{"id":817,"date":"2015-04-03T14:43:45","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T21:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rammb.cira.colostate.edu\/training\/visit\/blog\/?p=817"},"modified":"2026-03-06T09:06:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T16:06:29","slug":"2-april-2015-severe-thunderstorm-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/visit-blog\/2015\/04\/03\/2-april-2015-severe-thunderstorm-event\/","title":{"rendered":"2 April 2015 severe thunderstorm event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On 2 April 2015, severe thunderstorms were forecast by the SPC as summarized in their Day 1 convective outlook graphic:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.spc.noaa.gov\/products\/outlook\/archive\/2015\/day1otlk_20150402_1300_prt.gif\" alt=\"20150402 1300 UTC Day 1 Outlook Graphic\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We will focus on the western edge of the enhanced outlook area which is roughly southeast Kansas, northwest Oklahoma, southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas.<\/p>\n<p>One of the key ingredients for this severe weather setup was an upper-level jet. \u00a0The GOES water vapor imagery overlaid with the RAP 250 mb isotachs for the late afternoon \/ early evening hours depicts this upper-level jet:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rammb.cira.colostate.edu\/templates\/loop_directory.asp?data_folder=training\/visit\/loops\/2apr15_wv&amp;number_of_images_to_display=15\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/rammb.cira.colostate.edu\/templates\/loop_directory.asp?data_folder=training\/visit\/loops\/2apr15_wv&amp;number_of_images_to_display=15<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The core of the jet is across southern Colorado, and quickly moves eastward across Kansas towards the threat area in southeast Kansas \/ northeast Oklahoma. \u00a0There appears to be a good correlation between the arrival of the upper-level jet streak and the timing of convective initiation in southeast Kansas.<\/p>\n<p>GOES visible imagery along with RAP 250 mb isotachs:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rammb.cira.colostate.edu\/templates\/loop_directory.asp?data_folder=training\/visit\/loops\/2apr15_vis&amp;number_of_images_to_display=13\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/rammb.cira.colostate.edu\/templates\/loop_directory.asp?data_folder=training\/visit\/loops\/2apr15_vis&amp;number_of_images_to_display=13<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Shows considerable cirrus at the leading edge of the jet streak across Kansas and in fact convective initiation occurs along a low-level convergence boundary around that time. \u00a0The low-level convergence boundary can be seen in southeast Kansas extending eastwards into southwest Missouri where convection occurred earlier and moved off to the east.<\/p>\n<p>A closer inspection of the visible imagery at 20:15 UTC:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/visit-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2015\/04\/vis2015.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-818\" src=\"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/visit-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2015\/04\/vis2015.png\" alt=\"vis2015\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/visit-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2015\/04\/vis2015.png 960w, https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/visit-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2015\/04\/vis2015-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a>shows the different boundaries and air-masses. \u00a0Unstable cloud streets can be seen along and south of the segment where convective initiation occurs. \u00a0Stable cloud streets exist further north and northeast of the boundary where cooler temperatures exist. \u00a0The thunderstorms developed at the northern edge of the lid associated with an elevated mixed layer profile.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On 2 April 2015, severe thunderstorms were forecast by the SPC as summarized in their Day 1 convective outlook graphic: We will focus on the western edge of the enhanced outlook area which is roughly southeast Kansas, northwest Oklahoma, southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas. One of the key ingredients for this severe weather setup was <a href=\"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/visit-blog\/2015\/04\/03\/2-april-2015-severe-thunderstorm-event\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,29,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-convection","category-severe-weather","category-tornadoes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/visit-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/visit-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/visit-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/visit-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/visit-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/visit-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6155,"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/visit-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817\/revisions\/6155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/visit-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/visit-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/visit-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}