of really knowing how active the rest of the spring will be, but with severe weather just now ramping up southeast of here, there's still a pretty good bet we'll get our fair share of storms in the coming weeks. This has been the slowest start to tornado season in 20 years for Kansas, but as anyone can tell you, it can certainly change in a hurry.

Our school talks are winding down for the year, but Millie and I still have a couple of appearances to make next week. Hopefully we'll have some pictures for you next week, but in the meantime, enjoy this nice weather we're having. We just might make it through this week without any severe weather. It will certainly be a treat.

Have a great week.