The day started off early with me up at 6am. to review the models and pick my outlook area. After spending 20 minutes looking at the models, I casually flicked on the radar and noticed a large supercell with hail firing up about 30 miles to my northwest. As I had a west exposure on my third floor room, I opened and took off the screen and managed to shot a few shots of the cell before it slowly slid to my east. I could not have made this cell and was looking for better storms in the afternoon.

The models were indicating that a dryline was forming and would push across the border of Colorado and Kansas southward in the late afternoon . With the dewpoints in the mid 60s, temperatures in the 80s, CAPES around 3000 and LIs to –6, I had a hard choice to make. Would I stick around and wait for the cap to break in Kansas or head down to the Texas Panhandle (where others were heading). SPC has posted a moderate chance with a slight chance of tornadoes today from Texas to Nebraska. After looking at the models again, I decided that Southwestern Kansas was a good spot. I headed toward Dodge City around 10 am. Taking Highway 54/400 towards Pratt and Bucklin. Looking at the clouds I was disappointed at the lack of visibility. Low levels clouds were thinning out and allowing the sun to shine but the conditions did not look the greatest. I headed to Dodge City from Bucklin on Highway 154/400 for about 12:30pm. and decided that further west was better. I tracked to the northwest on Highway 50/400 into Garden City around 2:30.

Filling up for gas I noticed that the truckstop had phones so I got my laptop and set up to check the weather situation. After 10 mins of not connecting I noticed that the phone jack was an odd size and, although it slide into the slot, the pins did not match up. Strike One. I headed to the local library and waited a few minutes to get online. This was definitely a great thing to learn as a cellular connection to the internet is costly and unreliable at best with slow connection rates. Things still looked promising for the area for around 6 pm. As I left, I made a phone call to a friend Ian at home and he said that storms were firing up along the dryline in the Texas Panhandle heading to the northeast. Things were firing but I was not seeing anything to exciting in my present location.

Well, time to head south and maybe catch the top end of the line. I progressed southward on Highway 83 towards Liberal when I started to see a few cumulus clouds building in the southwest. Ok, Things were looking better. I change course and headed towards Hugoton. The visibility was getting better but I still was not convinced that I as in the right zone. Strike Two. Follow your instincts. I headed further to the south and west toward Rolla when I saw a few cumulus cells start to build. They had very sharp updrafts and were looking good until, nothing. They hit the cap and just curled over and died. Strike 3. It was 6 pm. and the cap was still not broken. This was a bust day.

 
Building and Capped!

I made another phone call to Ian and he said the cells in Texas were heading northeast now and east of Liberal would be a good place. I was grasping for anything to make the day a success. I figured with night coming on I may get some good lightning shots. I headed east of 56 to 51 and headed south to Liberal to intersect Highway 54 back up to the northeast. I now figured that I did not want to stay in Dodge City so I continued northeast and began to see a few lightning strikes and some moderate rain. With the darkness came, nothing. I drove into Wichita by 10pm. to see one Lightning strike in 30 mins and an empty tank of gas with not much to show for it.