A Team Effort

I'm still thinking about the weekend of severe weather and how many people were affected by the several rounds of storms. We have received several compliments on our weather coverage and we appreciate the kind words, but there is a special group of people that contribute to our successful weather coverage and we owe them credit too. They are the storm spotters and chasers that follow these storms across Kansas. We have a great storm chasing crew that go out almost every time we have severe weather. There are too many to mention by name, but their reports make all the difference in the world. When we can go on the air and say "trained spotters have reported a tornado on the ground", it makes people take the warning more seriously than if it is just indicated by radar. I can't thank our chasers and spotters enough for the hard work they do for our weather team.

On another note, I wanted to post this radar image from the Dodge City National Weather Service radar. It is the velocity mode that we often show on tv, where the reds and greens match up, indicating where the storm is rotating (remember green is wind blowing toward the radar and red is away). This was about 5 minutes before the tornado hit Greensburg. Scientists that have studied tornadoes for years say they have never seen anything quite like it before.

What a Weekend

Our thoughts and prayers are with those that suffered a loss in the numerous rounds of severe weather this weekend. My heart sank when I heard about the loss of life with the storms in Greensburg because I felt like we didn't do our job in getting the information out to the people. However, after seeing the devastation and looking at the pictures of the tornado, it makes me wonder how there weren't more fatalities from the storm. You can take all of the proper precautions, but in a storm of that magnitude, there is bound to be some loss of life. In case you haven't heard, the tornado did receive an EF 5 rating with estimated winds at 205 mph and at one point was 1.7 miles wide.

The storms were very unusual in the fact that they stayed together for long periods of time and the rotation was just impressive, not to mention the number of tornado reports that we had both Friday and Saturday nights. What a weekend in Kansas weather. It's definitely one we won't soon forget.

It is amazing to see the outpouring of support from Kansans doing everything they can to help out. Thanks to everyone for being patient with us as we covered up more programming this weekend. There is a reason for our continuous coverage and the Greensburg devastation should serve as a reminder of that during future storms. Pictures continue to come into the weather office. I'm posting just a few of them here. Have a great week.

A Flashback

I had a great opportunity to visit the 6th graders at Wilbur Middle School Wednesday morning to talk about weather and for a brief moment, I had a flashback to when I was in middle school. The bell just sounded as I walked in the door and then a sudden rush of students. Where's my locker and what is my combination? Where's my books and what class am I headed to next? Better yet, what are we having for lunch? All of those questions that you had to ask yourself during the course of the school day. I'm not sure if I would want to go back.

The students had been studying weather and collecting data from instruments. Becky Stanfield, one of the teachers at the school, informed me that the students were also graphing the data to look for weather trends. I was invited to the school to do a weather wrap-up session and I was amazed at how attentive the students were. I was a little nervous that my cloud-in-a bottle trick wouldn't be as exciting to the 6th graders as younger kids, but they still enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks again to those at Wilbur for allowing me to visit.
Pictures are on the way (I hope) so check back later to see the kids.