Last Chase Day

15 Aug 2014

Our last chase day was a bit unexpected. Tired from the previous three days out on the road, I woke up and decided to check the forecast. To my amazement, there was a moderate chance of severe weather predicted about 3 ½ – 4 hours north of us. So….. We hit the road for our ‘last chase day’! We were running short on time as we had confirmation of a tornado on the ground south west of Des Moines moving in an east-north easterly direction a couple of hours away at that stage. Approximately 50 miles south of the tornado warned super cell we could start to see the cloud formations, striations and mammatus looking clouds. Unfortunately we were unable to catch the fast moving super cell, so we posted in Chariton, Iowa for a short while. Then deciding to head back to the Iowa/Missouri state line at Lineville. We were able to catch a severe thunderstorm which turned tornado warned just north of Albany, Missouri.

Heading north on interstate 35 we were forced to stop to let it pass in front and then continued on our way. Strangely enough through the town of Ridgeway which was completely deserted, they had been under a tornado warning where everyone had gone into their shelters or basements. The video is very creepy.

Because the mesocyclone (meso) was cycling at the time (no tornado, but signs of redeveloping), it was safe to punch through into the meso through the rain curtains. Once we did this we were right under the meso which was a beautiful sight to see. Trying to stay in front of the rain curtains and the rear flank downdraft (RFD). This is the region of dry air that wraps around the back of the meso, an area of descending air which often shows up as the hook (Hook echo) in which you’ll hear Eric stay that we will thread the hook for as long as we can. In simple terms, we’ll follow right under the area ‘where the magic happens’ for as long as we can! We definitely encountered some rough terrain that day, but at least we could see what was happening most of the time. Eventually the tornado warning was dropped and we continued to follow the severe warned storm until we got to Mill Grove and decided to call it a day.

Heading back to Kansas City, Missouri – There was a whole line of storms that were turning into a MCS (Mesoscale Convective System) when usually the cells join and generally loose the potential to form tornadoes. However in this case one tornado was reported quite far north on this MCS. Upon returning to Kansas City, we had settled in when an emergency broadcast came over the TV. A tornado warning was in effect in our area. So we jumped in the car and headed east on interstate 24 to try and catch a glimpse. However, due to the terrain and being night time we were unable to see it. So…. That was our last chase day. Definitely not short of action!

IN SUMMARY – Over the 2 ½ months we did approximately 15,000 miles! (26,000kms!) That’s the equivalent of driving from the South Pole to the North Pole….. Plus a little extra! We covered 12 states – Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas and New Mexico.

I am still sifting through approximately 200 gig of video and photos, so I’ll keep posting onto the blog in the near future.

While I do have the time, I will thank those who made my vacation one of the best trips in my life that I’ll remember for many years.

Eric Duncan – A great mate, thank you for personally taking me out for 2 ½ months full time storm chasing. I have managed to learn a lot about forecasting and reading storms. We had some great times! Meagan – Thanks for putting up with me for the duration of my stay. Both of your hospitality was greatly appreciated.

The Canadian’s – Craig Hilts, Gunjan Sinha & Rossanna Purvis Gregory. So much fun had together and I cannot wait to meet up again sometime soon.

Randy Hicks & Lisa, Matt Phelps – Was a pleasure to meet you all, stay safe and hope to see you all again soon.

One last post is below......