Much More Than Expected in South Central Kansas 05/19/2012

Chasing is always full of surprises.  Sometimes we head out to a target with hopes of a significant event only to get sunburned in a cap bust.  And sometimes we head out prompted by a bad case of Supercell Deprivation Syndrome (SDS) on what looks to be a probably waste of gas, only to be caught off guard by what we find.  Saturday May 19th, 2012 was such a day.

Gene and Jason Caster met up in Cordell, OK and headed out at about 11:30 am for an initial staging point at Pratt, KS.  As we passed Medicine Lodge a short line of agitated cu was visible to the NW and by the time we arrived in Pratt to fuel up and set up for the chase we had towering cu and before long some rather high-based cells which we observed for a bit from the Wal-Mart parking lot.  First good sign that this would be a memorable chase...initiation within 25 miles of our staging point.   Eventually we headed N toward St. John and then E on US 50 toward Stafford encountering a bit of penny-sized hail on the way.  We set up on an initial observing point just E of Stafford at noted that, although the storm bases were quite elevated, there was some strong cloud-level rotation as RFD cut into the storm as it moved ENE.

Deeply-cut RFD slot with all kinds of crazy motion near Stafford at 4:01 CDT: