July 8th and 9th landspouts

July 8th Landspouts

A small thunderstorm developed over Barton County between 600pm and 630pm on July 8th and tracked slowly south. This storm developed in an environment with abundant low level instability along a surface boundary. These two conditions are favorable for the development of landspout tornadoes, which are weak tornadoes that are not formed through typical supercell processes. Instead of the thunderstorm having deep persistent rotation which may eventually form a tornado, a landspout producing storm encounters pre-existing low level rotation which its updraft stretches into a weak tornado. This small storm eventually produced a landspout tornado near the town of Seward.

Radar image from around 630 pm showing the small storm which produced the landspout.

Picture of landspout near Seward. Picture taken by Kent and Paula Rixon and courtesy of KSN

Picture of the landspout near Seward. Picture taken by Karen Loving and courtesy of KSN

July 9th Landspouts

The following day, July 9th, conditions were again favorable for thunderstorms producing landspout tornadoes. One small storm developed along the turnpike southwest of Emporia around 4 pm. This lone storm produced several funnels and a landspout.

Radar image from around 4 pm on July 9th showing the small storm that produced a landspout tornado

Photo taken by Jeff Sass and courtesy of KSN

Photo taken by Curtis Wells near Bazaar, KS.