BBauer
EF2
While keeping my eye on the moderate in the northern plains on GRlevel 3 I noticed some severe storms near the southern half of the IA/NE border. Also a mesoscale discussion popped up for the southern half of Iowa. I mentally drew up a plan to head south on I-35 then head west at some point. It looked as if some storms were going to fire ahead of the main line of storms to the west. While fiddling to get all my electronics in my car and up and running the storm I was hoping would intensify fizzled in the southwest quadrant of the state. However, a storm just east of I-35 fired up and went severe pretty quick. I watched it for several scans and realized I may have a shot to catch up to it since it seemed to be just bubbling up in the same spot and back building. I finally got all my equipment up and running and bolted south on I-35. I could see the tower off in the distance and I could not get there fast enough. I got really excited when a meso formed and eventually a TVS. Shortly after it went tornado warned when I was still about 20 miles or so off. You can see my location when the storm looked like it had its act together, showing a pretty nice couplet...
It seemed the storm started tracking more SE than E so I really had to try hard to catch up to it. I finally did fairly close to the MO border. I core punched it and ran into some fairly strong wind and extremely heavy rain. Several of the small towns I passed through had small to medium limbs down. I saw a boat blown off its trailer in someone's front yard, etc. I only ran into small hail. It was so HP that I really had trouble seeing any structure. Down across the MO border I tried to head down a dirt road and while coming down a hill there was a nasty section of muddy ruts and ledges. I barely stopped in time and reversed back up the hill fast. That was the most scared I was all chase long. Even the paved roads in northern MO seemed terrible, I hydro-planed slightly several times as water was pooling all over them. I was hoping to run into a bit more hail but saw only some pea sized stuff for a few minutes. Also the storm was not too electric. I had one really good CG hit really close which was awesome. I hung out around the IA/MO border for a bit but the storm was fizzling and moving off to the east so I called it a day. I learned a ton which was great. It is really a science just trying to pick the right roads to get where you want to be, its even harder when you are alone like I was. Overall, a fun first chase!
It seemed the storm started tracking more SE than E so I really had to try hard to catch up to it. I finally did fairly close to the MO border. I core punched it and ran into some fairly strong wind and extremely heavy rain. Several of the small towns I passed through had small to medium limbs down. I saw a boat blown off its trailer in someone's front yard, etc. I only ran into small hail. It was so HP that I really had trouble seeing any structure. Down across the MO border I tried to head down a dirt road and while coming down a hill there was a nasty section of muddy ruts and ledges. I barely stopped in time and reversed back up the hill fast. That was the most scared I was all chase long. Even the paved roads in northern MO seemed terrible, I hydro-planed slightly several times as water was pooling all over them. I was hoping to run into a bit more hail but saw only some pea sized stuff for a few minutes. Also the storm was not too electric. I had one really good CG hit really close which was awesome. I hung out around the IA/MO border for a bit but the storm was fizzling and moving off to the east so I called it a day. I learned a ton which was great. It is really a science just trying to pick the right roads to get where you want to be, its even harder when you are alone like I was. Overall, a fun first chase!
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