2015-07-01 REPORTS: MO, WY

[James Wilson]

I was surprised there was not an Event thread for today so I will create the Reports one.

We headed out and targeted South of the metro between 69 and 71 waiting for the cap to break ... once it did we hauled to Lee Summit and got on the cell just as it went warned. We scored tornadoes there and later along highway 58. It was a nice local chase.

Here is one of my videos of the Lee Summit tornado.

 

[Austin Jones]

This was one of my best chases so far, however it was also a day full of mistakes and mishaps, but that means lessons learned. I woke up in the target area in my hometown Peculiar Mo, about 15 miles from where the Lee's Summit tornado would eventually touch down. I was feeling restless so I took a 10 mile trip south to Harrisonville Walmart just before noon to pick up a cheap tripod. I then found a place outside of town to sit and wait...and wait...and wait. I used the time to get some cool time lapse and even filmed some A-10 Thunderbolt/Warthogs doing a low flyby. I got restless and baited by some early showers I followed them south to Archie Mo, they never did much and I then headed west to 69 in KS as better parameters appeared to be setting up slightly west of the KS/MO border. I sat on a hill top there for 30 min or so and then getting hungry and noting the boundary was well north I headed up to Louisburg McDonalds. While shooting some clouds here I dropped my camera, broke the focus in the lens and shattered my UV protector. While in Louisburg I noted two other chasers in town on spotter network, Taylor Wright and Stephen Jones. Stephen Jones went on to get some great up close footage. Taylor Wright and I attempted to meet up but storms fired well North of us over the KC metro and it was time to move. 15 miles latter I made my biggest mistake, I planed to take 291 out of Harrisonville, a straight shot North that I travel almost daily (other chasers shot some great footage from this road) but I feared the storm would move too far east and I also noted lots of chasers taking 7 NE out of Harrisonville. So I also took 7 only to find a closed road sign and a detour that took me 15 min to get around, as I took an extra wrong turn. Chasers just 5 to 10 min ahead of me saw the tornado up close, while I caught only a single glimpse of it as I passed over a hilltop just north of Pleasant Hill. I did end up seeing amazing structure though from a hill top in Greenwood. The storm was becoming more and more HP at this point and chasing solo I didn't want to mess with that, so I headed west to tail end charley near Grandview. I noted several rotating lowering's on this storm but no tornado. I followed the circulation of this storm very closely from behind and as the storm wrapped in rain I got my first experience in the bears cage a thrilling and at times nerve racking experience. I was unable to get great pictures after breaking my lens but here are few cell phone shots and a video log.