Return of the Supercell: April 21, 2022

I’ve been out storm chasing several times so far this year, but most of the storm chases have been relatively underwhelming. This recent chase on April 21st, in southwestern Kansas, saw a return of the supercell. Well, there were actually several supercell thunderstorms. It felt as if this was the official kickoff to the spring chase season, as it marked the first chase that featured prominent supercell structure.

A cluster of storms developed just before sunset and continued off to the east. Almost as quickly as the storms formed, they began to fade away into the night, as the boundary layer cooled. Western Kansas is a favored storm chase area and this was a great example of why,