Initially I decided (Along with Mickey Ptak) NOT to chase as everything was going to be to far to the East and late evening (DARK) storms. Well, about 2:30 a friend called and said he would spring for gas and so I went.
There was a narrow band of low level clouds moving east from about Pawhuska when we started out. Noth really exceptional, just a low level set of very low topped Cu. We were basically behind the power curve for most of this chase and floowed these coulds along the Kansas line to US 75. Here we started watching a few towers that were attempting to go up further to the north and decided to go on up to Independance, Ks. and then continue east from there. Once on US 169 we figured the error as storms were starting to fire further south into Oklahoma. Got on US 160 towards Altamont, Ks, and then a KS highway south back to US 166 through Edna. From here we continued through Chetopa where a SVR went out on the cells near Commerce, OK. Took off south a little ways as the storm moved over the area. 50 mph winds, lots of rain and nickel hail were the menu. Moved back north and off the Baxter Springs, KS and stopped to really take a good look at what was happening. Being it was getting fairly dark, it was hard to really see. However, we spotted a wall cloud to the SE and moved to intercpt this. As this feature moved over the MO line, a TOR went out. Oh man, this area is hard to chase in. Trees, Hills, lots of rain. Roads that lead nowhere, I-44 was an option, but I really wanted to stay off it if possible. Down in the toolies south of Joplin (Shoal Creek area) we finally lost sight of the Wall cloud with the afore mentioned obstacles. Had several close lightning hits with on about 100 yds away. No real wind to speak of and then there it was! Nope, not a Tornado, but some pretty serious winds at about 70 mph.
Several things came to light for us here. One, it was too dark to really see much except back lit by lightning. Two, we were in the rain and anything that would have formed would have been rain wrapped so we wouldn't see it. Three, we were in very close proximity to the warned Meso and had lost sight of it. OK, now it's time to back out. Finally got on I-44 and went a little further east hoping for a clear slot where we would be able to see the clouds and find out what was happening. Other than local radio reports we had no other information to go on. We gave up the chase just east of Joplin and returned back home via US 71 and US 60.
Nice little chase and certainly something for the middle of November!
