Russel Parsons' Storm Chasing Blog

Friday, June 06, 2008 Southwest Missouri Wall Clouds

2008-06-06T22:00:00.001-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 12:55 P.M.
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 6:50 P.M.
Total Hours On Road: 5 Hours 55 Minutes
Total Miles Traveled: 267 Miles
2008 Pontiac G6 Yellow 2 Door Passenger Car

Tornadoes: 00
Funnel Clouds: 00
Wall Clouds: 02
Hail: No
Flooding: No

Today was an unplanned chase day. I planned to just hang out at home and rest up after spending the last three days on the road chasing storms. The forecast for today showed that thunderstorms were possible over Southwest Missouri, but that area is not my favorite place to chase storms. The hilly terrain and trees makes it difficult to see the storms after they develop.

I decided to just drive around in Southwest Missouri and see what popped up. Storms started firing up, and all I hoped for was a few storms that I could photograph. The first storm I intercepted produced a wall cloud over northeastern sections of Springfield, Missouri. I photographed the wall cloud, as it started dissipating northeast of Springfield. I decided to head towards home, since storms were developing between Springfield and Joplin.

The next storm I intercepted was southwest of Golden City, Missouri. I witnessed a very large wall cloud within the updraft area of this mini supercell thunderstorm. The wall cloud itself did not appear to be rotating, but there was evidence of rotation just above the wall cloud, with a collar cloud visible. At times, the wall cloud appeared to be just mere feet above the ground. I contacted the Springfield Missouri National Weather Service office to report what I was seeing with this storm. The individual with whom I spoke told me that he saw on radar the area where I was seeing the wall cloud. This wall cloud dissipated before the updraft area of the storm moved south of Golden City.

I decided to stop chasing this storm, since it was moving into an area of less desireable terrain. This storm reportedly dropped a tornado later on in the evening, but I'm not sure if this report was validated. I headed towards home, to get some rest and return the rental car.

Later on in the evening, I became the hunted. Another mini-supercell thunderstorm developed in Southern Cherokee County, Kansas, and a few funnel clouds and tornadoes were reported with this storm. I stayed home in Pittsburg, Kansas, and one of the updraft portions of the storm ended up moving over the eastern part of Pittsburg. No damage occurred in Pittsburg with this storm, but with the sirens sounding for almost 45 minutes, it made for a very tense evening. So much for just kicking back and just resting.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Thursday, June 05, 2008 Off To The Races In West Central Kansas

2008-06-05T23:30:00.006-05:00

Departed Salina, Kansas: 11:21 A.M.
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 12:30 A.M. (Next Day)
Total Hours On Road: 13 Hours 11 Minutes
Total Miles Traveled: 525 Miles
2008 Pontiac G6 Yellow 2 Door Passenger Car

Tornadoes: 00
Funnel Clouds: 00
Wall Clouds: 01
Hail: No
Flooding: No

The Storm Prediction Center and many local National Weather Service offices really played today up as being a huge day for large long tracked tornadoes. This was mainly due to the fact that the shear with these storms was going to be outrageous. I woke up in Salina, Kansas with a High Risk of severe thunderstorms over most of Northern and Eastern Kansas. A greater than 10% chance hatched area for tornadoes was also outlined in this same area.

After getting up and around, and checking data I noticed that things were going to start gearing up sooner than expected. At about 11:00 AM, storms started developing northeast of Dodge City, Kansas, and they were screaming northeast at about 50-60 MPH. I packed up my gear, and I proceeded to plot a route where I could intercept these storms northeast of Great Bend, Kansas.

I intercepted my first storm of the day northeast of Bushton, Kansas, location in southern Ellsworth County. The storm moved by so quickly that I didn't get to watch the updraft portion of the storm for very long. I sat east of Bushton for quite awhile, and I witnessed a wall cloud with one of the storms that moved through. I did not see any lower level rotation, but I didn't even attempt to keep up with these fast moving storms. I would drop to the south and east of the storm that passed me, and I waited for the next storm in the line to move towards me.

I let at least three different storms come to me, as I knew that I did not stand a chance in keeping up with them. Most of the storms showed to be more outflow dominant. I intercepted a very photogenic shelf cloud north of the lake in Kanopolis State Park. The area west of the Smoky Hills Bombing Range made for a few good photographs of the shelf cloud as it rolled through the area. I experienced 60-70 MPH winds with this gust front passage. I did see a few medium sized tree limbs and other debris blow by while sitting near the north entrance to the Kanopolis State Park lake. I reported this to the Wichita National Weather Service via the Spotter Network. As I crossed the dam on the lake, I did see a small non-rotating wall cloud to my east. Just like with the rest of today's storms, this would be the only time I would see the updraft portion of the storm, as it was flying by at high speeds.

The next storm I let come to me was between Lehigh and Hillsboro, Kansas. This storm had really tall tops as it moved towards me at 70-80 MPH. I got a couple of photographs of this storm's tower, as it passed me. It produced a brief wall cloud as it zipped off to the northeast. This storm would later produce a tornado near Manhattan, Kansas. I attempted to keep up with the storm, but I finally decided there was just no way that I could. The network of roads in this area were just horrible, and the storm's speed was just too fast.

I decided to head towards home, as I knew that any additional storm development would likely result in a squall line. I was right, and I was treated to a small shelf cloud south of Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, near Bazaar. I was traveling south on scenic highway 177 in the Flint Hills of Eastern Kansas. This has been one of my favorite places to chase in Kansas, since there is nothing like the beautiful rolling Flint Hills. If you ever get the chance to travel highway 177, it will definately be worth your trip.

I let the shelf cloud and squall line pass over me near Bazaar, Kansas, and there wasn't much wind its passage. I kept hearing of many high wind reports southeast of my location, as this line of storms kept developing into Northern Oklahoma. I got ahead of the squall line again to the east of Eureka, Kansas. I didn't experience any high winds as I drove through the storm and out the east side of it. I kept driving east until I decided to set southwest of Erie, Kansas in order to sample the winds with the gust front again. The winds with the gust front were about 45-50 MPH as it passed overhead.

I met up with Joey Ketchum west of Girard, Kansas. Joey was out weather spotting. The only other thing to report out of this storm was that I experienced an estimated 60 MPH winds just north of Frontenac, Kansas on Highway 69. The wind was strong enough to rock my vehicle around and blow one of my magnetic mounted antennas off the roof of my vehicle. I called this report in to the Springfield, Missouri National Weather Service Office. I got back in front of the gust front again along Highway 43 in Western Barton County, Missouri, but the winds with the storm was not as strong as just a few minutes before.

I learned a lot from my chase today. The first thing I learned was forecasting severe weather is not always perfect. Another thing I learned was to stay away from severe storm days where the storms are forecasted to be moving over 50 MPH. There were no strong, long-tracked tornadoes that occurred today in the high risk area of Kansas. With the very, very fast storm movements today, we are really lucky there were no long-tracked tornadoes, as many people would have been injured or killed before they knew what was going on.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Wednesday, June 04, 2008 Southern Nebraska

2008-06-04T11:30:00.003-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 11:30 A.M.
Arrived Salina, Kansas: 12:10 A.M. (Next Day)
Total Hours On Road: 12 Hours 40 Minutes
Total Miles Traveled: 668 Miles
2008 Pontiac G6 Yellow 2 Door Passenger Car

Tornadoes: 00
Funnel Clouds: 00
Wall Clouds: 02
Hail: No
Flooding: No

Today started with the Storm Prediction Center putting out a Moderate Risk of severe thunderstorms over North Central Kansas and South Central Nebraska. This area also had a 10% chance of tornadoes painted over it by the SPC. My original target area was going to be North Central Kansas, since I've chased in that area before.

As the day progressed, I saw that thunderstorms developing over Northern Kansas was not going to happen. I kept traveling north, and storms started developing along the Interstate 80 corridor to the west of Lincoln, Nebraska. I adjusted my target area, since I didn't want today to be a busted chase (blue sky and no storms).

I caught my first glimpse of the tornado warned cells that I was after, when I arrived in the area to the northeast of York, Nebraska, located in York County. I already knew that today was not going to be a great storm chasing day, when I saw my first severe storm of the day. The storm was practically linear in some aspects, with breaks in the line of storms. Each break in the line of storms had a updraft region, which would rotate. Several tornado warnings were issued for the area I was in, but trying to view these storms was not easy. The updraft areas of the storms were hard to pick out, since the skies were overcast. This was due to more storms trying to develop back down the line to my southwest. To put it simple, it was hard to tell what part of the storm I was looking at, since all the main storm features seemed to run together.

I did see a couple of wall clouds within the areas of rotation on two different areas of the line of storms. I was northeast of York, Nebraska, near Waco when I saw both of these wall clouds. There may have been more to these wall clouds, but visibility was horrible where I was located. I kept hearing about possible tornado damage to my northwest, but if a tornado was there, I did not see it. Visibility was so bad, I did not want to put myself in danger of large hail or driving into a tornado. The storms were moving east towards the Lincoln, Nebraska area, and I did not want to deal with having to drive in a lot of traffic in a bigger city to keep up with this storm.

I headed back south, where I had plans to stay overnight somewhere in Northern Kansas for tomorrow's much hyped-up tornado outbreak day. I did see some of the most amazing lightning in some newer storms to my south, as I drove. The lightning bolts mostly stayed in the upper anvil areas of these storms, and it was pretty much one bolt right after another. I stopped near Fairmont, Nebraska, and I got a few photographs of these storms to my south. I stopped and took cover in Bruning, Nebraska from the large hail that was being reported with these storms. I didn't see any hail, but boy did it rain very hard. It's really nice having almost live radar beside me, as I'm driving through a storm like this one.

I was going to get a motel room in Belleville, Kansas, but they were all full. I also tried to find a room in Concordia, Kansas but once again No Vacany. I spent a little more time on the road than I wanted, and I finally found a room at the Holiday Day Inn Convention Center in Salina, Kansas. This marked the first time that I stayed overnight on a storm chase. The forecasters have really talked up how big of a tornado day tomorrow will be, and Salina would put me in a prime starting point for the big show.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Tuesday, June 03, 2008 Northwest Missouri

2008-06-03T23:00:00.003-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 11:00 A.M.
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 2:00 A.M. (Next Day)
Total Hours On Road: 15 Hours 00 Minutes
Total Miles Traveled: 535 Miles
2008 Pontiac G6 Yellow 2 Door Passenger Car

Tornadoes: 00
Funnel Clouds: 01
Wall Clouds: 02
Hail: No
Flooding: No

Today started with a Moderate Risk of severe thunderstorms over north central Missouri, with a 15% chance of tornadoes over this same area. I decided to take my chances and chase in Northern Missouri today. I had chased in this area many years ago, and I remembered that the terrain had a lot of hills and trees. I figured it would not be as bad as my chases this year in Southeast Oklahoma.

I proceeded to drive north in Missouri until a storm developed near Plattsburg, Missouri, located southeast of St. Joseph. I watched this storm as it became organized and it developed a nice looking wall cloud south of Polo, Missouri, located in Southwest Caldwell County, Missouri. This wall cloud persisted for quite some time, as I followed this storm east across Southern Caldwell County, Northern Ray County, and Central Carroll County.

The wall cloud consisted of anywhere from your classic looking wall cloud to being a blocky wall cloud. I took several photographs of this feature as I traveled mainly rural back roads throughout this area. I followed this tornado warned storm until I got to Highway 65 east of Bogard, Missouri. At this time, the wall cloud was very large, and it produced at least one very small needle shaped funnel cloud. I could not tell if this brief funnel was touching the ground, as a hill obstructed my view.

I attempted to continue following the storm east, but I had a hard time finding my way across a creek/river in the area, so I had to do a lot of back tracking. The sun set, and I was left with hardly any light at all. I decided to call it a day, so I headed back home. On my way home, I drove some very heavy rainfall most of the time on the road. It made for some slow driving. Also on my way home, I was keeping tabs on the 80-90 MPH winds in the storms that roared through the city in which I live. The storms caused some major damage to trees and some buildings throughout the Pittsburg, Kansas area.

I'm glad I decided to chase in Northwest Missouri today. I got to see some great supercell thunderstorm structure. Needless to say, I was also satisfied with the photographs I took of the various wall clouds I witnessed throughout the day. If the need ever arises again I will definately chase in the Northwest Missouri area in the future.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 Eastern Oklahoma

2008-05-13T23:00:00.003-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 9:42 A.M.
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 12:35 A.M. (Next Day)
Total Hours On Road: 14 Hours 53 Minutes
Total Miles Traveled: 632Miles

Tornadoes: 00
Funnel Clouds: 00
Wall Clouds: 01
Hail: No
Flooding: No

A Moderate Risk of severe thunderstorms and a 10% hatched area for tornadoes over Central and Eastern Oklahoma caught my attention for today. My original target for today was Drumright, Oklahoma, or just west of Tulsa, Oklahoma. My plans changed with the future severe storm outlooks put out by the Storm Prediction Center.

The Storm Prediction Center kept pushing the best chances for tornadic storms to the South Central Oklahoma area along the dryline. The Storm Prediction Center had also issued a tornado watch over this area in the early afternoon. I met up with Joey Ketchum, Tyler Costantini, Chris Wilburn and Bart Comstock to the east of Oklahoma City along I-40 highway. They decided they were going to travel farther south of Oklahoma City to play the dryline. I decided to stay to the southeast of Oklahoma City where the dryline intersected a cold front.

This was one decision I'm glad I made. My fellow chasers farther south along the dryline came up empty with no storms firing in their area. Storms refused to form along the dryline, with the only storms in the area developing along the cold front to my north. These storms never really got there act together, with hail and wind being the main threat with them.

I did witness some lower level rotation with one of these storms near Cromwell, Oklahoma. I received a cellphone call from the Tulsa National Weather Service office who saw that I was watching this storm via the Spotter Network. I advised them that there were signs of lower level rotation, but it did not last very long. The storm kept cycling quickly and never had time to stay organized. This storm became outflow dominant, and I didn't even get any decent photographs of a shelf cloud this time around.

I learned a few lessons from this storm chase. I learned that I'm ususally better off not changing my original target area midway through my chase. Funnel clouds and a tornado warned supercell storm developed about fifty miles northeast of my original target area. This storm moved within five miles of my home in Pittsburg, Kansas, with funnel clouds being its main threat. It still would have been better than what I saw after traveling over six hundred miles. Oh well, you live and learn. I did get to chase in a different area of Oklahoma, and I got to see some different Oklahoma terrain.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Wednesday, May 07, 2008 South Central Oklahoma

2008-05-07T23:59:00.002-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 9:00 A.M.
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 12::01 P.M. (Next Day)
Total Hours On Road: 13 Hours 1 Minutes
Total Miles Traveled: 775 Miles
2007 Mazda 6

Tornadoes: 00
Funnel Clouds: 00
Wall Clouds: 01
Hail: No
Flooding: No

The Storm Prediction Center predicted a Slight Risk of severe thunderstorms over Eastern Oklahoma, with a 10% chance of tornadoes over the Southeastern Oklahoma area. I figured this would be a good enough chance to make the trek to Southeast Oklahoma once again.

I decided to make the trip with hope that I would see some severe weather. I'm not all about seeing tornadoes when I storm chase. I'm just as happy to see any type of severe weather. It's just the power within a severe thunderstorm that keeps drawing me to them. I ended up in Sherman, Texas, just a few miles south of the Texas and Oklahoma border. I knew that the Red River would be rough to chase around, since there are only a select few ways to cross the river. I decided to go after a severe storm that fired up near Ardmore, Oklahoma, and it seemed to be moving east.

I finally caught up with the updraft portion of this thunderstorm east of Marietta, Oklahoma on Highway 32. I stopped and took some photographs of a non-rotating wall cloud. The severe thunderstorm became outflow dominant shortly after I took my photographs of the wall cloud. I decided this storm would be my only chance at severe weather today, so I decided to stay to the east of it and attempt to photograph any shelf clouds it may produce.

I was treated to a spectacular sight when I stopped on Highway 70, where the highway crosses Lake Texoma. I was able to photograph the thunderstorm's shelf cloud as it passed over the lake, which made for some decent photographs. I was between the towns of Kingston and Mead, Oklahoma when I caught my first glimpse of what this severe storm was all about. The shelf cloud/gust front of this large storm produced cool winds of about 40-45 MPH as it passed over head.

I proceeded eastbound on Highway 70, and once again got in front of this storm. The storm sirens were sounding in Bokchito, Oklahoma as I passed through. The only reason for this would have been the high winds that were expected with the leading edge of this severe storm. I proceeded to travel south when I arrived at Bennington, Oklahoma, for another chance at photographing the shelf cloud. I got lucky. I stopped on Highway 70E to the east of Wade, Oklahoma where I was treated to a very menacing shelf cloud. I took several photographs of this awesome looking storm structure. The storm was no longer severe in this area, as I did not receive very much wind at all and the storm produced very little rainfall.

After being to treated to a photogenic storm, I decided I had better head for home. The trip ahead of me I had already made a few weeks ago, and I knew it was a long one. I didn't see any tornodoes today, but I was still satisfied with what I saw. As a storm chaser, I'm not all about tornadoes. Any type of severe storms will please me, especially when I can get some good photographs.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 Buffalo, Kansas

2008-04-23T22:00:00.002-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 1:42 P.M.
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 8:15 P.M. (Next Day)
Total Hours On Road: 6 Hours 33 Minutes
Total Miles Traveled: 240 Miles
2007 Mazda 3 Red 4 Door Passenger Car

Tornadoes: 00
Funnel Clouds: 00
Wall Clouds: 01
Hail: No
Flooding: No

Today started with the Storm Prediction Center putting out a "Slight Risk" of severe thunderstorms for Southeast Kansas and quite a bit of the Central Plains. I decided that I was going to stay close to home today, and it paid off.

After I hung out in the area of the Parsons Tri-City Airport, storms started firing in the early afternoon. I was treated with a severe thunderstorm west of Buffalo, Kansas that had a short-live wall cloud and some upper level rotation with it. The wall cloud did not last very long though, as I stayed with this storm until it started being outflow dominant to the south of Yates Center, Kansas.

I drove back south on Highway 75, and I waited for the next storm to move my direction. By this time, storms were developing all around me. Radar was showing that quite a few storms over Southeast Kansas were producing large hail. I sat two miles north of Buffalo, Kansas, where I experienced some nickel sized hail from my second severe storm of the day. Later on in the afternoon, I experienced more nickel sized hail south of La Harpe, Kansas, in another severe thunderstorm.

This local chase was fun for the simple fact that I was in my own chase territory, and I was familiar with the area. I also enjoyed playing more of a storm spotter role, and letting the National Weather Service know what was occurring with these mainly large hail producing severe thunderstorms. It was great getting out and experiencing some of the "power" generated by severe thunderstorms like these.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Monday, March 31, 2008 Southeast Kansa And Eastern Oklahoma

2008-03-31T09:40:00.001-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 9:40 A.M.
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 1:01 A.M. (Next Day)
Total Hours On Road: 15 Hours 21 Minutes
Total Miles Traveled: 757 Miles
2008 Mazda 5 Black SUV

Tornadoes: 00
Funnel Clouds: 00
Wall Clouds: 02
Hail: Penny
Flooding: Yes

Wow, what a great day to start my 2008 storm chase season, I woke up this morning with a moderate risk of severe thunderstorms over all of Eastern Oklahoma and extreme Northeast Texas. This same area also had a 10% hatched tornado outlook put out by the Storm Prediction Center.

I picked up my rental car and I got all my equipment set up. This would be my first chase using my AT&T mobile internet data card for my laptop. This card allows me to stay connected to the internet while I'm on the road. I use the internet to retrieve my weather radar and the pertinent data I need while in my vehicle. Technology has came a long way. I used to use a paper road atlas and a weather radio as my storm chasing equipment. I now use a GPS unit and maps on my laptop computer, and almost live weather radar using GrLevel 3.

My plan today was to get an early start on my trip to Southeastern Oklahoma. Mother Nature changed my plans after she decided to form a couple of tornado warned storms west of my hometown of McCune, Kansas. I decided to head west of Pittsburg, Kansas, where I live, to intercept this particular storm. I got my first view of the updraft/inflow area of this storm in Eastern Labette County, Kansas or about 3 1/2 miles Northwest of McCune, Kansas. This location was 2 1/2 miles west of where I grew up watching storms roll in all the time. I photographed some scud clouds that were being sucked up into the updraft of the thunderstorm, but I did not see a wall cloud or any rotation at this time.

I followed the tornado warned storm northeast through rural Crawford County, Kansas. The storm finally produced a rotating wall cloud just northwest of Arma, Kansas, where I stopped to take a few photographs. I received a telephone call on my cellphone from the Cable News Network (CNN) weather center, wanting to known what I was seeing at my location. The CNN weather center had gotten my contact information from the spotternetwork.org website. The "Spotternetwork" shows my location as a storm spotter on a map, with my location on the map being updated about every minute.

I followed the updraft portion of this severe thunderstorm to the Arcadia, Kansas area, where I had lost my internet data connection on my laptop computer. The thunderstorm eventually moved off into Southwest Missouri and had showed less rotation in the upper parts of the storm. I decided to grab some lunch in Pittsburg, Kansas, and head south to my original target of Southeast Oklahoma. While on my way from Arcadia, Kansas to Pittsburg, Kansas, I had a rough time of making my way around many of the rural flooded roads.

I met up with fellow chaser Tyler Costantini in Baxter Springs, Kansas. We caravaned to Atoka, Oklahoma where we met up with chasers Chris Wilburn and Bart Comstock. By this time, a tornado warned storm was showing strong rotation to our southwest. I decided to cut away from the chaser caravan and I continued down Highway 69. My reasoning for this was to slip in behind the supercell thunderstorm to view the updraft region of the thunderstorm. The other chasers in the caravan decided to "core punch" the storm and I wanted no part of that. My idea of storm chasing does not involve hail damage to the vehicle I'm driving. It just doesn't make much sense to take a risk like that, which could very easily result in a broken windshield.

Near Caddo, Oklahoma, I caught my first glimpse of a large wall cloud that was associated with this storm. It was about 4-5 miles east of me, so I played catch up through some back roads. The hilly terrain with quite a few trees everywhere made it rough to view the wall cloud. By the time I got close enough to take any photos, the wall cloud dissipated. I did get a few photos of a small wall cloud between Hugo and Soper, Oklahoma. It was getting darker by the minute, and I decided to head back home. The terrain in Southeast Oklahoma makes it really rough to keep up with storms in this area.

Wow, what a trip. I chased in some areas I've never been before, in Southeast Oklahoma. I also got to see a tornado warned storm earlier in the morning close to home. This chase trip was well worth it, and I go to use my AT&T data card for the first time in the field. Having internet beside me has changed chasing some, but you still have to know what you are doing to catch the big storms out there.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Wednesday, May 23, 2007 Hillsboro, Kansas Wall Cloud

2007-05-23T11:30:00.000-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 1:00 P.M. May 23, 2007
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 11:00 P.M. May 23, 2007
Total Time On Road: 10 Hours
Total Miles:

Tornadoes: 00
Wall Clouds: 01
Supercells: 01
Hail: None
Flooding: None

Today started out with a Slight Risk of severe thunderstorms over Central Kansas, and my chase target of the day being Wichita, Kansas. The only problem with today was that I could not leave Pittsburg, Kansas until about 1:00 P.M. This put me in a bind for time, but I decided to make the trek to the Wichita area anyway, since I would still have plenty of daylight left to see storms. I'm glad I did decide to make this trip, as you will see later.

By the time I arrived in Wichita, the Wichita National Weather Service office issued tornado warnings for a storm cell to the southwest of Hutchinson, Kansas. I planned a route so that I could intercept this storm, to the northwest of Newton, Kansas. I first saw the wall cloud associated with this storm, near the intersection of Arrowhead Road and 27th Aveunue, or about 4 miles north of Hesston, Kansas. I took a few photographs and video of the wall cloud, until the mosquitoes and rain drove me on down the road. I was just about eaten alive :)

I stayed well ahead of the rotating updraft of this storm. I took more photographs of the wall cloud from near the intersection of 150th Road and Eagle Road or approximately 3 miles northeast of Goessel, Kansas. I continued to stay out in front of the storm, and I finally let it get much closer to me, about 4 miles south of Hillsboro, Kansas. I let the wall cloud/updraft get to within 1/4 mile of me at that intersection of 150th Street and Indigo Road, 4 miles south of Hillsboro.

I have never seen such awesome vertical motion of scud clouds being drawn into the updraft of a severe thunderstorm, than I saw with this storm. If anyone wants to watch some great video of this, just let me know. I was just amazed at what was happening just 1/4 mile away from me. I also noticed that the inflow winds into this storm was really cold, where it should have been very warm and moist winds. This is one storm that I will not forget for a very long time, as the vertical motion in the clouds at it's updraft was just jaw dropping.

I dropped back south from Hillsboro, Kansas, in hopes to get some good photographs of this storm's shelf cloud. I got a few photos of the shelf cloud, with the beautiful Kansas Flint Hills in the background.

The Kansas Flint Hills will always be one of my favorite places to chase severe thunderstorms. Those people who always say that Kansas is just an ugly blah State, have never apparently traveled through the rolling green carpet of the Kansas Flint Hills. Wow, what a chase!! No tornadoes today, but one awesome rotating supercell that more than made up for it.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Sunday, May 06, 2007 Arcadia, Kansas Wall Cloud

2007-05-06T11:05:00.000-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 5:00 P.M. May 06, 2007
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 10:30 P.M. May 06, 2007
Total Time On Road: 5.5 Hours
Total Miles: 50

Tornadoes: 00
Wall Clouds: 02
Supercells: 02
Hail: Dime
Flooding: None

Today was more of a local storm spotting role, than that of a storm chase. Scattered storms started developing near Nevada, Missouri, and cumulus cloud towers were also developing in Western Crawford County, Kansas. I decided I would start driving west towards the cumulus towers located in the western part of the county. I wasn't really expecting much in the way of severe weather today, but even with the smallest chances of severe weather around home, you figure that I will be there.

I first witnessed a decent storm near Greenbush, Kansas. The updraft consisted of a large rain free base, but it never did develop a wall cloud. I played around with this storm until it finally weakened east of Walnut, Kansas. I decided to head towards another stronger storm near Arma, Kansas.

This storm had a small wall cloud that I witnessed between Mulberry and Arcadia, Kansas, near the Kansas/Missouri state line. I got some photographs of this wall cloud, and I noticed more storms developing to my southwest. I drove west out of Arcadia, Kansas, and I ran into some very heavy rainfall and dime sized hail approximately four miles west of town.

Storms continued to pop up to the southwest of my location, so I continued to get into a position to see what was going on with them. Mainly just heavy rain and small hail. The sun soon set, and I decided to stay out to keep an eye on one last strong storm cell that had moved north of Arma, Kansas. This cell had dropped some large hail over the town of Girard, Kansas, as it passed over.

Two miles north of Arma, Kansas, I pulled off of U.S. 69 highway, where I was keeping an eye on a wall cloud with a beaver's tail. I could not tell if it was rotating, since I could only see it during flashes of lightning. I did get some still photographs of the wall cloud, by leaving the shutter on my camera open and letting lightning light up the surroundings. Spotting after dark can be real tricky, but once again my XM WeatherWorx radar sitting beside me came in real handy!

This chase was really enjoyable, since I haven't chased this close to home for quite some time. I really wish we would get some of the good stuff around home every so often :) I was rewarded today with a small wall cloud, and some good old fashioned thunderstorms.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Wednesday, April 25, 2007 Centrailia, Oklahoma Wall Cloud

2007-04-25T10:54:00.000-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 0:00 A.M. April 25, 2007
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 0:00 P.M. April 25, 2007
Total Time On Road:
Total Miles:

Tornadoes: 00
Wall Clouds: 02
Supercells: 01
Hail: Dime
Flooding: None

Today started out as one of those days of, do I go chasing or not? The Storm Prediction Center painted a Slight Risk of severe thunderstorms across Eastern Kansas and Oklahoma. I knew that if severe weather materialized, I would not have to travel very far from home to see it.

I started out by going west towards Parsons, Kansas, where I found some Wifi internet and kept an eye on what was going on in Northeast Oklahoma. I finally made the decision to head south down U.S. 59 highway towards Oklahoma. I took a bunch of graveled back roads into Oklahoma, which did slow me down quite a bit. By the time I had I had gotten to Oklahoma State highway 10, I had my eye on a storm to the south and east of Nowata, Oklahoma that had finally went severe.

I ran into some very heavy rainfall and dime sized hail at the intersection of Oklahoma highway 28 and U.S. 60 highway. I decided to go eastbound on U.S. 60 highway to escape the core of this low topped supercell thunderstorm. Approximately 12 miles east of Nowata, Oklahoma, I ran out of the rain and hail as I continued eastbound. I looked to my south, and I saw a large wall cloud moving to the north-northeast. I pulled over on U.S. 60 highway to view the wall cloud. I stopped and said hello to a couple of chaser/spotters in a black pickup (sorry I didn't get their names). I decided to get on down the road, so I could stay in front of the wall cloud.

I turned north off of U.S. 60 highway onto NS4320 Road at Estella, Okalhoma, until the wall cloud once again came into view. Near EW0200 Road, I stopped and took some video and photographs of the well defined rotating wall cloud. After sitting here for a few minutes a man and little girl on an four wheel ATV came up to the other side of the fence along the road, and asked me what I was doing. I showed them the wall cloud (less than 1/4 mile away) I was looking at, and I told them that it could drop a tornado at any time. They decided to get the heck out of there, and seek cover. They had no idea that they were under a tornado warning, and the man had been driving the four wheeler towards the wall cloud when I first saw him.

The wall cloud tried to spin up a funnel cloud approximately 2 miles southeast of Centrailia, Oklahoma.

I continued to stay in front of the mini supercell and wall cloud, but the wall cloud never stayed very defined after this. It went through some cycles, and I didn't get to take anymore photos of the updraft/wall cloud until I got about two miles noth of Welch, Oklahoma, on U.S 59 highway. The storm finally died down quite a bit after I last saw a small wall cloud on the east side of Chetopa, Kansas. I continued following the storm, until I core punched it south of Hallowell, Kansas. The core of the storm only contained very heavy rainfall and 30-35 MPH wind gusts, at this point.

For a backyard chase, I was really happy with the success that I had today. I wasn't really expecting all that much, but the chase was well worth it. This has been one of two local chases so far this year around home, and it's nice to finally not have to drive hundreds of miles to see the good stuff :)

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Tuesday, April 24, 2007 Nickerson & Sterling, Kansas Tornado

2007-04-24T17:46:00.000-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 8:53 A.M. April 24, 2007

Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 1:36 A.M. April 24, 2007
Total Time On Road: 16 Hours
Total Miles: 648

Tornadoes: 01
Wall Clouds: 02
Supercells: 02
Hail: Nickel
Flooding: None

Today’s chase started out with a moderate risk of severe thunderstorms in Central Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. I determined that my storm chase target for the day would be Wellington, Kansas. Today was my dad’s second storm chase with me, and it turned out to be a pretty good day. I stopped by and picked up dad around 9:30 A.M., and we headed west towards Wellington, Kansas via U.S 160 highway across southern Kansas.

We arrived in Wellington, Kansas around noon, where we met up with fellow chasers Joey Ketchum, Chris Wilburn, Tyler Constantini and Jay Cazel. We set around the Wal-Mart parking lot on the east side of Wellington, Kansas for awhile, until some storms started firing to the southeast of town. This line of storms was mostly junk, and after moving to a better position east of Interstate 35 we all determined that this was not the main event of the day. All we could hope for were more discreet supercell thunderstorms developing along the dryline later this evening. We did get to see the Doppler On Wheels (DOW) truck and the Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV) for the first time in my chase career near the Interstate 35 and U.S. 160 exit ramp.

We ate some lunch in Wellington, and after checking data we made the decision to make the trek to Newton, Kansas via Interstate 35/Interstate 135. We once again checked data at a truck stop near the interstate highway. I got to meet storm chasers Tony Labauch and Verne Carlson here, before Joey, Chris, Tyler, and Jay decided to continue northbound to McPherson, Kansas. Dad and I decided to stick around Newton, where I had data access in a motel parking lot. After sitting on the parking lot for a little while, we started noticing some cumulus cloud towers start to go up to the west of Newton.

To get a better view of the towering cumulus clouds, we drove westbound on U.S. 50 highway towards Hutchinson, Kansas. Dad did a great job of playing the part of navigator, and he guided me to our first wall cloud of the day four miles south of Sterling, Kansas. We stopped at KS 96 highway and West 82^nd Avenue, where we took some photographs and video of a large wall cloud with a pronounced “Beaver’s Tail”. The wall cloud was moving towards Sterling, so we decided to book it on down the road to stay to the east of it. We went north through Sterling and stayed on mostly paved roads to the northeast of town. This supercell quickly became part of a line of storms that we followed to the northeast of Sterling.

Tornado warnings went out for a new storm that formed on the southern end of the line of storms we were chasing. We chasers call the most southern storm associated with a line of storms “Tail End Charlie”. The most southern storm in a line of storms, seem to get the best ingredients to work with. (ie. warm-moist inflow winds not being cut-off by any other storms in the area) This happened to be the case with this particular supercell thunderstorm.

Dad and I ended up intercepting this supercell at the intersection of Aveune Y/West 108^th Ave and 19^th Rd/N. Salem Rd on the Rice and Reno County lines, approximately three miles southeast of Sterling, Kansas. We witnessed a very large inflow band leading to a wall cloud under the rain free base of the supercell. We also witnessed the wall cloud produce at least three or four different funnel clouds, and at times there were two funnel clouds appearing at the same time. We did not witness a tornado (circulation on the ground) at this location. We started to get into a little bit of rain at this location, so we decided to head to the northeast, so we could stay in front of the rain and hail associated with this storm. We barely made it back to a paved road, without getting stuck on the dirt road we were traveling on.

We stopped again at Avenue X and 22^nd Road in southern Rice County, where we witnessed circulation and dust/debris on the ground to the southwest of this location. I took some photographs and video of the weak tornado on the ground, but from this vantage point we could not see a condensation funnel associated with the dust on the ground. We decided to move on farther south, in case the weak tornado started moving our way. As we drove south on 22^nd Road/Nickerson Road, we came within ½ mile of the wide area of dust that was circulating on the ground in an open farm field. This circulation was located on the west side of Nickerson Road/22^nd Road, approximately 1 ½ miles north of Nickerson, Kansas. Numerous storm chasers were on an east/west county road taking video and photographs of the circulation, as we

drove southbound.

We continued on through Nickerson, and then eastbound on West 82^nd Avenue, where we stopped for more photographs at W. 82^nd Ave. and Herren Road. The wall cloud was located to the northwest of this location, but we did not witness anymore funnel clouds or circulation on the ground from here. The low precipitation (LP) supercell did have some incredible storm structure, with a very well defined inflow band/notch, and later on an awesome flanking line. This supercell had some of the best storm structure I’ve ever seen on this type of storm.

Our next opportunity for photographs was at Plum Avenue and Center Street, or about eight miles west of Inman, Kansas. The very picturesque supercell passed to our northwest, but it no longer showed any signs of a well defined wall cloud. The inflow band and flanking line were still visible from this location, but we soon lost our daylight. Shortly after the sun had set, we decided to call it a successful day, and start heading for home. We ate dinner in Wichita, and headed back home via U.S. 400 highway.

I learned to be careful on dirt roads in unfamiliar territory, since we very easily could have gotten stuck southeast of Sterling, Kansas. I also learned a lot more on how to interpret WeatherWorx radar and the actual location of a storm. This was a successful chase, with some awesome storm structure, a few funnel clouds and another close call with a weak tornado.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Saturday, April 21, 2007 Storm Chasing Near Amarillo, Texas

2007-04-21T19:41:00.000-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas:4:00 A.M. April 21, 2007

Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 6:00 A.M. April 22, 2007
Total Time On Road: 26 Hours
Total Miles: ~950

Tornadoes: 01
Wall Clouds: 01
Supercells: 02
Hail: Golfball
Flooding: None

Fellow storm chaser Joey Ketchum and I left Pittsburg, Kansas bright and early this morning at 4:00 A.M. From Pittsburg, we headed south to Welch, Oklahoma where we picked up fellow storm chaser Chris Wilburn. Our chase target for the day was Plainview, Texas, which is located between Amarillo and Lubbock in the Texas panhandle. Everything with the forecasts were looking really good for tornadoes to occur near our target area. We got on Interstate 44 near Miami, Oklahoma, and proceeded to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where we picked up fellow storm chaser Mike Scantlin.

This was my first chase with a group of storm chasers in one vehicle, as I haven’t had a regular storm chase partner since the early 1990’s, when I was attending the University of Kansas. With a vehicle full of severe weather junkies, we headed to Oklahoma City where we got on Interstate 40. It was a long clear shot to Amarillo, Texas from there. I say clear shot, but we did drive through some light drizzle and fog, as we traversed Central and Western Oklahoma. The skies became partly cloudy, by the time we arrived in Amarillo, Texas around 1:00 P.M.

We all made the choice to hang around the east side of Amarillo, where we were able to use the WiFi for internet access at a visitor’s center. We all didn’t need the WiFi, since Chris had a Cingular card for his laptop computer, so he could receive internet access pretty much anywhere on the road. I was really impressed with this service, but I will stick with my XM WeatherWorx radar for the time being. We set around the visitor’s center parking lot, and we noticed some cumulus clouds trying to go up to the east of Amarillo. We drove a few miles east of town on Interstate 40 and watched the Cumulus try to develop into storms. The first storm of the day started developing near Hereford, Texas, or about 40 miles southwest of Amarillo. Let the chase begin!

We decided to head back through Amarillo where we turned south on Bushland Road. We continued south on South Blessen Road and met up with 168 Highway. We turned westbound on 1062 Highway and then northbound on 809 Highway. Our location was now approximately sixteen miles northeast of Hereford, Texas. This put us into a position to view the rain free base/updraft portion of the developing supercell thunderstorm.

We continued northbound on 809 Highway and we paralleled the storm that was to the west of our location. We stopped and took some photographs and video of the developing wall cloud a couple of times, but the storm never really did get its act together. The one thing I did notice while photographing the storm was the very strong inflow winds (~35-45 MPH). I was attacked by large tumble weeds and sand each time I got out of the vehicle. The most we saw from this storm was a nice wall cloud near 809 Highway and CR-22. We continued northbound on 809 Highway, got back onto Interstate 40 and then drove eastbound.

This was the point that Chris and I both quit getting live weather radar updates. We later found out that this was due to a National Weather Service weather feed problem, but at the time we wasn’t sure what had happened. As we neared Interstate 40 and Frying Pan Road, I heard Chris say something about looking to the south of the interstate. As I looked straight south of Interstate 40 at this location, I saw a small tornado on the ground less than fifty yards from the interstate. The debris in the weak tornado consisted mostly of tumble weeds, but the tumble weeds were definitely traveling in a circular motion at ground level. I told Joey to step on the gas and get us out of the path of the weak tornado, but we still got blasted by inflow winds out of the southeast, of approximately 50-60 MPH. The vehicle I was riding in got rocked by lots of tumble weeds and trash that was lying along the road. However, the vehicle did not receive any damage due to these strong inflow winds.

We stopped just to the west of Bushland, Texas, and I did get some photographs of the upside down bowl shaped lowering that produced this weak tornado. I could not tell if the tornado was still on the ground, since the Bushland grain elevator obscured my view. The tornado never did produce a condensation funnel, as far as we could tell. There’s nothing like having a close call with an invisible tornado, and we were lucky that it was a very weak tornado. I did read some other chaser’s reports where they were caught in this same tornado on the interstate. They reported that they received a flat tire from the debris, as they drove through the tornado.

We decided to stay to the northwest of Amarillo, as another low precipitation (LP) supercell storm was moving our way from the southwest. We saw the storm, as it moved off to the northeast, but it was very uneventful. This decision to wait around for this LP supercell would prove to be a time consuming mistake on our long trek back home.

A tornadic supercell was located to our southeast, as we drove east through Amarillo on Interstate 40. We ended up having to wait for this rotating storm to pass over Interstate 40, before we could head home. We waited for almost an hour, and decided that it was safe to head out, but we still ended up driving through some very heavy rainfall. We never did get into any large hail, but we drove through very heavy rain for about 30-45 minutes before we finally got through it. It was now dark, and we had a very, very long trip home ahead of us.

After we dropped everyone off, Joey and I got back into Pittsburg, Kansas around 6:00 A.M. I had two firsts on this particular chase. This was the first time that I chased with a group of people, and this was the longest storm chase trip that I have ever been on. It was also the closest I have ever come to being inside a tornado!

The main thing I learned on this chase was that I can’t depend on XM WeatherWorx radar to keep me safe during a chase. The radar itself updates every five minutes, but the actual storm location on the radar screen is not the exact location of the real life storm that I’m chasing. I still must depend on all the visual clues that I have learned over the years, and weather radio reports, in order to stay safe on my future chases.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Wednesday, March 28, 2007 Wedge Tornado Between Booker, Texas And Beaver, Oklahoma

2007-03-29T17:19:00.000-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 9:27 A.M. March 28, 2007

Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 3:03 A.M. March 29, 2007
Total Time On Road: 17.5 Hours
Total Miles: 900

Tornadoes: 01
Wall Clouds: 01
Supercells: 01
Hail: None
Flooding: None

I left Pittsburg, Kansas at 9:27 A.M. this morning, in route to my my chase target of Pratt, Kansas. The 8:00 A.M. Storm Prediction Center convective outlook showed a "Moderate Risk" of severe thunderstorms over most of Western and West-Central Kansas, therefore my chase target would be within this "Moderate Risk" area. Between Parsons, Kansas and Wichita, Kansas I drove through some areas of heavy drizzle and very low cloudiness. This kind of worried me, since I know we needed some clear skies to usher in the heat to fuel the storms later in the afternoon.

I arrived in Pratt, Kansas at 1:30 P.M. where I borrowed wifi internet from the Day's Inn motel located on the east side of town. I also grabbed a bite to eat, while I still had the chance. While checking data, I noticed that the Storm Prediction Center had issued a "Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS) Tornado Watch for all of the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles. The western edge of the Tornado Watch reached the Texas and New Mexico state line, which told me that the supercell thunderstorms that will fire this afternoon, will be much farther west than I had planned on.

I made the decision to continue southwest from Pratt, Kansas, and try to get as far west as possible. I drove west out of Pratt, and turned south at Greensburg, Kansas. I continued south through Coldwater, Kansas until I came to Woodward, Oklahoma. Before entering Woodward at 5:02 P.M., I scoped out the wind farm on the north edge of town. I got gasoline again and left Woodward south on 34 highway. Some small storms were starting to fire southeast of Amarillo, Texas, so I stayed on my current southwest trek. I turned west on U.S. 60 highway and eventually made my way to Canadian, Texas at 6:35 P.M.

After fueling up in Canadian, Texas, I made the decision to go after a supercell thunderstorm that started getting much stronger to my northwest. The storm was moving almost due north approximately 10-15 miles northwest of Canadian, Texas. I left Canadian on U.S. 83 highway, and then turned northbound on Texas State 23 highway. By the time I reached 23 highway and Uncle Sam Road at 7:20 P.M., a large wall cloud came into view to the north of that location.

This wall cloud continued moving north, just to the east of the highway I was on. I drove by Booker, Texas, and I stopped about a mile north of the town on 23 highway. I was talking to my nowcaster, Joey Ketchum, on the phone, when he said that he had just heard that a tornado had been spotted on the storm I was chasing. About the time he told me this, I looked again, and I saw the beginning of a large wedge tornado start to take shape. I first saw the tornado approximately 2-3 miles northeast of Booker, Texas. The tornado continued its trek to the north-northeast mainly across open countryside.

My only option of getting some decent video and photos of the tornado would be to race east, and capture it crossing the road in front of me. I did not get anymore opportunities to photograph the large tornado while I drove north on 23 highway. I got to U.S. 270/412 highway, and I turned eastbound. I continued about 4-5 miles east on this highway, where I pulled over and photographed the tornado after it had already crossed the highway. The following photographs are of the tornado after it crossed the highway, and it started getting smaller. Before crossing U.S. 270/412 highway, the large tornado caused two fatalities. According to reports the two individuals were seeking shelter from the tornado inside their residence.

After getting these photographs, the sun was going down fast, and it was soon dark. I decided to wait at the intersection of U.S. 270 and U.S. 64 highway east of Forgan, Oklahoma, in order to let the tornadic supercell storm pass U.S. 64 highway before I headed for home. I'm glad I waited, as I would have likely drove straight into the tornado as it crossed the highway east of that location. It caused damage to trees and power lines along U.S. 64 highway, approximately 10 miles east of U.S. 270 highway.

This day started out with my target being Pratt, Kansas. This target soon changed when the dryline decided to setup along the Texas/ New Mexico and Kansas/Colorado borders. I ended up much farther southwest than I expected to be, but overall it was a great chase. I saw a large wedge tornado, which was a first for me. A "Wedge" is informal storm observers' slang for a tornado which looks wider than the distance from ground to ambient cloud base.

This day ended at 3:03 A.M., when I arrived back at home in Pittsburg, Kansas. The extra distance that I traveled was well worth it, after I did get to see only my second daytime tornado. I didn't get into a position to get a lot of photographs and video, but I got just enough to make me happy. This was also my first storm chase in the infamous Texas/Oklahoma panhandles. A special thanks to nowcaster and fellow chaser Joey Ketchum. I couldn't have bagged this one without your help. Also thanks to XM WeatherWorx. This was my first chase with live weather radar beside me in the vehicle. It was rather helpful in keeping track of this giant storm.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Saturday, September 16, 2006 Bust Chase Through Northern Kansas And Southern Nebraska.

2006-09-16T14:01:00.000-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 11:00 A.M.
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 12:00 A.M.
Total Time On Road: 13 Hours

Tornadoes: 00
Wall Clouds: 00
Supercells: 00
Hail: None
Flooding: None

Today's chase is what all chasers hate to see, and that is a busted chase. Severe thunderstorms and a possible tornado outbreak was forecasted for Eastern Nebraska, and Northeast Kansas. A better chance for severe weather was forecasted for Eastern Nebraska. I decided I wanted to get as far north as possible, so I would have a better shot at bagging the big one.
I headed north on U.S. 69 highway, and then made my way west through Lawrence, Kansas. I made my way to Marysville, Kansas, where I checked data via wifi in a Best Western motel parking lot. After looking at the updated Storm Prediction Center severe thunderstorm forecasts and the current location of the dryline, I decided that I would make my final trek north to Beatrice, Nebraska.
I found free wifi internet in the Super 8 motel parking lot, located on the north edge of Beatrice, Nebraska. I decided that I was in a pretty good location, if storms were going to fire along the dryline in Southern Nebraska today. I waited around for almost three hours, when I decided that if severe storms did develop along the dryline, then it would now likely be after dark.
I saw some pretty pitiful cumulus clouds along the dryline on my way home, and that was about it. I traveled a long way today, and didn't even get to see as much as a drop of rain. That's just the way things go with this hobby. I will probably have to wait until next Spring to get my severe weather fix once again. I just hope we have a more eventful severe weather season next year.
All was not lost during this bust chase. I learned quite a bit about forecasting severe weather, and the science is not perfect. It also taught me that I have a long way to go in my forecasting skills.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Tuesday, May 30, 2006 Gust Front Associated With A Non-Severe Thunderstorm Located South Of Girard, Kansas.

2006-05-30T13:59:00.000-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 7:30 P.M.
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 8:30 P.M.
Total Time On Road: 1 Hour

Tornadoes: 00
Wall Clouds: 00
Supercells: 00
Hail: None
Flooding: None

A Slight Risk of severe thunderstorms were forecasted for Southern Kansas today, but not much in the way of severe weather materialized. A non-severe thunderstorm rolled into Western Crawford County, Kansas in the late evening. Since there hasn't been much severe weather this Spring, I decided to head out to see if there was a gust front associated with these thunderstorms.
I setup a couple miles to the Southwest of Girard, Kansas. There was not a whole lot to see, but a weak gust front did roll through the area. I have been wanting to try out some new photograph editing software I obtained, so I thought I would take some photographs of the weak gust front.
The software makes a panoramic photograph out of several photographs taken of an object across the horizon. The software stitches the photos together to make a larger photo of the subject. In this case, I was able to use the software to get a wider view of the gust front that rolled into the area. I'm looking forward to using this type of software even more in the future.
I did not get to see much in the way of severe weather today, but I did get to test some new technology.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Thursday, May 25, 2006 Jasper And Lawrence County, Missouri Supercell Photographed From Central Jasper County, Missouri.

2006-05-25T13:58:00.000-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 6:30 P.M.
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 8:45 P.M.
Total Time On Road: 2 Hours 15 Minutes

Tornadoes: 00
Wall Clouds: 00
Supercells: 01
Hail: None
Flooding: None

Today just happened to be my day off from work, and with a Slight Risk of severe thunderstorms across Southeast Kansas and Southwest Missouri, I kept an eye to the sky and the weather radar.
Later in the evening, a couple of very large supercell thunderstorms developed over Eastern Jasper County and Southern Lawrence County, Missouri. Since these were the only two storms that had developed in the area, they made for some great photographs from a distance.
I have always wanted to take some photos of a supercell thunderstorm from a great distance, but until now I have never had that opportunity. I proceeded to drive to the Southeast of Pittsburg, Kansas through North Central Jasper County, Missouri. I took a few photographs of the storm, from near Alba and Purcell, Missouri. I drove further to the south and took some additional photos of the storm from east of Webb City, Missouri.
The best photographs of the supercell came at around sunset. I was just south of Asbury, Missouri, when the sun was low enough to shine on the west side of the supercell. The supercell also had an over-shooting top at this time, which added even more to it's beauty.
Even though I didn't get to see any severe weather first hand, I did get some great photographs of a very large, awesome supercell thunderstorm.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Wednesday, May 03, 2006 Tornado Warned Storm Moved Across Southern Bourbon County, Kansas And Vernon County, Missouri.

2006-05-03T16:30:00.000-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 3:15 P.M.
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 5:30 P.M.
Total Time On Road: 2 Hours 15 Minutes

Tornadoes: 00
Wall Clouds: 02
Supercells: 00
Hail: None
Flooding: 01

Today started with a Slight Risk of severe thunderstorm over the Southeastern Kansas area. Since the risk of storms was so close to home, I decided to sit at home and keep an eye on my weather radar computer.
A supercell thunderstorm finally developed to the east of Chanute, Kansas and it was moving slowly due East. I grabbed my chase gear and headed towards Southern Bourbon County, Kansas. This worked out pretty good, as I intercepted the supercell near the county road intersection of Birch Road and 200th Street in rural Southeastern Bourbon County. A couple miles north of that location is where I saw the rain free base and a small non rotating wall cloud. I grabbed a few photographs of this feature and moved on to the east.
I caught back up to the rain free base area, where a saw another small wall cloud, Southwest of Moundville, Missouri. The roads in this part of Vernon County, Missouri were few and far between, and I decided to call this chase off. I ran across quite a few flooded rural gravel roads, and I got some great photographs of the sheared anvil of this great looking supercell thunderstorm as it marched on to the east.
This was a great chase, especially since it was practically in my own backyard. I really enjoy these chases where I can sit at home and watch the storms develop on weather radar, and then drive to them. I got to do this type of chasing quite a bit last year, but this storm season is turning out to be a different story.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Saturday, April 29, 2006 Thunderstorm Dumped Large Amount of Rainfall Causing Street Flooding In Pittsburg, Kansas.

2006-04-29T15:32:00.000-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: N/A
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: N/A
Total Time On Road: N/A

Tornadoes: 00
Wall Clouds: 00
Supercells: 00
Hail: None
Flooding: 01

I didn't have to leave home for this flooding event. I took several photographs of flooded streets from the front porch of my residence. My CoCoRaHS precipitation recording station received 1.88" of rainfall between 5:10 P.M. and 6:08 P.M. on the evening of April 29, 2006. My recording station received a total twenty-four hour rainfall from 7:00 A.M. April 29, 2006 to 7:00 A.M. April 30, 2006, of 2.08". This amount of rainfall in this amount of time can cause extensive flooding, especially on poorly drained city streets. Flooding of this magnitude occurs a couple times a year in the neighborhood in which I live. Several people in four wheel drive vehicles were driving through the flooded streets, mainly just playing around. We haven't seen this much rainfall in this short of time, for quite an extended period. Only minor flooding of roadways occurred outside the city limits of Pittsburg, Kansas. This wasn't really much of a storm chase per se, but since I did get some decent photographs of the flooded streets in my neighborhood, I thought I would include them on my website.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Thursday, April 06, 2006 Tornado Warned Storms In Northeast Oklahoma, Southeast Kansas And Southwest Missouri.

2006-04-06T15:07:00.000-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: Unknown
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: Unknown
Total Time On Road: Unknown

Tornadoes: 00
Wall Clouds: 03
Supercells: 02
Hail: None
Rain: Heavy Rain

I knew today was going to be a very interesting chase day. The day started with a High Risk of severe thunderstorms in Northeast Kansas, and a Moderate Risk of severe thunderstorms in Eastern Kansas and Oklahoma. I decided to start my chase by driving towards my target area around Yates Center, Kansas.
I made my way to Thayer, Kansas, where I checked radar and other forecast data. I decided that instead of continuing to travel north, my best shot of intercepting severe weather today would be between Bartlesville, Oklahoma and Independence, Kansas. A supercell thunderstorm had developed in Osage County Oklahoma, and I headed south towards this storm.
This supercell thunderstorm was showing signs of rotation, which was detected by the Nexrad weather radar in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I started seeing this tornado warned supercell on the horizon, as I was driving westbound on Oklahoma highway 10 between Copan and Wann, Oklahoma. The rain free base and a small wall cloud was visible, as I viewed the supercell near Copan, Oklahoma.
I proceeded to travel north on U.S. 75 highway between Copan, Oklahoma and Caney, Kansas. I took several photographs of the rain free base of this storm from just north of Copan. I continued north until I got to Caney, Kansas, since I knew I wanted to stay to the east of this monster storm. Approximately two miles east of Caney, Kansas on U.S. 166 highway, I photographed another attempt at a wall cloud on this supercell. The storm then went through some changes, and the road network was not great in my current location.
I continued east on U.S. 166 highway through Coffeyville, Kansas. I went north on U.S. 169 highway, where I intercepted the rain free base of this supercell between Coffeyville and U.S. 160 highway. I traveled northeast along some back roads. The supercell picked up some speed, and I didn't catch up with it again until I got approximately four miles west of Parsons, Kansas on U.S. 400 highway. I saw the rain free base and a small wall cloud once again, but still no lower level rotation. I got to take some photographs of the wall cloud from a location of about two miles west of South Mound, Kansas.
It seemed that I missed out on the best supercell of the day, when tornado damage was reported near Chetopa, Kansas. Since I did not have radar data with me while I was chasing the storm I was on, I missed another supercell that moved out of Northeast Oklahoma and into Southern Labette County, Kansas. I tried to catch up with this storm, and I finally got to see a wall cloud with this second supercell, as I neared Asbury, Missouri. It was getting dark at this time, so after driving east to U.S 43 highway east of Asbury, Missouri, I decided to end this long chase day.
Today was probably one of the longer chases that I've taken part in for quite a few years. I chased in Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, and I still didn't get to see a tornado. I saw quite a few smaller wall clouds and a couple of large supercell thunderstorms. I also got a few good photographs of the storms. I learned a lot today, and I hope to put my new knowledge to work during the rest of this severe weather season.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Sunday, March 12, 2006 Stark, Kansas Fast Moving Wall Cloud & Supercell

2006-03-12T20:51:00.000-06:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: Unknown
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: Unknown
Total Time On Road: Unknown

Tornadoes: 00
Wall Clouds: 01
Supercells: 02
Hail: None
Rain: None

Today's chase began with a Moderate Risk of severe thunderstorms. As I was monitoring the situation to the west of my home, a supercell thunderstorm developed between Neodesha and Independence, Kansas. Fellow chaser Joey Ketcham photographed this storm, as it moved northeast, near Neodesha, Kansas.
I hopped in my chase vehicle, and proceeded to drive west on U.S. 400 highway. I stopped on the east side of Parsons, Kansas, where I checked weather radar data at a Super 8 motel. For future reference, this motel has wifi access, and I had internet access in the motel's parking lot.
After seeing the location of the supercell on radar, I decided to head north out of Parsons, Kansas on U.S. 59 highway. The supercell was moving northeast at approximately 50 MPH. Moving at this speed, I knew I would only have one chance to intercept the supercell thunderstorm.
I ran into some golfball sized hail approximately three miles west of Stark, Kansas. I figured I had better get out of this beast's way, or I may get more than hailed on. I drove to a location approximately two miles northeast of Stark, Kansas. This is the location from where I photographed a well formed wall cloud that was associated with this supercell thunderstorm. I did not get a lot of photographs taken of this storm, as it was moving very, very rapidly. When storms move this fast, they are next to impossible to keep up with.
I made contact with fellow storm chaser Joey Ketcham via cellular telephone. Joey told me that he got some photographs of this storm earlier, but they could not keep up with it. I met up with Joey in Ft. Scott, Kansas, where we all tried to figure out where we were going from there. We decided to head back towards Pittsburg, Kansas, and hope more storms fired to our west later that evening.
We did get to see some severe storms fire up at about sunset. We drove to the Erie, Kansas area, and we got to photograph a couple of large severe thunderstorms.
Overall, this was a pretty good chase day. I got to see some large hail, and a nice wall cloud. I didn't see any tornadoes, but that's part of the chase. The season is still early, and I hope to have some pretty good chases this year. The supercell thunderstorm I saw earlier this afternoon, continued on its trek to the northeast, and it produced tornadoes throughout Missouri.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Sunday, November 27, 2005 Tornado Northeast Of Erie, Kansas

2005-11-29T04:05:00.000-06:00

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 2:30 P.M.
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 5:30 P.M.
Total Time On Road: 3 Hours

Tornadoes: 01
Wallclouds: 01
Supercells: 02
Hail: None
Rain: None

My day started off thinking that most of today's tornadic storms would probably occur in western Missouri, and they would be moving very fast when they did develop. However, after keeping a close eye on my Nexrad weather radar computer at home, I noticed that storms were starting to fire in northeast Oklahoma, and then race north towards Montgomery County, Kansas.

I packed my chase gear into my car, and I headed towards an inital target of Walnut, Kansas. By the time I left Pittsburg, Kansas, a tornado warning had been issued for Montgomery and Neosho Counties in Kansas. A tornado had been reported to have touched down near Cherryvale, Kansas with this storm. Before I arrived in Walnut, the storm had weakened and all warnings for the storm had been cancelled.I wasn't going to give up so easy after going this far. I could still see another storm off to the soutwest of Walnut, and I drove west out of Walnut on Kansas Highway 146 to attempt to intercept this storm. Shortly after leaving Walnut, the National Weather Service in Wichita, Kansas had issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for the storm I was watching to my southwest.I found a tall hill to set up camp on, which is located 1/4 mile west of Udall Road on Kansas 146 Highway. I couldn't have asked for a better vantage point to witness what mother nature was about to unleash two miles west of this location. The Wichita National Weather Service shortly upgraded the Severe Thunderstorm Warning to a Tornado Warning for northwest Labette County and all of Neosho County.I could already see a wallcloud associated with this tornado warned storm, to my distant southwest. The storm was reported to be moving north around 50-60 MPH. I shot photos and video of the wallcloud and mini supercell as it raced to the north. When the wallcloud reached the vicinity of two miles west of my location, I witnessed for the first time in my life, a daytime tornado! The tornado started small with just a dusty debris cloud on the ground. By the time the tornado crossed Kansas Highway 146, it had grown in size and it was taking on a red color. The tornado continued northbound and I finally lost sight of it, as I was looking at it against the storm's downdraft.After the tornado moved out of my view, I proceeded to the area of Rooks Road and Kansas Highway 146. The tornado had crossed the highway just to the east of this location, and had just barely spared a house on the northeast corner of this intersecion.

Another house wasn't so lucky one mile south of this location. The tornado removed the roof and the north walls of this residence. The tornado also damaged a tin structure to the northwest of this house. Approximately 1/4 of a mile south of Rooks Road and Kansas Highway 146, on the east side of the road, the tornado had overturned a combine which had been located in a hay meadow at this location. The tornado also overturned two large round bales of hay at this location.

This was the only damage that I saw, as a result of this tornado. Overall, I just happened to be in the right place, at the right time. For a close-to-home storm chase, and being towards the end of November, I couldn't have asked for anymore than what this tornadic storm dished out.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005 Storm Chase Crawford County Kansas & Barton County Missouri

2005-09-14T03:17:00.000-05:00

Departed Home : 4:00 P.M.
Arrived Back At Home: 9:00 P.M
Total Time: 5 Hours

Tornadoes: 0
Wall Clouds: 1 (Start To Finish)
Funnels: 0
Supercells: 1
Scenery: Awesome mammatus around sunset!!

At approximately 3:30 P.M., I was awoken from a sound sleep by my weather radio. A severe thunderstorm warning had been issued for Neosho County Kansas. I forced myself out of bed (I work the night shift) to take a gander at the weather radar. Nexrad weather radar showed a supercell storm in central Neosho County, and it was moving east-northeast. I decided to get my camera gear and weather radio together and I made a target of an area between Girard, Kansas and Walnut, Kansas.

I left my residence in Pittsburg, Kansas at 4:00 P.M., and I headed west out of town. I caught site of the rain free base of the severe thunderstorm approximately three miles northwest of Girard, Kansas. I stopped to take some photographs of scud clouds being sucked into the updraft of the storm approximately 1/2 mile north of Kansas 47 Highway on North 120th Street. There was not a wallcloud at this point, but you could tell where the updraft was located under the rainfree base of the severe thunderstorm. Crawford County was placed under a Severe Thunderstorm warning for this storm.

I continued to travel northbound on North 120th Street and then I turned eastbound on West 630th Avenue, in order to stay to the east of the east moving supercell. I continued eastbound on West 630th Avenue until I stopped at Kansas 7 Highway, 1 mile north of Girard, Kansas, and West 630th Avenue to take some more photographs. The storm really started to get going at this point, and I saw a well defined rotating wallcloud approximately 1 1/2 miles to my west. A tornado warning was issued for Crawford County Kansas shortly after I arrived at this location. There were also a lot of low hanging scud clouds near the wallcloud, with a lot of vertical motion.

I continued east on East 630th Avenue, in order to stay in front of the tornado warned storm approaching my location from the west. The storm was moving east at about 25 MPH. I stopped again near East 630th Avenue and North 180th Street to take some photographs of the rapidly rotating wallcloud to my northwest. I called the National Weather Service in Springfield, Missouri to the report the rapidly rotating wallcloud. I continued east on East 630th Avenue and I turned north onto North 190th Street, as the wallcloud was drifting to the east-northeast. I turned east onto East 640th Avenue, which took me through the small town of Arma, Kansas. The tornado sirens were blasting away as I was passed through Arma.

I decided to stop at the intersection of East 640th Avenue and North 230th Street for some photographs of the wallcloud as it passed over the west edge of Arma. The wallcloud was still rotating vigorously as it passed directly over Arma, and continued on its trek east-northeast towards the small town of Mulberry, Kansas. I continued eastbound on East 640th Avenue towards Mulberry. I took some photographs of the rotating wallcloud from the west city limits of Mulberry, as I looked back to my west-northwest. The wallcloud continued to move east over the north part of Mulberry, Kansas.

As the wallcloud entered Barton County, Missouri, it had dissipated. I followed Missouri "P" and "K" Highways into Liberal, Missouri, where the wallcloud showed signs of reorganizing. I headed south out of Liberal, Missouri and turned back east on NW 20th Road. The wallcloud continued moving eastbound just to the south of the City of Liberal. When the wallcloud approached the area just north of NW 20th Road and NW 110th Lane, it started rapidly rotating once again with a lot of vertical motion in the area of the wallcloud. I photographed the wallcloud from this intersection.

I continued east on NW 20th Road until I stopped again for photographs at NW 20th Road and Missouri 43 Highway. The rotating wallcloud passed approximately 3/4 of a mile north of this intersection. I once again contacted the Springfield, Missouri National Weather Service to report what I was seeing at that time. The meteorologist at the weather service hinted that the low dewpoint depression in my current location was the likely cause for no tornadoes with this storm. I continued to parallel the wallcloud on NW 20th Road until the tornado warned supercell became outflow dominant to the west of the intersection of NW 20th Road and U.S. 71 Highway. The wallcloud completely dissipated, and the National Weather Service shortly cancelled the tornado warning for this storm.

This was an awesome mid September supercell storm, which presented a great chance for me to chase not very far from home. I didn't get to see any funnels or tornadoes, but I will take storm structure like what I got with this storm any day.

I decided to make a dash back to the area northwest of McCune, Kansas to await another tornado warned supercell in northern Montgomery County, Kansas. By the time I got approximately 8 miles northwest of McCune, Kansas, the sun was starting to set. I did get some great pictures of some mammatus clouds, along with the setting sun. The mammatus was located under the backsheared anvil of the Montgomery County tornado warned storm.

I stopped on a tall hill approximately 2 1/2 miles northwest of McCune, Kansas and played around with taking some lightning photos with my digital camera. I finally had a little luck with getting some of my better lightning pictures I have ever taken. Lightning photography is still a really new endeavor for me. Guess I have to start somewhere.

I headed back towards Pittsburg, Kansas and home. As I was on my way home, I got hammered by 50-60 MPH winds with a severe thunderstorm warned storm that was moving east through Crawford County. Overall, I couldn't haved asked for a better close to home storm chase, especially in the middle of September.

Thursday, June 30, 2005 Storm Chase Labette & Crawford County Kansas

2005-06-30T03:12:00.000-05:00

This post will be updated as soon as possible.

Saturday, June 04, 2005 Storm Chase Northeast/East Central Kansas

2005-06-04T13:42:00.000-05:00

Departed Pittsburg, Ks.: 11:00 A.M.
Arrived Pittsburg, Ks.: 12:00 A.M.
Total Time On Road: 13 Hours
Total Chase Miles: 500

Tornadoes: 0
Supercells: 2
Hail: Penny
Wind: 45-50 MPH
Shelf Cloud: 1
Scenery: Unlimited

My dad and I left Pittsburg, Kansas around 1100 hrs, with a target area to the southeast of Emporia, Kansas. We grabbed some data from wifi at a truck stop (Beto Jct.), located at the junction of I-35 and U.S. 75 Highways. We decided to travel west through Emporia, and then north to Council Grove. Stopped downtown Council Grove to get some radar data using wifi. I decided I didn't really want to chase anything north of I-70 today, so we turned around and headed back south, as lone cell (at the time I checked radar anyway) was popping in NE Butler county and heading northeast toward Emporia area.

By the time we got far enough south, cells started to become linear, however got a couple of pix of the north side of the decent looking Butler County storm we were after. We headed back home, after enjoying the beauty of the Kansas Flint Hills(worth the trip), and even got hailed on in Greenwood County by a severe storm(lots of marginally svr wind too).

Got home around midnight after driving a total of 500 miles. Overall, somewhat disappointing day, as I was expecting more supercells, but nontheless not a bust. I did get to see severe weather, which I enjoyed just the same. There will always be a next time.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Friday, June 03, 2005 Storm Chase Near Chanute, Kansas

2005-06-03T04:30:00.000-05:00

This storm chase account will be added here, as soon as time permits.

Thursday, April 21, 2005 Eastern Kansas Chase

2005-04-23T15:15:00.000-05:00

Total Miles: 350
Tornadoes: 0
Wall Clouds: 1 (Cyclic)
Hail: Golfball
Wind: None

Well, I drove 350 miles today, and all the action ended up less than two miles south of my home. Oh well, it happens to the best. I started the day around 11:30 am and headed west out of Pittsburg, Kansas to my target area of Yates Center, Kansas. Around 3:30 pm I was sitting in Yates Center checking data, and noticed winds at my location were out of the west soutwest (Not a good thing). I made the decision to head east towards Iola, Kansas. I checked data again in Iola, Kansas and Allen County had just been included in the Kansas City area Tornado Watch. My next decision was the biggest mistake I had made all day.

I headed north out of Iola on US 169 towards Osawatomie, Kansas, thinking that I could possibly catch up with the Tornado Warned storms in central Missouri. I would have caught up with those storms, but the road network east of Osawatomie pretty much screwed me over. The only county road that would take me straight to the Missouri state line was closed for construction. At this point, I thought my chase day was a bust for sure. I finally made it to US 69 higway, but the Central Missouri storms had already booked it to my north and east and out of my reach. I made the decision to head home on US 69 highway.

As I travelled south, the huge supercells in Neosho County became more and more visible. I stopped in Pleasonton, Kansas to check data using wifi, and Nexrad was showing an awsome hook on the storm in central Neosho County. My only hope of seeing anything with this storm was hauling butt south and possibly core puching the storm.

I continued travelling south on US 69 and when I arrived in Ft. Scott, Kansas they were already sounding their storm sirens. In continued south through town, knowing that the Bourbon County tornado warned storm's inflow would soon be cut off from supercell in Neosho County. I followed State Highway 7 south through Girard, Kansas and finally saw my first wall cloud of the day to my southwest from the intersection of state highway 7 and 126. Get this, I made my way south by slipping past all the large hail and rain with these storms, so no core punch (driving through heavy rain and large hail to get to other side of storm) was necessary afterall.

In order to stay east and south of the rotating wall cloud, I headed east on K-126 Highway and then shortly I head back south to get a better vantage point. I ended up on K-103 Highway to the east of Weir, Kansas, and pretty much followed the wall cloud and Meso circulation into Missouri, near Asbury, Missouri.

I got some good still photos and video of the wall clouds I saw today. I followed the wall cloud to a location just southeast of Nashville, Missouri, on 43 highway. It was getting too dark for me to continue, so I headed for home. I will have a more complete chase account and photos posted on this chase, hopfully in a couple of days. The still photos can be seen here.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas

Tuesday, April 05, 2005 Storm Chase Northeast Oklahoma

2005-04-06T14:40:00.000-05:00

Begin Miles: 139,035
End Miles: 139,326
Total Miles: 291

On Tuesday, 04-05-2005, at 12:15 P.M., I decided to head towards Northeast Oklahoma on my first storm chase of the 2005 severe weather season. I left Pittsburg, Kansas, heading south on U.S. 69 Highway towards Chouteau, Oklahoma, my chase target for the day. The Storm Prediction Center put most of Southeast Kansas and Eastern Oklahoma under a Slight Risk for severe thunderstorms. I thought there would be a better chance of some isolated tornadoes in Eastern Oklahoma.

I arrived in Pryor, Oklahoma at approximately 3:19 P.M. Using wifi I connected to the internet near the McDonalds in that town. After checking data, I found that the dryline/trough had exploded with severe storms along a north/south line located just to the west of Tulsa. Tulsa County was under a severe thunderstorm warning at this time. I decided that I would drive back north to Adair, Oklahoma and then head west. This decision was based on staying away from the Tulsa metro area and a decent road network to the west of Adair.

In hopes of letting the Tulsa and Washington County storms come to me, I setup in the very Southeast corner of Nowata County, near the small town of Alluwe, Oklahoma. I was noticing some mammatus clouds starting to form overhead, and at 4:22 P.M. The National Weather Service in Tulsa issued a Tornado Warning for Washington County. Strong rotation was indicated with this storm, which was moving Northeast at approximately 35 MPH. This was the storm I was currently watching to my west/southwest. I could see the rain free base from my location, but my location was still too far east to see anything else of importance. I decided to head west, but Lake Oologah was between me and the storm.

I intercepted this tornado warned storm approximately 1 1/2 miles northwest of Delaware, Oklahoma. At this time, no tornadoes had been spotted, but spotters had witnessed some rotation earlier with this storm. The severe weather statement at this time was saying that the area of rotation was approximately 5 miles east of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, which was the area I was currently located. All I saw with this storm was a rain free base, and some general lowerings near the updraft. I did not see any rotation with this part of the storm, and the storm shortly thereafter started to die. The possible rotation may have been rain-wrapped, making it very hard for me to see from my vantage point. I was located to the southeast of the rain free base, and I was looking towards the northwest. This storm fell apart, so I headed off to intercept the next severe storm, located in Rogers County, to my southeast.

I intercepted the Rogers County storm at a location approximately 2 miles west of Hollow, Oklahoma. Nowata and Craig Counties were put under a severe thunderstorm warning with large hail and high winds expected. I received penny size hail at my location, but not a lot of wind. The cloud-to-ground lightning definitately made up for the lack of severe winds. After this storm tracked off to the Northeast, I proceeded eastbound on Oklahoma 10 highway. I took some decent pictures of some cloud lowerings on the back side of this severe thunderstorm, but I did not see any rotation within the lowerings. Everything was clearing up behind this line of storms, so I decided to head back home.

I stopped to the west of Hallowell, Kansas on my way home to take pictures of the most awesome rainbow I have seen in a long time. In my opinion, a chase isn't complete without seeing a rainbow. Overall, I believe this chase was successful. I was on the 1st and only tornado warned storm located in Northeast Oklahoma. I'm looking forward to more of this throughout the 2005 chase season.

Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas