May 19

Doing the live severe weather update for the KCSSW group during the early afternoon of May 19 before the chase begins.

Satellite imagery around 1:30 pm showing tops of initiating storms poking above the stratus.

Storm initiation depicted by : pm radar.

People begin acting antsy in the KC metro a skies grow very dark. 

Early darkness sets in as storms build and a wave of fear and anticipation engulfs us living in Kansas City.

Bam! Big positive lightning bolt lands in front of me while trying to position ahead of the storms.

View northward into the storms. Rather nebulous with low-level clouds, but I take note of the backed winds.

3: pm TDWR radar reflectivity and velocity.  Storms remain largely unorganized and elevated, but the tail end appears to resemble supercell structure.

Extremely active lightning to my north reaches down below the low level clouds.

Scary but likely harmless scud cloud lowerings. But these do indicate a strong updraft.

Radar as I look into the storm complex. Note the broad rotation just to my southwest. The storm is currently dropping baseball-sized hail.

I decide to head southwest to change position. While getting ready to do so, a close lightning bolt almost nails me.

Pulled over on the highway to film the severe storm blowing over. Just after this I decide to head west to the dryline target for the next round of severe weather.

Radar presentation of the KC storm cluster and new dryline convection further west.

Mammatus clouds overhead on the anvil while heading west to position on new dryline storms.

Racing towards the severe thunderstorm on I-70 near Topeka, KS. The storm is currently producing unwarned funnel clouds and possible brief tornadoes according to other chasers.

Rather elongated supercell's radar presentation at 6:13 pm.

Storm anvil blowing to the north by the southwesterly upper level winds.

Updraft and anvil of the storm behind me.

Severe storm begins to show supercellular signs on radar.

Outflow and RFD of the outflow-dominant storm passes to my north.

Shifting my attention to a squall line coming out of the west.

Radar presentation of a now tornadic portion of the squall line to my west. I head to Dover to meet it.

Looking north into a clustered, now outflow-dominant mass of storms being absorbed into the line.

Heading south, the grungy shelf cloud can be seen to the southwest.

I bump into another storm chaser near Harveyville, KS. The storm is now weakening at this point, we chat it up about the day and our adventures chasing the Greensburg, KS storm the night prior.

The "whale's mouth" of the squall line passes overhead while chatting with another storm chaser I bumped into about the setup as well as our adventures during the outbreak the night before.

Outflow "whales mouth" pushing out and away to the east over town. I will then follow the storm east back home as it momentarily strengthens.

Apex of the line becomes tornadic as it approaches Missouri.