Freaka
words and photos
by Joе нammeke
OF NATURE
Atmospheric unrest
in Kansas
ANSAS IS HOME
to the longest lasting thun-
derstorms anywhere in the United
States. The average length of one of these storms
is 120 minutes. That's right, two hours. Spring thunder-
storms in Kansas are a result of cold Arctic air blowing down from Canada
via the jet stream and colliding with warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico.
We all know that hot air rises and cold air falls. The cold Arctic air stays low to the
ground, while the warm moist air is forced to rise above the cold front. The result of this is
the formation of clouds, much like the way clouds form while trying to get over a mountain.
Spring thunderstorms can bring lightning, gusty winds, heavy rain, hail, and tornadoes.
Heavy winds during a thunderstorm result in hail. The hail forms when the raindrops are
blown back up into the clouds.
The raindrops are forced high into the sky where the air is below freezing and causes the
raindrops to freeze and form ice drops, AKA hail. During its severe stage, a thunderstorm
can release as much energy in less than 30 minutes as an atom bomb.
Kansas what better place to spend Spring Break?
Chris Benge tweaks a mute grab over
the closest thing Kansas has to a hill.
The children of the corn.
Aaron Fletcher lets loose with a backside lipslid
March 12. Omaha, Neb.
Thad O'Connor, Dave Nelson, and I squeezed into Thad's Ford
Escort the Harrier. Thad pointed the Harrier toward
Lawrence, Kansas, the home of Dirty Al, and we took off. For
the next five days, Al was our tour guide as we tried to skate as
many places in Kansas as possible.
Some pre-trip research filled me in on the variety of tourist
attractions. Kansas is home to the world's second largest ball of
twine, the atomic cannon, and the barbed wire museum. If you
make it far enough west along I-70, you'll come across a
prairie-dog town, which is guarded by a six-legged cow. I
marked these locations on our map so that if we were nearby
we would remember to stop.
It was three hours later and mid-afternoon by the time we
made it to Dirty Al's. Before starting our trip, Al told us that if
he wasn't home that we could find him at the skatepark in
Lawrence. Since we were already three hours behind schedule,
we went directly to the park, only to find out that he went
home after all. It had rained earlier in the day, and as we would
realize, light rain is nothing in Kansas.
We dropped off our bags at Al's house to make room for him
in the car. Along the way to the skatepark he showed us this
small but gnarly drop-in at some old lady's house. The ramp
was made of rocks and the landing was a loose brick street. Al
dropped in and ollied the sidewalk to the brick street first try. I
guess flat spots wouldn't be an issue here. At the skatepark, Al
tore every line possible while the rest of us tried to work the
Neither rain, nor hail, nor sleet, nor snow
could keep Dave Nelson from ollieing this bar.
Kan't sas
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