Daily Archives: June 11, 2008

Governor declares drought warnings? In Kansas? This spring???

June 11, 20083:40 p.m.

It’s no practical joke. While parts of Kansas have seen record-setting rainfall, other areas of the state are parched. The U.S. Drought Monitor has far southwest Kansas in “abnormally dry” to “extreme drought” conditions.

The governor’s declaration places drought warnings on Grant, Hamilton, Morton, Stanton and Stevens counties in southwest Kansas. Finney, Greeley, Haskell, Kearney, Meade, Scott, Seward and Wichita counties in western Kansas have been placed under drought watches.

The declaration comes even as much of the rest of the state grapples with saturated soils and reservoirs so full they’re flooding camp sites. Toronto, Fall River and Elk City state parks all have numerous camp sites under water, and Cheney, El Dorado and Kanopolis remain above conservation pool.

Wichita logged 13.14 inches of rain last month, nearly two inches above the previous record. The city remains more than 8 inches above normal for this time of year.

“That’s the way it works,” state parks director Jerry Hover said from Pratt. “Some parts of the state got way too much” rain, while others have been left out almost completely.

“If we could pump some of the excess water out west, everything would work out just right,” he said.

Alas, it doesn’t work that way.

See Thursday’s Eagle for more.

By Stan Finger | Filed under Flooding, Rain | Comments (1)

Storm chasers heading north for severe weather

June 11, 20082:42 p.m.

The Discovery Storm Chasers are in Omaha and Sioux City, Iowa, this afternoon, getting into position for a severe weather outbreak later today.

Those are good launch points, because the Storm Prediction Center has eastern Nebraska, western Iowa, the corner of Missouri, a morsel of Minnesota and a swath of northcentral Kansas in a moderate risk today.

“The greatest tornado threat would be…along the warm front near the Iowa-Minnesota border,” the SPC synopsis states. “This activity could pose a risk of strong/long-track tornadoes if it occurs.”

The Hastings, Neb., office of the National Weather Service warns that thunderstorms forming in northern Kansas could feature hail up to the size of baseballs and damaging winds up to 70 miles an hour. “A few tornadoes will be possible as well,” a weather service statement reports.

The most likely area of storm formation will be southeast of a line from Geneva, Neb., to Plainville, the weather service predicts.

By Stan Finger | Filed under Thunderstorms, Tornadoes | Comments Off

A record-setting tornado year?

June 11, 20089:16 a.m.

Officials for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say 2008 may well set records for tornadoes and tornado-related deaths.

With 111 deaths as of early June, this is already the deadliest tornado season since 1998, and tornado season has only reached the halfway point, said Greg Carbin, the warning coordination meteorologist at NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.

It’s also only the third time since 1974 that there have been more than 100 tornado-related deaths during a single season, said Harold Brooks, a research meteorologist at NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman. There were 132 deaths in 1998 and 122 in 1984.

Recent years have averaged about 1,200 tornadoes and 60 tornado-related deaths reported annually across the United States. Unusually turbulent weather may be to blame for this year’s spike in activity, forecasters say.

In previous years, major storms may happen every week or so, but this year they’ve been developing somewhere every three or four days. Tornado season started early, too: 87 tornadoes struck the South and the Midwest over a 24-hour period starting on Feb. 5, and Carbin said February will likely turn out to set records once all the tornado reports have been verified.

The tornadoes this season are also touching down in highly populated areas, NOAA officials said, increasing both the number of fatalities and the number of eyewitness reports for each tornado.

By Stan Finger | Filed under Tornadoes | Comments Off