South-Central KS Tornado Warnings - Dec. 12, 2022

I often apply the old "if a bear takes a dump in the woods" adage to storms. 

If a storm gets tornado-warned, and it's out in the boonies away from phone cameras, does it produce a picturesque twister? If it's at night, the answer is, "who's to say?"

South-central Kansas saw a rare mid-December supercell thunderstorm on Monday, Dec. 12. Conditions set up for cells to intensify in the southwest and south-central portions of the state, near my first stomping grounds in Comanche County.

That part of Kansas is what I consider to be the quintessential landscape of the state. Rolling hills, creeks that swell with spring rains, century-old shelterbelts guarding farmhouses that've weathered all kinds of weather -- it's all found in the Red Hills region.

I spent my elementary school-aged years (up to 6th grade) living in rural Comanche County, in a great old house, watching storms come and go over our valley. I went to school in Protection, which is on the western side of Comanche County and was a roughly 30-minute commute from our house. The county to the west of Comanche is Clark County, and late Monday night the residents of Ashland, Sitka and Protection were under a tornado warning.

First, a tornado watch was issued by the Storm Prediction Center around 8:30 p.m. for part of the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. By 9:15, forecasters were discussing the possibility for isolated tornadoes as cells became more impressive on radar. Shortly thereafter, a tornado watch was issued that included Woodward, Okla., and spanned north to Pratt, including Clark and Comanche counties. The new watch indicated the possibility of golf-ball size hail and 70-mph winds in addition to the isolated tornado threat.

At 9:58 p.m., the National Weather Service office in Dodge City issued a tornado warning for Clark and Comanche counties. At exactly the same time, a Kansas Mesonet weather observation station eight miles south of Ashland in Clark County recorded a 57-mph wind gust just as the storm went tornado-warned. 

Also, look at the little heart-shaped hook echo appearing on reflectivity.

Courtesy Kansas Mesonet

The first tornado warning was in effect until 10:45 p.m. as the line of storm moved northeastward. A second tornado warning was issued for just Clark County at 10:51 p.m. The warning didn't last long, and was discontinued in favor of a special weather statement for much of south-central Kansas around midnight.

I haven't seen any photos of funnels or damage associated with this storm. The NWS Dodge City office is soliciting reports from residents via social media. It'll be interesting to see if there's any evidence of any ground contact or if this was simply radar-indicated rotation.

Also, for being a rare event, this is the second year in a row Kansas has had a December tornado warning. Last year we had a tornado warning on Dec. 15 for a line of storms that swept across the state. I'll look up some data on December warnings in Kansas and report back.

Until next time!