Severe Storm Photography from Spring 2007
All photos copyrighted by Dave Chapman
| April 24th: Nickerson, Kansas, LP Supercell |
| Another day targeting the dryline with strong upper-level winds moving into Oklahoma and Kansas. Early morning convection provides some good photo ops in southwest Kansas. |
|
|
| Driving northeast towards my target of central Kansas. |
|
|
| Early afternoon on another mild, breezy, gorgeous spring day. I'm waiting for the dryline to catch up to me on a quiet farm road near Quivira National Wildlife reserve in the heart of Kansas. |
|
|
| Weak bubbling cumulus along dryline just to my west. Severe weather is already in progress in a giant backwards C that extends from eastern Colorado to northeastern Kansas then southwest across Oklahoma and Texas. |
|
|
| Convection west of Lyons is weak, making me wonder if this is another marginal day. |
|
|
| Small updraft in front of outflow-dominant storms. |
|
|
| Cells are merging so I head south to the southernmost convection. |
|
|
| Small rotating storm just west of the town of Nickerson. |
|
|
| A tornado forms to my southwest. |
|
|
| Close-up view. |
|
|
| A couple of minutes later not far from my position on a quiet dirt road. |
|
|
| I see only two cars of stormchasers nearby so I assume everyone else targetted the more active areas of severe weather in Oklahoma and Texas today. |
|
|
| When cool downdrafts take over, I get back on the highway and head towards Nickerson. I soon discover that hundreds of storm chasers and locals have been watching this storm. |
|
|
| Just east of Nickerson, I chat with some friendly locals taking a break from their kids' cub scout meeting to find out why the tornado sirens are going off. Fortunately, the storm weakened before entering town. |
|
|
| I give up the chase after sunset and turn back south. After passing dozens of storm chasers who were still following the storm, I find a quiet road to take a final photo before dark. A perfect chase day. |
|
|
2007 Storm Pages:
Dave Chapman's Storm Chasing and Outdoor Photo Galleries