Really!?!

Ok folks, this day really seemed to be ALL about setbacks and failure.

We planned to leave around 9, but first the GPS wouldn't work for almost an hour, then I got something REALLY annoying in my eye, and we spent another waiting for me to try to irritate it free, then try to flush it free, then going to WalMart to buy drops.
Finally we were on the road around 11. This after models continued to be uncertain about what would go down today.

We couldn't decide if Selina, Kansas, with plans to head north (the spline of Kansas), or Kansas City, KS, with plans to head up to Omaha, Nebraska (further east) was the way to go.

We got to Concordia, Kansas pretty uneventfully, probably around 2:30. The front was off to our west, and figured it was time to look at data ourselves. We pulled into Sonic to grab a bite... and in 10 minutes, storms well beyond our sight to the southwest went from nothing to giant hail producers.
The chase was on!


We decided to go west to intercept the first storm, only to realize we'd screwed up... and ended up going almost straight back east and intercepting it only about 15 miles south of where we'd been before.

The storm went tornado warning, and we were feeling good.

The storm came into view and looked pretty nice!

We'd sit and watch it for the next 45 minutes or so.

It wasn't doing too hot and new tornado warnings went up for the next storm 30 minutes to our south. Most other chases bailed, we stuck with it. This was the target area.

And we waited. And waited. Nothing looked good.


But as we started really talking about leaving... the whole thunderstorm really started to organize, and we saw the first real organized rotation of the year!


The others would all regret their impatience!

Oh, except our storm fell apart. Right when it was wrapping up and a funnel cloud started to come together.

We were hesitant to leave this storm. It could come back together still.
But it didn't look really well bunched up like it had earlier.

So we finally bailed south to pick up the next storm.

It already had 3 confirmed tornadoes. ARGGG!!

And of course when we get to within range... the tornado warning is cancelled. It's not looking so hot.

And it's getting dark.


Ugg, the day is going horribly. There's tornadoes everywhere but where we're at. Tornado warning for Lincoln. Tornado warning for Omaha. Tons of tornadoes being reported.


One last storm to the southwest. And I'm hearing it looks REALLY good.


We race south... and can start to see some early features. The rotation must be strong, part of the mesocyclone is sticking out from the rain to our southwest.
As we get on, it's the storm of the trip so far... probably one of the top 10 I've seen.


I wish we coulda stopped and watched for a while.
It's moving 60+ mph!?!?!?! With baseball hail!?!?!


We have to really hurry back to the east to stay ahead of it. But there was some stunning scenery out there. We finally get a few pictures....


We follow further east and find out we'll get a fair shot to "attack" it. Back near Salina. Guess that wasn't so bad a choice after all!


The storm starts moving a bit more north yet (Jim was a GREAT help via phone), giving us finally a decent chance to get nearer it. It's a very high precipitation mess, really hard to make out what's going on in the wall cloud. But it looks spectacular.

We cautiously creep up to it from the south, listening to the people on the Selina radio station going nuts and the sirens going off. We get near the airport, but despite a few interesting lowerings, it quickly passes off to our east. We follow it up into Selina. No major damage reported. A good thing!

I'm starting to think about dinner and at least checking data. All of my friends giving us radar updates are busy/going to sleep/etc...
And it's basically dark. I never have had any real interest chasing after dark.



Any other day......


I've never been as frustrated as today.
And I was sure there was more to see.

Two more storms are coming from our west basically where this one went.
Clark Evans is telling us to intercept the next cell we just need to drop back south along the road like 10 miles.


I can handle that!
(and a good thing he called. I would've stayed in southern Salina. They had good food options.
That would've been a REALLY bad choice.


I had already decided. This is chasable. We are not out to get close. I want to be like 15 miles from any of the rain. Just watch it from afar.
We can do this. It is safe.


We go back south. This storm is racing up on us too, and we can't see too much yet.
Clark says if it starts to rain at all, we need to get east. Or we're going to get hail REALLY soon.
Before I even get to the east road... it starts to rain.
Suffice to say I was quite upset.

We race east and do (for once in my life in such situations!) break back out of the rain.


We push like 8 miles further east, and finally find a spot to pull off, after being told we had a little time to spare finally.


It was amazing there!

Tons of lightning everywhere. With lightning bugs all around us. I LOVE that! A wall cloud off to the north, and more lightning to our west.

We spent about 15 minutes enjoying there. Took quite a few long exposure pictures. Chris and Josh got to get out and clown about after a tough adrenaline-filled day cramped in the car, and it was just a beautiful, isolated, quiet, serene spot.

Towards the end we saw a bunch of power flashes back to the northwest. Like 20 within a minute. I caught the end on video, though it's not real easy to see.
We wondered what it was... but the radio was talking about a gas mane break that was reported, and I figured it was to do with that.


Anyways, the storm to the west started to really get nearer to us, and Clark told us it was getting time to move again.

We figured that was the night... but we waited a bit too long to leave, and Clark told us we needed to go east, rather than south. All we wanted to do was get south of the last storm and be safe for the night.

How fortuitous.

We pushed east... and for one reason or another opted to keep going east a bit more.
Maybe the storm to the north was looking interesting (it was... at times it looked like there was a pretty wrapped up wall cloud/funnel). Maybe it was just the best plan for roads and hotel. Don't know.

We're split between watching all the different things going on and trying to stay one step ahead of the road options.


Well, get this....... Josh starts to notice something off to the north where we'd been watching the storm from earlier.

We all are watching the area.
A flash.
Oh my!

There it is. No doubting it. One more flash confirms it.
That's a large tornado. On the ground. To our north.

We looked for places to turn off and get a better view but couldn't find a good one. We see a few more illuminations. The tornado has transitioned from cone to stovepipe to full-out wedge. We were right near Hope, Kansas, and the roads were really no good for viewing.
One more flash and more of a stovepipe/rope appears.
By the time we finally get pulled off, we can't see anything.

We stick around a few minutes, but nothing comes to view... and we're still on the run from our own perilous situation.

Now we're really keeping one eye to our left and one behind us. Tornado warning for two towns we just came through. Meanwhile the tornado to our north is headed for a big town, Manhattan.



It's time to be a little more concerned about what's behind us. We find out we're most safe continuing ENE on 4, the road we've been on for 2 hours.
Our chances of seeing more of that tornado, getting a picture, are meanwhile fading away into the distance.

We hear the town of Manhattan gets directly hit. Sobering.
Sounds pretty bad.



We spent the next hour wending our way through turns and hills to finally reach Topeka ahead of the storms. Along the way we almost hit a deer, which decides to run beside the car, then dart out into the road. I'm glad I saw it early... the high beems on our car are life-savers... literally.

By this time we just want to get to a hotel. I was very nervous of the storms catching us from behind. Thankfully they kinda petered out FINALLY.

And finally we got to Topeka.

We found gas (we'd been running very low for the last hour, which was yet another unwanted worry). Then we found some good food options (Taco Bell and Steak and Shake for the crew!). Finally we checked a few places and found a Best Western.

And here we are!




Wow, it's one of those that days that leaves you kind of stunned.
A lot to contemplate.


Tonight was a bit nerve-wracking, trying to stay ahead of these huge storms. I hate fast storm motions.
It's amazing how quick things can turn around. I need to remember that one. We all do.


You want proof?

You won't believe this.
I get here to the hotel, antsy to write in the blog and also go back and look at some pretty awesome pics of that beast supercell.
And I find this.


(yes, that's what you think it is) (it's in the right side of the picture... click on the image for a full view).

And this.


And these (none are easy to see, and I move the camera... the trees are a good indicator of where the features are in relation) (also note the first picture is prior to the better two above, the right two are slightly after).





And so on.

I have between 5-10 pictures showing small glimpses of the tornado.
That's rarer than rare. Especially since I was trying to get pictures of the lightning and the bigger lowering. That one image with the clear slot is insane.
Turns out the image is from about 9:55 PM CDT.
There's a storm report of a tornado almost exactly then 5 miles east of Salina.

Oops, guess we accidentally saw a SECOND tornado.
Amazing!

The power flashes were three minutes later, and it's likely they were from that tornado, a seperate one, or the rear-flank downdraft punching out.




The most "lucky" of catches in the whole-wide-world. I figured we'd seen a tornado but would just have to tell people about it. Oops, looky what I found!



Anyways, it was a crazy day.
Tomorrow we'll chase back towards Tulsa. Might even be the last chase day.

And as it turns out someone died in Chapman tonight. The big tornado we saw for those 5 minutes in the dark.
In all my chases I've never seen a tornado where someone died.
I've been REALLY lucky.
It's pretty disconcerting.
And I'm a bit unsettled. It's hard being at all celebretory when someone died (or even was injured).


But tonight it's some very desired sleep setting in. Josh and Chris are long since passed out, and I'll soon join them.

We won't go home saying our chase was a bust anymore. We saw tornadoes.
They weren't the most photogenic, and the worse thing is the hurt they caused to people. Those are people's lives. Turned upside down tonight.
And we're out gallavanting around.
We are SO blessed to live the happy lives that we do.


You guys are missed.

Have a great day today and God bless.