Last evening across western Kansas, a monster supercell formed and slowly moved northward. This storm formed along a boundary interaction with the dryline to form this, and other, supercells.
This was an absolute beast, and produced upwards of a dozen tornadoes as reported by some chasers on the storm. Because of its relative isolation, this storm became the chaser hub. Twitter blew up with tweets of the Kansas Supercell greatness, and Dodge City even began to trend for a little bit.
What was behind this storm, though? Well, a lot of things, actually. The boundary layer environment was very warm and moist, leading to an extremely unstable environment. CAPE values were in the 4000 j/kg range by last evening, which was plenty high enough to support a storm of this magnitude.
The storm formed along a dryline bulge, which is just a point of initiation for severe thunderstorms. At these points, surface moisture convergence is highest, and this is favorable for storms to develop. Additionally, this storm formed almost exactly at the point where the outflow boundary left from storms to the southeast and the dryline intersected. This resulted in an intense Kansas supercell forming.
The storm went up into a favorable shear profile that just got even better in the lower levels as the evening progressed forwards. This allowed for the storm to continue producing tornadoes even after the circulation would reform, and the storm would cycle through again and again for a couple of hours. Additionally, the discrete nature of this system and slow storm motion vectors allowed for the storm to sit alone in an unstable and increasingly sheared profile.
All of this combined to create one monstrous Kansas supercell. It was almost unbelievable to watch unfold. Unfortunately, the storm did impact some structures just outside of the Dodge City downtown, but it avoided directly hitting Dodge City, and that is definitely a plus. As was stated previously, the storm became chaser central last evening, and there were hundreds of pics posted on Twitter. Check some out!
RT @jgodwinWX: .@NWSDodgeCity Managed to get a shot of one of the tornadoes from yesterday with the 88D in it. pic.twitter.com/5d7DTMQMEU
— NWS Dodge City (@NWSDodgeCity) May 25, 2016
My photo of 3 #Tornadoes at once in #DodgeCity #Kansas @mikebettes @NWSDodgeCity @spann @DrGregForbes pic.twitter.com/dqYQm304FI
— James Wilson (@nmjameswilson) May 25, 2016
@NWSDodgeCity DOW7 data (prelim!) of multiple #tornadoes and MVMC near DDC on 5/24. Pods deployed, too! #TWIRL pic.twitter.com/KFSB81x7OQ
— karen kosiba (@karen_kosiba) May 25, 2016
Side by side tornadoes just NNW of Minneola, Kansas yesterday. @islivingston making another cameo: @USTornadoes pic.twitter.com/fGBUhtWUfp
— Quincy Vagell (@stormchaserQ) May 25, 2016
Intense day near Dodge City, KS. #KSwx pic.twitter.com/HcT4XGIYLb
— D☈D (@drdabroholos) May 25, 2016
Safe at our hotel in Great Bend, KS! #WKU #KSwx pic.twitter.com/zLvFNh9vpu
— WKU Sto☈m Chase☈s (@wkustormchase) May 25, 2016
Tornado north of Dodge City destroying a building, thankfully unoccupied at the time pic.twitter.com/QAor9WU7La
— Chad Cowan (@stormtimelapse) May 25, 2016
One family had a very close call today north of Dodge City, KS. Tornado missed the house by 50 yards pic.twitter.com/maOhluoVQA
— Greg Johnson (@TornadoGreg) May 25, 2016
Numerous tornadoes across KS today. Amazing sat imagery. pic.twitter.com/Swejjrkl2Q
— Brian Urbancic (@burbancic) May 25, 2016
4K VIDEO of the strongest #tornado of the evening yesterday south of Dodge City, KS! @breakingweather #kswx pic.twitter.com/5Whul4SMiA
— Reed Timmer (@reedtimmerTVN) May 25, 2016
Keep the families that took a direct strike from this tornado in your thoughts and prayers as I’m sure today hasn’t been easy for them. The atmosphere is amazing and destructive all at the same time, and it is humbling to see a storm like this produce tornado after tornado after tornado within a short amount of time.