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Hey Gary,

On Thursday, is this a situation where thunderstorms that occur in the morning (should they move through our area) affect storm development for the afternoon/evening?  Or will the atmosphere be able to recover anyways?

Thanks,

Pete

The big question I have for tomorrow is whether the afternoon Royals game will get to be played.  A group from work is going and I am wondering about the rain threat during the game.
Thanks,
Diane

Off Topic Question, but... seemed like a good day to do it since the weather will be quiet until tomorrow and I figured if anyone would know it would be the syky watchers inthis group.

I like to take my wife to go look at beautiful sunsets.  We have a standing date on the first Sunday of every Month to go view a sunset.  

I was wondering if anyone here knew of any especially great places we could go? (preferably withing 15 or 30 minutes of 95th and Antioch area in Overland Park)

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Jeff,

Maybe the bloggers know of a few spots.  I love great sunsets!  I suggest Kauai in Hawaii, on the rainy side.

Gary

about the highest point in the southwest part of town, I think, is around 119th and Antioch, that's pretty close to you... or 119th and Quivira... that's a pretty high ridge going through there and you can see a long ways.

Olathe East High school parking lot has an incredible view from their parking lot - I saw the wall cloud over Lenexa the other day that Brett saw from SkyTracker, and could have had a PERFECT picture of it - but there are more trees to the west, so a sunset wouldn't be as visible.

So much for no rain till later today!!!  According to a few radars, it appears a line of storms has developed near Topeka and are moving this way...toward Lenexa.  Looks as if they could be here between 10 and 11 this morning....if they hold together, which currently looks like they will.  Any other opinions on this? **** Its 10am and its not raining in Lenexa.  Look for some later today.  Brett

I have a question about a pretty neat looking cloud I saw yesterday as I was driving from Osawatomie to Garnett.

I have seen one like this before but am not sure what the name of it is.

It looked almost like a rolling wave of water.  It was very long horizontally & stretched for miles.  It wasn't a really tall cloud, as I could see the sky above & below it.

It was very pretty but a bit scary at the same time because I didn't know what that cloud could mean/produce.

Any ideas on what kind of cloud it could have been?

Hamons
I too am a sunset fan.  I love to take photos of the sunsets.

Have you ever been to Wyandotte County Lake?  That's a great spot to look at one, the best spot there is near shelter 1 across from the Hall, or anywhere on that side.
Another good spot is Quality Hill, a couple years ago my hubby N I went and got some really good shots from there.  I can't remember the name of the park there, but I'm sure someone else here can fill that in for you.

Stacy

Gary,

maybe I didn't pay attention to the forcast last night but the rain was a surprise this morning.  I got aprox a tenth of an inch.

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We were tracking the thunderstorms last night at 10 PM.  And, the weakening activity made it in here.  I wasn't surprised at all.  But, this mornings line to our west is surprising me a bit.

Gary

hey CHASE:

You named it precisely!  That was probably a roll cloud.  It usually occurs with a gust front on a leading edge of a line of thunderstorms.  Sometimes, it can signal possibly microburst chances.  It is made by cool air sinking air from a storm cloud's downdraft spreads out across the surface with the leading edge, hence the "gust front".  This outflow undercuts warm air being drawn into the storm's updraft. As the cool air lifts the warm moist air water condenses creating cloud, which often rolls with the different winds above and below.  Hope this helps! Jim in Clinton.

I had .17 here this morning at 130th and State Avenue. Looks like that line of storms just west of KC is still holding together. Will be another nice drink for all of the flowers! By the way Gary, this morning's future cast run did not show much in the way of rain for KC on Thursday? Is this storm system going to miss most of KC to the south?

Bryan

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Bryan,

I am waiting to blog on this until sometime this afternoon.  But, I think there is a 90% chance of thunderstorms early in the day Thursday.  Late Thursday into Friday is very complex.

Gary

Thanks Jim!  It was an awsome site.  We didn't have any rain or storms with it though, so I wasn't sure what it was exactly.

Thanks for the info!

Gary:

Good Mid Morning!!! Second blog today-wow-is it December or June LOL!!!!

Just curious: watching these scattered storms I was looking at the forecast hour of the RUC and it appeared that there was a small kink at the 700 MB level sitting just south of Ottawa in the flow-is that what is kind of sparking these or is that even there and I have once again made myself look foolish!!! LOL

Just curious-can still really see the front in Western Kansas and the surface low in South Dakota on the surface observations-should be an interesting next 48 hours!!! Not heading back to the cabin until Saturday so hopefully I will get a chance to track some of this!!!

As always, thanks for reading and have an excellent day!!!!

Bill in Lawrence

Jeff, have you been out to the Overland Park Arboretum?  It is gorgeous out there and you can catch a beautiful sunset as well as walk around on the wonderful trails.  They have a lake that is out in the open where you could watch the sunset after walking on the wooded trails. It is right off 69 south at the 179th St. Exit.

Oh, I should have added a link for the aboretum.  And I wanted to say what a romantic you are, taking her to see a sunset every month. That is wonderful!

http://www.opkansas.org/_vis/arboretum/

You said that Olathe got .1" or rian, my gage says. . . . . 3.00". What do you think happened?

Chase, et. al.,

I noticed the same feature (a horizontal roll cloud) the other day...the one I observed was on Monday morning around 98:15-9:30am here in Northeast Kansas.  I just got the photos from that morning uploaded and since you asked, I might as well post a link.  The images are in the "gallery" portion of NotesInTheMargin.com:
http://www.notesinthemargin.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=270

I also stitched together several photographs into a panoramic view.  The seams are still visible, but this shows the entire spread of the feature:
http://www.notesinthemargin.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=290

Larger version:  Scroll L>R to see entire view:
http://www.notesinthemargin.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=290

I posted this a few days ago during some severe weather here and Jeremy thought I should repost at a calmer time.  I wanted to emphasize that people should take severe thunderstorms seriously even if the tornado sirens are not going off and not rely on outside sirens.  

I was in Omaha last Sat evening/Sun morning when tornados struck the Millard area.  My husband and I were awakened around 2:15 to very strong winds, lightening and rain.  I went to check the weather on my Dad's computer in the basement and the line was clearly a bow echo and no warnings had been issued at the time.  While I sat watching it out the basement window (the 2-3 ft diameter oak in his front yard was nearly at a 90 degree angle and several transformers were being blown just to the South), according to the NWS report (see link below), a tornado was directly overhead and the two merged 3 blocks from where we were.  The sirens went off after this and, because of the wind, we could barely hear them (it certainly wouldn't have woken us up)

This occurred in the middle of the night in a bow echo event, so to expect the NWS to be able to find a spin-up tornado in an atypical tornado event when no spotters are out really isn't realistic (e.g., NKC a month ago).  I'd suggest buying a weather radio and erring on the side of "better safe than sorry."  Lucky for us, his house got no damage--I would have felt terrible with the other 5 members of the family still upstairs oblivious to what was going on.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=oax&storyid=15241&source=0

I should also note that this roll cloud actually came *after* the wave of overnight convection Sun>Mon instead of on the leading edge which is where they are normally located.  

As I photographed it, it progressed over our location and as it rolled east, it became much more ragged and ill-defined.  

i dont know if we got any rain, i dont think so I didnt hear anything and it didnt seem like we got any this morning but really i dont know!

my search is on for lawn care and a fertilizing company to do my lawn, talk about a pain!

This weather has me bummed out. I don't know if I should cancel my ride in Collins, MO this weekend. The NOAA forecast for that area has rain on Friday.

Not to mention, If we get 2+ inches of rain, my basement will take on water again. Got an estimate to have it fixed... Going to have to get a second job to pay for all this rain and storm damage. Insurance won't pay since we don't have flood insurance, what a racket!!

So I just hope this rain goes poof or less amounts come.

Last night we were out in Wamego - on the motorcycle - (normally if we are going a distance I  check the blog, look at radar, etc- not yesterday, just jumped on with hubby and zoom!) we saw the coolest cloud, I told one of the ladies that it looked like an ocean wave- I was going to ask about it today- and looky there someone posted and asked what kind of cloud it was. There was a brief shower with it and as we were heading back east on I70, we followed a storm, lightening and rain shafts back to Topeka (on N side of 70) where we caught up with it and decided to stop for dinner. In the mirrors (so looking west and  heading east) you could see clouds rolling in and the sun was setting- just beautiful. Made it home without getting wet, which is always good!

Dear Hamons,

I like the view from a bench just above the end of the dam at Watkins Mill State Park.  You are overlooking the dam and the lake.  The bench is up the hill on the way to the camping area.  It doesn't cost anything to get in (unlike Kansas state parks!)  

NotesInTheMargin,  You are right it was Monday, not yesterday.  (I went to Garnett both mornings.)

Thanks for posting those photos, I had told my mom I wish I would have had my camera with me to get some pics of it.

0.08" of liquid in the rain gauge this morning over East of Lawrence.

Jeff,
I don't know how you feel about Case Park in the Quality Hill area of downtown KCMO.  I once saw a really cool sunset from there in July 1993 when the Kansas and Missouri Rivers were about to peak in flood.  

Also a beautiful site is driving towards downtown from eastbound I-670.  My dad has commented that is a favorite view of downtown with the sun reflecting off the buildings.

Kristi

Great photos, Notes!

I haven't downloaded my pics from Sunday yet.

Kristi

Hi bloggers and Weather Team --My office in Des Moines called me and told me they are evacuating part of downtown...water is coming up from the manholes..looks like it will get worse before it gets better in Des Moines, as more significant rain is on the way tonight and tommorow- this could be a record flood year for them..

JP

Thank you everyone that has shared ideas on KC's greatest sunsets.  I will add them to my list -- KEEP MORE COMING.

Re: The Arboretum -- Thats where we were married -- so yes - I'm familiar :)

JCPnKC

My mom lives up by waterloo cedar falls in New Hartford, the entire town got flooded and mandatory evacuations.  More raing up in central and NE Iowa the next couple days, could exasperate flooding.  Cedar Rapids getting hit over next day or two

Thanks, NotesInTheMargin, for sharing such spectacular photos.