06/04/05 REPORTS: Plains

[Kurt Silvey]

What can I say that Amos, Darin B, and others haven’t already said. I sat at the Super 8 in Holton, KS and watched the storm fire just to my sw. I move w and then n to intercept near Circleville where I played on some nice KS dirt roads (thanks for 4 wd), then tracked back to the ne. I followed the storm into the Kickapoo Reservation, after passing a major chaser convergence at hwy 75 and state hwy 9 near Netawaka. At Horton I went n on 159 and worked my way ne to Robinson where the sirens where blaring. Somewhere between Horton and Robinson, I MISSED the tornado! DOH! I’m still trying to figure out what happened? After that I followed it to White Cloud in EXTREME ne KS where I got pinched by the river. I had to back track to the nw to Rulo, NE to cross and entered chaser hell, other wise called nw MO. Some where around I-29 I thought I saw the top of the Andrew County Tornado over a hill (or two), but not sure. I chased ne across MO but never caught up again. I finally gave in to the HP and hail and bailed on the still Tor warned storm in south central IA. 490 miles and nothing to show for it. Congrats to Mike P and others who did catch this one.

 

[Kiel Ortega]

Stayed in Norman until about 4:30 once the cells along a secondary dryline started to fire. Headed south towards the southern most cell along a number of state highways west of I-35. Eventually made it to the cell, but from poor visibility and lack of radar data could barely tell what to do/which way to go. Ended up in Marlow and from bad advice, went NORTH!!!! A friend of mine works with the dual-pol (KOUN) and it was operating...so we called back and got the best information we could (we only went back south because the dual-pol didn't have large hail along highway 81 at the time). Made into Marlow with impressive inflow bands and a large wall cloud. Slid through a stop sign (we had five people in a rather small car) right in front of a police officer....ooops, gotta remember wet brakes and a hill don't mix

Sat just outside of Marlow as the wall cloud got ripping. Started to scream at the storm not to drop a tornado or it was going right through central Marlow. Two great funnels, no tornadoes (I actually applaude this) and about golf ball size hail (some how we kept driving along the RFD/strong outflow this thing had...luckily I think the largest hail was back to our NE the whole time). Eventually made our way to Elmore City for a break and gas. Storm got a base again and we ended up on Bob's Road that led into Paul's Valley. Actually ended up under the electrical part of the storm and had some fun with lightning (had a bolt hit about 150 yds behind us!!! ). Crossed I35 and still saw the base, but got lost in residential streets in Paul's Valley. That was about it as we got into SERIOUSLY heavy rain and paddled our way through the streets of Paul's Valley. Got back to Norman about 10 to go drool over the radar of the storm we had just saw. Fun day....

 

[Billy Griffin]

Had an "interesting" time the past three days on this mini chase vacation. Still sucks that the thing that beat us the past two days, suckered us again... the CAP. I think the potential was really good up in NE Kansas, CAP just broke too soon. All the storms went up in a line, and we chased around the McPherson / Salina storm for a while. Departed Norman early Sat. morning and drove to ICT. Hung around there and kept thinking, "north or south?" Finally decided on north when PDS watch went up. Tried to catch the initial convection, but then opted for the southern-storm rapidly intensifying. Went from two "blips" on the radar to TOR warned in about 15 minutes! Storm went from nice wall cloud to completely outflow-dominant in a matter of minutes too. Darn !!

Later, we dropped back south and saw some great storm structure and took some really photogenic shots. Did manage to get some good funnel shots and REALLY close up video of the rotating wall cloud directly overhead :shock:

All in all, a very nice past three days. It was really fun, and had three nice chase partners plus my son riding along to share in the laughs along the way. Met a few chasers and had some good conversation.

Postings of photos and video clips are on... www.billygriffin.com

Congrats to everyone and let's hope we can continue some activity for the next few weeks.

 

[Mickey Ptak]

Not much to add to Shanes report but here is a pic from yesterday.

Tornado
www.mesomick.com/20050406/1.jpg

Big surprise but we got it with a lot of luck and nowcast guidance from Dwain.

Mick

 

[Chris Sokol]

Congrats to Chad and Shane on both their tornado and their turkey....Chad, I am convinced now that it must be you they are after (I still have feathers in my grill area). Same goes to the rest of you that met with success.

As for the rest...well, at least I drove a lot less distance than most of you to see nothing. After spending the day agonizing over my decision to play the dryline in OK, finially got things rolling to watch them fall apart quickly. The cells never really could get their act together (except for the Marlow storm). Gave up around sunset and drove back to my home county, where I stopped on the side of the road to watch the incredible light show with Lincoln County EM 2. Home in time for supper.

High risk days...I never have good luck with them. Give me a Slight with 2% day like today, and for some reason they pay off at a good percentage rate. On that note, I am out the door and headed south in about 1-2 hours. Good luck and happy hunting.


_________________

Should have gone to KS......*kick*.....

 

[Blake Naftel]

The day began with my left sandal falling apart in the OU map room
while acquiring data; which was promptly fixed using duct tape via
Robin Tanamachi. Once mobile again, I departed with my chase partner
Nathan Dahl meeting up with Jim Leonard en route to ITC. Our target
was the ITC to EMP region. The second negative of the day ensued
after spilling Dr. Pepper down my shirt into the crotchal region of
my shorts.

Proceeded to Newton; then east to a closed HW77. Rushed for time
here; alas will cut to the chase (played pun intended). Following
numerous construction delays N on HW15; our entourage was stopped by
a flagged for 10 minutes as an organizing TOR warned sup began to
develop a wall cloud. Apologize as I do not have a map in front of me
attm; but ventured N of Hope, KS just to witness the meso go whales
mouth and spoil the day.

Crowther and Ken Dewey joined the entourage as we zig-zagged back
south towards Emporia. Regardless of Matt's swaggering arm-motions,
it wasn't enough to create vorticity within the region. Saw a half-
funnel S of Madison; called it a day, and concluded the chase in
Emporia.

..Blake..

 

[Scott A. Kampas]

Due to vehicle and other problems I would not have been able to go out if it weren’t for Colin Davis. Many thanks to him. Was hard work but we did get a tornado near Hatfield MO from what I believe was the last hurrah of the Hiawatha supercell.

We couldn’t leave until about noon so targeted southwest Iowa rather than preferred target around Manhattan KS. Seeing maximum instability staying across extreme southern Iowa, plenty of deep-layer shear, and the boundary extending from northeast Kansas through Missouri and southern Iowa we stopped at the intersection of I35 and Rt. 2 just north of the Missouri/Iowa border, where we had data problems and a very murky overcast in increasing hills and trees. Called to elicit nowcasting from Andrew Pritchard who told us about a large impressive supercell with hook and strong couplet about 30mi southwest of us moving directly toward our position. Visually there was no clue whatsoever that a raging supercell was in the vicinity.

We dropped just south of the stateline on to windy local roads in the hilly tree-prolific terrain. We labouredly navigated to where Andrew and NWR indicated the couplet/tornado would track and eventually came upon fleeting views of a large stout meso. As we were closing we occasionally saw a blocky lowering (as we crested ridges with openings in the trees) that we weren’t sure was a tornado or scud until we turned a corner and finally had a decent view and got to within about 500 yards of the lowering before it became apparent it was rotating with swirling at the ground directly ahead over the roadway. We backed off some and stopped on another ridge with a rather decent view as the once quasi-conish funnel rather gracefully roped out. Unfortunately we didn’t get pics/video until we stopped at that hill as it had been too long since the last RainX application and the windshield was too dirty to shoot through. We tracked many more wall clouds, many of which rotating, but the air was cold and the storm going outflow dominant was done producing at the surface. We ended the chase near Leon IA and raced home east across Rt.2 to stay ahead of the now bowing out complex.

Numerous animals were out as we drove back. One deer ran into the side of the vehicle as we slowed and swerved to miss it. It caused no damage and the deer immediately got up and ran off. At about 9:30, prolific lightning illuminated a wall cloud directly ahead on a storm near Milton/Keosaugua that within minutes became tornado-warned. We stopped for a while and watched until it became rain-wrapped, then continued home. Will have pics up shortly.

Scott

EDIT: Some pics of the tornado as it decayed. Didn't get a chance to shoot best part of what I saw. Colin will have pics too.

 

[Russel Parsons]

Northeast Kansas Chase

My dad and I left Pittsburg, Kansas around 1100 hrs, with a target area to the southeast of Emporia, Kansas. We grabbed some data from wifi at a truck stop (Beto Jct.), located at the junction of I-35 and U.S. 75 Highways. We decided to travel west through Emporia, and then north to Council Grove. Stopped downtown Council Grove to get some radar data using wifi. I decided I didn't really want to chase anything north of I-70 today, so we turned around and headed back south, as lone cell (at the time I checked radar anyway) was popping in NE Butler county and heading northeast toward Emporia area. By the time we got far enough south cells started to become linear, however got a couple of pix of the north side of the decent looking Butler County storm we were after. We headed back home, after enjoying the beauty of the Kansas Flint Hills(worth the trip), and even got hailed on in Greenwood County by a severe storm(lots of marginally svr wind too). Got home around midnight after driving a total of 500 miles. Overall, somewhat disappointing day, as I was expecting more supercells, but nontheless not a bust. I did get to see severe weather, which I enjoyed just the same. There will always be a next time. :lol:

Russel Parsons

(Edit Links Added)

Pictures: http://rparsons.photosite.com/20050604NEECKS/

SEKS Weather Chase Blog: http://seksweather.blogspot.com/

 

[Edward Ballou]

My fiance and I didn't make it down to the good stuff yesterday. Manged to get to Sioux City and headed back home after we didn't see anything developing except to the north. So we went north and about 30 miles back into SD, we saw towers developing back to our south, so we turned right back around and went for it...

EDIT: Please note that geocities limits my bandwidth, so check back later if they don't work.

Funny hand tower...

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/8156...56/6-4-05-4.JPG

Cell we ended up chasing...

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/8156...56/6-4-05-3.JPG

Coming off the gravel backroads of the SD/IA border, looking west...

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/8156...56/6-4-05-9.JPG

Shelf cloud off the cell...(rather blurry - should have been more steady)

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/8156...6/6-4-05-14.JPG

All in all, heavy precip w/ dime size hail, beautiful shelf, and some beautiful bands of rain moving through the area. It did try for a wall cloud, not very successful though.

Sorry about the dates on the pics, last time I used it, the clock was right. Didn't see that until I got back home - now fixed.

 

[JR Hehnly]

I decided to stay in Oklahoma City for the duration of the day. I was scheduled to work all day, but had arranged to get off early to chase storms that would develop in Oklahoma. I left home at 4:15 headed southwest on I-44 but it soon became apparent that the storms were going to fire along and east of the interstate. I decided to take US 62 south through Newcastle and Blanchard to stay in front of the storms. We stopped a couple of times near Dibble to see which storm was going to become dominant and finally made a decision to get south toward the storm approaching the Marlow/Duncan area, this was about 5:30. By 6:00 we were hearing radio reports of a rotating wall cloud and funnel near Pumpkin Center, now 30 miles to our west. There was so much cloud debris and precipitation that we could not see any part of the base of the storm although we were now hearing of a large tornado on the ground. We finally got a good view of the storm just southwest of Marlow. The earlier tornado had dissipated, but the storm seemed to be reorganizing. It looked like every local in the county was out on Hwy 7 to see the storm. People were standing outside in the lightning yelling at their kids to stay in the car! We stayed just in front of the storm and traveled back east toward US 81. As we neared the highway the wall cloud wrapped back up and produced a funnel. From my vantage point I could not see any debris but scanner traffic was reporting power flashes at this time, indicating the tornado was in contact with the ground just west of Marlow. I was also hearing reports of large hail just to my west so I made the decision to go north through Marlow to get to Hwy 29 eastbound. I made it through just east of the approaching wall cloud and traveled east many miles in the powerful outflow blowing from the northwest. Fortunately the power lines were on the south side of the highway in case any of them snapped. After getting on the inflow side again we stopped for some more pictures. This time there were more chasers and media than locals, I think. We ended up at Interstate 35 near dark and decided to call it a day. On the way back I got some great lightning shots just south of Norman.

http://www2.okstorms.com:8080/images/chase...06-04/index.htm

 

[Larry J. Kosch]

Storms in Lincoln NE

hey gang. Props to those that caught a torn or two and better luck for those that missed them!
I didn't really feel like storm chasing as my right knee was acting up. And I didnt really think about the action
coming up from Kansas, where it was all brewing and blowing up. Besides I wanted to stay at home
in Lincoln NE to watch the regional baseball tournament on TV. it almost turned out the storms were chasing after me!!

The BB game between Nebraska Cornhuskers and Creighton Bluejays was moving along just fine when they suspended the game due to a tornado warning. :shock: Warning?? :shock: :shock: Had to run outside to see the clouds for myself. The main body of the storm system passed me to the east on it way north-northeast. There were no confirmed tornado from this storm, but after seeing these photos I would think we were close to getting one!!

This photo was a real eye-opener for me. I saw the area to the right clear out and the cloud portion on the right of the photo started dropping down. I told my wife and daughter thats a "rear flank downdraft". They both laughed at me like I made a joke or something. Then I saw the "doughnut" shape develop. It had a counter clock wise circulation and I said thats a wallcloud and I took the photo.

Heres the storm that produced the tornado warning in Lancaster County in Lincoln NE. It delayed the BB game between Nebraska and Creighton for about an hour. It moved on north of Lincoln and produced this great back side shot.

Later in the evening, as the main storm group passed, a single cloud tower tried going up. But because of the cooling conditions in the wake of the main storm, it failed to sustain itself. Still made a good photo.

Will try to hook up with someone this June for a storm chase.

 

[J.B. Dixon]

For a High Risk day, there were a lot of ways to drop the ball on Saturday. My original thoughts leaving Seward around 12:30 were to head to I-29 and drop south towards Hiawatha/StJ, knowing that anything going up is in front of me to the west. And seeing the turkey necks going up north of Topeka told me that it might be the right play. Still, something was tugging at me about playing the Low that was dropping towards the NE/KS border. I stopped for gas in Bennet on Hwy 2 on my way to meet up with Randy Chamberlain (who I believe was fighting a "terrible cold" ) in Nebraska City. After Randy talked to Mike Hollingshead, it was determined that the right play was to drop straight south towards Marysville/Manhattan. Changing directions, and stopping for a quick data stop at a buddy's house (who I easily convinced to tag along for his first official chase), the MD that had gone up for NE KS convinced me that we had to get south quickly.

The plan was to meet up with Randy and Mike H. at the Holiday Inn Express, where another quick data grab would steer the way. By the time we got there (10 minutes behind Mike & Randy), the boys were already hauling A** south! So, it was a game of catch up for about an hour and a half, ducking south and east through Marysville, and pausing to get our bearings after meeting up with them NE of Manhattan, as towers exploded over us. THAT was the fateful decision, and at the time, it seemed like the right play: Drop south and play the cells firing south of Manhattan. All of the parameters pointed to those storms going tornadic. So, off we went, blazing south over I-70, through Alma, and into an area where the song "Dueling Banjos" instantly pops in your head. Yeesh. Finally on an east-west road, we headed back towards Hwy 177 south of Manattan, where things looked fairly unorganized, but still promising. Venturing closer to a lowering (seen in Ryan McGinnis's shot), BAM!! We slammed into the cool outflow, easily a 20-25 degree drop. Depression quickly set in. This storm was in no position to produce much of anything at this point. So, there we sat, wallowing in our own pity, for a good half-hour. (see McGinnis's pic of confused men trying to look important and engaged while staring blankly at the sky.

After deciding just how to play this tail-ender, with other convection now starting up south of Emporia, with each return of the radar it seemed this Manhattan cell was getting some new life.......the only problem was, we were in no position to attack it, without a core punch. So, after dwelling on what might have been, my chase partner and I broke off from the boys and headed to Manhattan, as the cell drifted further NE.

It was a frustrating day for sure, but we were not alone out there. Hindsight is ALWAYS 20/20, and when I made the call to Mike peregrine earlier in the day (rural Nebraska: the region that cell phones forgot!), I had every intention of heading that direction. Ugh.

A big thanks to Mike H. for being so gracious with his XM set-up (I feel like I owe him a piece of his monthly bill!), and to Randy, for being, well, Randy. (that's a compliment!) Nice to meet Ryan McGinnis, as well, as we got acquainted by me backing into his Honda. Ryan, you know where to find me! Send me the bill, man.

Chasing for me will be limited this week, but it should definitely yield some action. Let's not all seek counseling yet, Kids. June has been very good to us in the past, so keep the faith!

 

[Ben Leitschuh]

-I left Iowa City around 9 and called Jayson Prentice nearing Council Bluffs and decided on NE City as a target. Arrived in NE City around 12 and sat and waited for initiation. Jayson talked me into heading farther south and I drove south on 75 I believe towards KS. Saw towers forming and dieing in E-NE KS with some nice orphan anvils. One tower looked to be gaining strength fast, so I drove south towards it and ended up in Sabitha KS.
-Watched the now supercell approach and quickly became severe warned. Doppler had it moving NE, so I repositioned farther east in Hiawatha. I sat on the edge of Hiawatha near the highway and waited for this HP-looking beast. I figured I was in good position, but it started raining harder, so I drove south to get out of it. As soon as I cleared the rain, I saw a scudish meso to my west. I drove west towards it on a county road and parked to snap some shots. The meso quickly organized and started rotating rapidly as it neared my position. At this point it became torn-warned and I started to realize that I was too close to this thing as winds were rotating all around me, so I booked it east down the road maybe a half mile or so and saw a funnel dropping in my mirror.
-I quickly pulled over and positioned my self and shot video of the tornado forming. Met Bill Doms here and it seemed like we were the only ones in the area, we had great contrast/angle. The tornado moved NE less than a mile in front of us and crossed the road north of us very close. It had a nice debris cloud with housing material swirling with it, as it crossed the road it crossed some power lines and we were concerned that the ones 5 feet from us may come down too. After crossing the road we jumped in our cars and followed it a mile or so until it blasted south away from the meso and quickly dissapated. It was on the ground for 15 or so minutes. Let me tell you this thing was beautiful.
-From this point I teamed/convoyed up with Bill Doms as he had GPS navigation and radar data. We followed a road until it was blocked by the damage path and we hopped out to see if a man standing outside his farmhouse was alright. My heart goes out to this man. He was dazed and confused, but untouched which cannot be said of his property. The tornado had knocked down a tree which contained a bee-hive so we had to take off , after we learned authorities were on their way, because I was getting stung by the swarm! We tried to catch up with the storm which now had a messy-looking meso at this point. We had to drive through the left split or new forming supercell to its SW and skirted the reportedly large hail. As we looked for a way to cross the river into MO we saw nearly every chaser in KS.
-After crossing the river we stopped near a gas station to assess the radar and found that both storms looked rather junky even though both were still torn-warned. Bill Doms headed towards St. Joseph, MO at this point to upload video. I remained to get shots of approaching left split/new supercell? and left for home as I saw no noticeable rotation, only a massive hail shaft.
-I headed over to 35N to head to Des Moines then 80 home, but was forced to seek shelter near the IA/MO border as what looked on radar to be a bow-echo was quickly overtaking me. What a nasty looking gust front, end of the world type stuff. I quickly became concerned as hail and high winds rocked my car at a gas station where I saw DOW3 and the tornado intercept vehicle and their numerous car posse. The rest of the night was spent riding the back of this line of storms towards Iowa City, where the storm intensified and a radar indicated tornado warning was issued 15 miles north of me.
-All in all an amazing and scary chase. I know we got too close on this one, but I made sure escape routes were available. Thanks to Jayson Prentice for his nowcasting/advice and Bill Doms for getting us past a nasty cell and across the river. Check out Bill Doms site for more pics and video as I don't know how to upload my own video. http://www.mnwxchaser.com/60405.html

My Photos.
http://photobucket.com/albums/y211/BLeitsc...6-4-05%20Chase/

 

[Scott Olson]

Well me and Ashley Wakeman first intercepted a cell just west of Nebraska City. After watching it a while I wasn't very impressed so we begin going SW towards Lincoln. We intercepted the cell was tornado warned there and it did show healthy features. I was drawn to a cell that at that time was just a little NW of Lincoln, healthy looking with good inflow. The cell was beautifully structured with a sort of brewing cloud movement and a wall cloud. We took east quickly to make sure we still had visibility on the wall cloud. As we moved north of Waverly a condensation funnel reached down towards the ground and we got out and taped it's 10-15 second lifespan. Just looked at the footage and it looks pretty convicing. LSR's don't seem to show this tornado and im curious if anyone else saw this tornado which would have been 2-3 miles north of Waverly/Greenwood. I'll post once I get back.

 

[Bill Hark]

This will qualify as one of the longest chases. I started the day in Richmond, Virginia. I had known Saturday would be potentially explosive for several days and had gotten airline tickets Tuesday afternoon for Kansas City. At 4PM Friday, I did a final check of the models and current data and decided to bag my 6:30PM flight. I was especially concerned about the lack of good backed winds across the target area of eastern Kansas and lack of focal areas of precipitation and I hated to spend the money for a bust day. I went to see Star Wars, then I checked data at 1AM. Wow, the 00Z ETA had dramatically changed from previous outputs with a developing low and backed winds across eastern Kansas. With high CAPEs and upper level support, this day appeared to a potential outbreak. My forecast was confirmed by the SPC issuing a moderate risk at 2AM. I quickly repacked my gear and got a ticket for Kansas City leaving Richmond, Virginia at 6:30AM. They used my credits for the Friday ticket. My initial target would be Topeka, Kansas. Unfortunately, I was so excited I got no sleep.

I arrived in Kansas City about 10:30AM and I could already see the low level moisture streaming north. I haven’t seen this since 2004. I stopped just west of Topeka to get lunch and check data using a nearby hotel. The SPC had upgraded to a High Risk. I saw two potential areas, one slightly north of Topeka and the other near Wichita. I was concerned about the lack of a strong SE wind. The best backed winds were initially to the south. I waited and soon towers began to form slightly west of Topeka along a boundary. I liked the 70 dewpoint and Cu field but was worried about the calm winds. I drove west and positioned myself by exit 346, just south of Willard. There was a cluster of towers and developing cells to my west and north moving northeast. Initially, none were dominant. I was concerned about something developing to the south and hesitated, maybe for too long. I started north at 2:45PM to intercept the lead cell in Pottawatomie County. I didn’t like targeting a northeasterly cell in a developing line. I have always learned to go after the most southern cell. I turned north on 63. There were two cells (still high-based) to my north, but the easterly one was becoming dominant. They were moving to the northeast. At 3:15PM, I turned east on 16 and then north on 62. Visually and on XM, I was not impressed by the storms. At 3:55PM, I passed the Kickapoo Truck stop on 75. The storm was to the northeast. I SHOULD HAVE turned east on 20 but I continued north. I planned on turning east on 36 and catching the southern part as it passed to the north. I figured there was still plenty of time and also wanted to keep my south option open. I also think lack of sleep played a role and I was distracted looking at the map when I passed the turn off. I had the camcorder rolling when I passed the east option, and I now can forever review my screw-up. Anyway, I continued north and then east on 36. The storm was looking much better on radar and I was now west of the core. I was encountering heavy rain and hail up to a few golf balls. I stopped by a Walmart just to the west of Hiawatha to let the core pass. Then I heard the tornado warning and reports by a radio station of a tornado sited near their studio. If I had punched the core at that point, I may have been able to see something but I didn’t want to drive into the tornado. I continued through the southern edge of the core after most of it had passed. At 4:33PM, I could see an area of strong rotation pass to the north across 36 (I was east of it) but no tornado. I followed the storm by continuing east, then north through the town of Highland. There was rotation but no more tornadoes. I got stuck on this awful road that goes northwest along the Missouri River. The western border is an embankment covered with trees that block any western view. The main storm continued across the Missouri River, and I was out of road options.
I continued through the no man’s land of extreme southeastern Nebraska, Northeastern Kansas. Near Falls City, I had the option of going east toward Missouri or dropping south along the approaching line of storms. I decided to go south on 73, slowed by avoiding the cores of hailers. The storms were becoming more linear and close together. A massive line of storms was approaching from the west. I decided against trying to target areas of rotation in the line as these brief spinups are very hard to chase. The day was over. I headed east on 36, then south on 29. I did briefly go back to St. Joseph as one storm in the line formed a hook as it approached the city and was tornado warned. I was too close not to give it a try but I saw nothing. I went back to Kansas City and took an 8:30AM flight home.

Thus ends my tale of woe. I am pissed at myself, tired, and disappointed as I was so close yet missed a beautiful tornado mainly because of my own stupid mistake. It’s on my tape so not only can I remember it forever, I can watch the precise moment it was made. And after two weeks and 7000 miles chasing under a ridge.

A few other items of note and learning points: The “tops†on XM verifies nicely visually with the development of towers. I won’t chase on no sleep and maybe I’ll core punch if necessary and reasonably safe. The road network in northeastern Kansas is awful. Finally, Tim Vasquez has amazing forecast ability. His initial main target area was Holton, Kansas just south of where the tornado formed. If I had only parked my self in Holton instead of waiting too long in Topeka and watching the southern areas. ARRGGGGGHH!

Some images

The main part of the core had passed to the north and I was able to head east on 36. I broke through the precip but the tornado had ended. View facing east.

I saw the area of significant rotation pass over 36, but no tornado.

I followed the Hiawatha storm north and east. It was looking better with strong rotation but I was curving to the north along the Missouri river with no east option. It produced another tornado in Missouri.

Bill Hark[/img]