Full log and pictures:
Scott Olson and I chased near Hope and Abilene and sat through what appeared to have been a brief dry microburst just after seeing some unfortunate chasers from Illinois having a brief discussion with law enforcement
That was us. A certain chase partner of mine was speeding in my van, and I didn't realize it, buried in the radar/maps.
The ticket didn't slow us down, we intercepted the Marion County storm just as it went tornado warned. We set up for stills and video, observing a nice broad RFB but no rotation or loweringts. We moved to keep up with it, following it north until we realized the storm track had a western component. A certain chase partner then routed me onto a county road to get back to 15. When the gravel turned to dirt a certain driver (me) did not stop and turn around but waited until it turned into mud, and realized we couldn't go back. I crept the van forward until we got hopelessly stuck. After digging a big trench and flinging mud everywhere we were able to gun ourselves out. We drove on the side of a grassy field hoping the grass would solidify the ground a bit more. As a result we got hopelessly stuck in a field 50 feet from the road. We were out of cell signal range and the only ham I could raise with my 5 watt transceiver was at a loss for what to do.
We left a note in the windshield saying we were walking to Tampa, KS (6 miles) with our names on it in case they found the car but no bodies. A half mile down the road we came upon a farm house, the couple inside drove us to another farm where a woman owned a huge tractor. The tractor pulled us out of the mud and back to dry ground. I can't thank the warm hearted people of Kansas enough for their generosity in helping a couple of fools from Illinois out of trouble.
While we were stuck and walking along the road, we watched the storms wave goodbye to us. I spotted something hanging under a base in the distance and snapped some photos of it. It looks like its the funnel that Michael O'Keeffe has on his chase log, although we didn't know what it was at the time.
Needless to say, the mud incident ended our chase. We spotted some nice mammatus and what appeared to be an avil and overshooting top (on a low topped supercell day in February?) as we drove through Kansas City on our way home.
Look out plains chasers. The Illinois chasers are coming, and they are running amuck!
Tornado warned RFB in Marion Co.
Storms moving away while we are stranded
Zoomed into the base a couple minutes later. Our location is north/northwest of Tampa, KS, looking north.
Contrast enhanced
Our local hero coming to save the day.
Kansas City looking south at about 6pm.