I saw the wedge tornado at Bennington, Kansas, on May 28, but I wasn’t close enough. I would have moved closer had I known it would be on the ground for so long. This was a hard day and a harder lesson.

The mammatus were a sign of the storm’s vigor. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com

I chased today with Greg Stephens, Dayna Vettese and Brad Rousseau, Mark Robinson and his crewmate Jaclyn Whittal, Scott McPartland, Dave Lewison, Bill Hark and Robert Balogh. Our target was central Kansas, in the Salina area, in a day of many iffy targets for storms.

This target seemed the best of the lot (and the most reachable from our morning position in western Kansas), and conditions seemed more and more favorable as the day went on and we approached the target area near Salina. Storms fired in various targets this day, but this was the whopper, producing a 40-minute wedge tornado that barely moved.

Of course, we didn’t know it would barely move, so some of us had a more distant view than others as we got into position to intercept it. I’m one of those. But since it was my first wedge tornado in 17 years of storm chasing, I still count it as a pretty productive day, especially since no towns were struck.

Note: This post has been updated with information and images from my old Sky Diary site.

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