After two months of researching thunderstorms in Kansas, local weather enthusiast Scott Kehler has returned home.

Kehler was in Kansas taking part in a field project called PECAN, or Plains Elevated Convection At Night. The project was set up to try and figure out why thunderstorms happen more often at

(Surface weather observing pod)night than during the day.

"Over the course of the project various teams were out researching thunderstorms over the overnight period by launching weather balloons into them, taking measurements using weather stations, and there were even aircraft flying through these storms," notes Kehler. "It was a major project and the results will be analyzed over the coming years to try to figure out why all these storms are happening at night."

Kehler is a Masters student at University of Manitoba, with roots in Steinbach. He says the entire team consisted of about two hundred people, made up of universities from all over the United States. There was even a student from Great Britain.

Teams were scattered across the state. Kehler was stationed in Hesston. Many days they would get up in the early afternoon and analyze the current weather. By early evening they would make a decision whether or not they would be observing thunderstorms that night. On working nights, they

(Doppler radar on wheels)would go into the field around 7pm and collect measurements for the next six to twelve hours.

Kehler notes there weren't a lot of storms in Hesston, but he did see two tornadoes, referred to as a "bonus." Kehler says these tornadoes were small.

As far as why thunderstorms most often happen at night, Kehler says there are a few theories. One theory is that perhaps it is a lag factor from storms that form during the day.

"As we all know, storms usually tend to fire up late in the afternoon or early in the evening after you've had a day of strong heating from the sun," explains Kehler. "This theory says maybe the storms at night are just a carry over from what happened during the day."

(National Weather Service radar in Wichita, Kansas)Kehler says a second theory is a phenomenon called, Low Level Jet. This is a very strong low level that forms just above the ground during the night, which could help develop new storms after sunset.

"Those are two of the theories that are kind of floating around but we don't have enough evidence to prove either one yet so that's sort of why this project took place," says Kehler.

For Kehler, he says one of the highlights happened early on in the project. He notes they had all the equipment for PECAN stationed temporarily in Hays, Kansas and it was quite an impressive armada. There were eight Doppler radars on the back of large trucks, an aircraft, six trailers with instruments and a variety of cars with weather stations.

"It was an absolutely great experience," says Kehler in reflecting on the past two months. "It's something that I have kind of wanted to do my whole life and I finally got to do it. Being able to interact with world class scientists for the two month period was terrific and I learned a lot from it. I hope to bring all that knowledge back to Manitoba and hopefully we'll improve forecasts here with what we learned."