I said goodbye to David and the dogs a few hours ago and they headed south to the Texas Panhandle without me. I'm both sad to see them go, and excited to get home.
I'm incredibly grateful to Dave for taking me along on this adventure with him. It's been scary, intense, exhilarating, exciting and incredible. I'm one of the relatively few people who get to go on a trip like this. I faced some pretty intense fears (both of spiders - still not over that one, and of storms) head on and was able to manage my anxiety pretty well. I have to give a ton of credit and kudos to David for making sure that I was never in a situation where I felt that I was in danger. Not for a second did I think that I was in harm's way.
Some people thought I was nuts to go on this trip and before I went, I wasn't sure that I wasn't nuts. But after having such an incredible opportunity, I'm sure that I would have been nuts if I had turned this down. I came into this thinking it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and now I'm 100% sure I'll do it again next year. How could I miss a chance to see such power and beauty again?
This has been an incredible experience, and one I'll never forget.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Day 8. Back to Kansas
There were no storms so we decided to take a leisurely drive east back to Wichita from Lamar. We said goodbye to Roger and Elke, put the dogs in the car, and headed east. 6.5 hours later we cheched into our very nice La Quinta Inn in Wichita and went to Old Chicago for dinner and beer.
After dinner, Dave gets a call from his friend, Keith, letting him know that a tornado just went through Norman, Oklahoma, and damage was reported a quarter mile from Roger and Elke's house. After a stressful 45 minutes, we found out that there was only minimal damage to the house, and David's car looked ok.
It's kind of ironic that a tornado passes right by a storm chaser's house and he wasn't even around to see it.
After dinner, Dave gets a call from his friend, Keith, letting him know that a tornado just went through Norman, Oklahoma, and damage was reported a quarter mile from Roger and Elke's house. After a stressful 45 minutes, we found out that there was only minimal damage to the house, and David's car looked ok.
It's kind of ironic that a tornado passes right by a storm chaser's house and he wasn't even around to see it.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Day 7. It's a Twister!
It happened. I finally saw a tornado.
We left Liberal, Kansas at about 10:30 am and headed west in a hurry. Dave and Roger were predicting that the only real possibility of good storms would be in eastern Colorado. Once we arrived in Limon, and got out of the car to 50 degree temps, we decided to head south toward the boundary. We gave ourselves an hour. If the temperature didn't break 70 degrees within an hour, we were turning around and heading to Elke's mother's house near Denver.
Things heated up. Quickly. By the time we reached Pueblo, there was a cell brewing that looked as though it would become a small supercell. Then another cell popped up. And it looked as though it would become a supercell. Much to everyone's surprise (not mine, I didn't know what to expect), they both became small supercells! Each capable of producing a tornado!
We started heading southeast to try to get on the southeast side of the storm and came upon this, a horizontal funnel cloud trying to reach the ground. It was stunning, with the light coming from behind, creating a silver look to the funnel.
We got back in the car and tried to find a good place to photograph and view the structure of the huge, now merged, supercells. This is the cell with the wall cloud hanging down in the middle, and the core of the storm behind it. Shortly after I took this image, a small, white, wispy tornado formed in this area. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures.
The structure of this storm was spectacular. All the experienced chasers were saying that this was a classic high plains supercell.
It started heading toward us so we moved on so as not to get walloped by the core, which was producing two inch hail and driving rains. We continued heading southeast to get out of the way.
The mothership:
We stopped at a truck graveyard near Lamar, Colorado to check out a possible tornado. It looked to be a large, cone shaped tornado on the ground just north of us. It was backlit by the sun and had a pink, orange hue.
We got back on the road and headed into Lamar, and hoped that the mesocyclone would stay south of us, which it did.
This was a spectacular day.
We left Liberal, Kansas at about 10:30 am and headed west in a hurry. Dave and Roger were predicting that the only real possibility of good storms would be in eastern Colorado. Once we arrived in Limon, and got out of the car to 50 degree temps, we decided to head south toward the boundary. We gave ourselves an hour. If the temperature didn't break 70 degrees within an hour, we were turning around and heading to Elke's mother's house near Denver.
Things heated up. Quickly. By the time we reached Pueblo, there was a cell brewing that looked as though it would become a small supercell. Then another cell popped up. And it looked as though it would become a supercell. Much to everyone's surprise (not mine, I didn't know what to expect), they both became small supercells! Each capable of producing a tornado!
We started heading southeast to try to get on the southeast side of the storm and came upon this, a horizontal funnel cloud trying to reach the ground. It was stunning, with the light coming from behind, creating a silver look to the funnel.
We got back in the car and tried to find a good place to photograph and view the structure of the huge, now merged, supercells. This is the cell with the wall cloud hanging down in the middle, and the core of the storm behind it. Shortly after I took this image, a small, white, wispy tornado formed in this area. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures.
The structure of this storm was spectacular. All the experienced chasers were saying that this was a classic high plains supercell.It started heading toward us so we moved on so as not to get walloped by the core, which was producing two inch hail and driving rains. We continued heading southeast to get out of the way.
The mothership:
We stopped at a truck graveyard near Lamar, Colorado to check out a possible tornado. It looked to be a large, cone shaped tornado on the ground just north of us. It was backlit by the sun and had a pink, orange hue.
We got back on the road and headed into Lamar, and hoped that the mesocyclone would stay south of us, which it did.
This was a spectacular day.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Day 6. A Surprise Ending
We left Ponca City, Oklahoma at about noon today thinking that there was nothing brewing within reach, so we would just head west toward eastern Colorado to get into position for tomorrow. We got on Route 11 and headed due west. We decided to spend the night in Liberal, Kansas. I'm pretty sure that Liberal is a misnomer and I'm the only liberal in Liberal.
We checked into our hotel (Dave and I are in the lap of luxury tonight at the Quality Inn) and let the dogs run for a bit in the back. We went to dinner at Crapplebees at about 6:30 and thought we'd all call it an early night. At about 7:15ish, Dave gets a call from his friend, Keith, a great forecaster, saying that there's a supercell right outside Liberal and we need to go check it out. Sure enough, we pay our checks, and walk outside, and there it is. This big, giant, black, rotating supercell. We hopped in our cars and off we went, seeking the best viewing area and hoping for tornadoes.
There was a wall cloud that had some funnel clouds coming out of its base. Although the storm never actually produced a tornado, it had some incredible structure. It made me really see why David comes out here every year to do this. Mother Nature is spectacular and awesome. It made me feel small and relatively powerless.
Unfortunately, since we unloaded the car before dinner, I didn't have my camera. The only pictures I got were taken with my iPhone. Now we know to always keep the cameras in the car.
We checked into our hotel (Dave and I are in the lap of luxury tonight at the Quality Inn) and let the dogs run for a bit in the back. We went to dinner at Crapplebees at about 6:30 and thought we'd all call it an early night. At about 7:15ish, Dave gets a call from his friend, Keith, a great forecaster, saying that there's a supercell right outside Liberal and we need to go check it out. Sure enough, we pay our checks, and walk outside, and there it is. This big, giant, black, rotating supercell. We hopped in our cars and off we went, seeking the best viewing area and hoping for tornadoes.
There was a wall cloud that had some funnel clouds coming out of its base. Although the storm never actually produced a tornado, it had some incredible structure. It made me really see why David comes out here every year to do this. Mother Nature is spectacular and awesome. It made me feel small and relatively powerless.
Unfortunately, since we unloaded the car before dinner, I didn't have my camera. The only pictures I got were taken with my iPhone. Now we know to always keep the cameras in the car.
Day 5. A Great Photo Opportunity
It started off as a promising day. A day which looked like it was going to produce a lot of tornadic activity in the southeast part of Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma. But by mid afternoon we all soon realized that was not the case. We decided to take a small chance on a cell in Oklahoma and headed in that direction. After a couple of hours driving through Osage Reservation/County we came to the back end of the cell. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. There was this huge, towering updraft cloud and the sun was shining on to the top part of it, while the bottom was enshrouded in shadow. There was a double rainbow over some farmland, which I may have trespassed on to get some pictures. And the sunset. The sunset was spectacular.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Day 4. A Down Day
The only storms today looked to be well over 6 hours from where we were, so we decided just to have a down day and to head toward our target location for tomorrow, Salina, Kansas. So after cleaning up massive amounts of dog shit (the dogs picked yesterday to get sick), we got on the road. We stopped at the Pony Express Museum for a bit and then started heading south through the Flint Hills of Kansas.
We stopped at a rest stop and took a short hike. It was beautiful. I tried to take some portraits of porthos, but he never stops moving, so this is the best that I came up with.
At the rest stop, we met a woman with a 10 week old full blood wolf puppy. The thing was cute as can be, but it made me so sad.
We ended the day by checking into an America's Best Value Inn. It has suspicious stains on the box spring and the bathroom wall. I'm trying not to think about it too much.
We stopped at a rest stop and took a short hike. It was beautiful. I tried to take some portraits of porthos, but he never stops moving, so this is the best that I came up with.
At the rest stop, we met a woman with a 10 week old full blood wolf puppy. The thing was cute as can be, but it made me so sad.
We ended the day by checking into an America's Best Value Inn. It has suspicious stains on the box spring and the bathroom wall. I'm trying not to think about it too much.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Day 3. My First Chase.
Today started off with us heading South toward Kansas. We were hoping to get to the northeast part of Kansas by early afternoon. At about 1:30 or so we arrived in Marysville, Kansas and after refueling and grabbing some caffeine, we met up with Roger and Elke (chase friends of Dave) and sat in a Walmart (the devil!!!) parking lot for awhile watching radar and the sky.
A supercell started forming east of us, and so we got on the road. Our caravan was Roger and Elke in the lead car, us in the middle, and this random guy, Jaime, who decided to follow us for the day. The hoards of storm chasers all over the road is bizarre. We drove past the TIV. It is pretty stupid looking.
We then tried to get to the southeast side of the storm. That is supposed to put is in the rain free base and give us the best view of any possible tornadoes. This took a couple of hours and brought us into southeast Nebraska. Although we didn't see any tornadoes with this storm, we did get to see beautiful cloud formations.
This one looks like the luck dragon from the never ending story.
After this storm began to peter out, Dave and Roger decided our next best option would be to head over the Missouri River into Missouri and chase a storm there. After crossing the river we drove through a town called Oregon, which had baseball sized hail lying on the side of the road. Now, we got to Oregon about 20 minutes after the storm came through, so the hail had some time to melt. That means it was closer to softballs or grapefruits when it fell.
The roads in Missouri weren't cooperating with us. We couldn't get to the safest part of the storm without punching through the hook echo to get there. So that's what we (and I use the word "we" loosely. I didn't decide a whole lot.) decided to do.
We headed east through the town of Maysville. It was pouring rain, with serious winds trying to push me off the road. As we were driving through the center of town, there was a stillness. No one was on the roads, the sky was DARK and the tornado sirens were blaring. It was one of the eeriest things I've ever experienced.
However, after driving through rotating curtains of rain and hail, and not being able to see what was on the other side of those curtains (i.e. a tornado), we decided to head south and out of harm's way. While driving, we saw a funnel cloud, but it never became a tornado.
We ended up at a gas station with a bunch of other chasers and waited for dark. Mother nature put on quite the lightning show while we waited.
We then decided to head to St. Joseph, Missouri, where we would spend the night. I was pretty excited because I'd been driving for almost 9 hours nonstop and I was exhausted, hungry, and thirsty. But there was a catch. In order to go the 30 miles to get to St. Joseph, we had to drive between two major storm cores. I opted to keep driving so that Dave could watch the radar. It was the scariest drive I've ever done. It was raining so hard that I couldn't see the road in front of me, I had to focus on keeping my tire on the white line. It was the only way I could make sure to stay on the road. It started hailing, mostly pea sized, but with the occasional golf ball. It was LOUD. The constant lightning was like strobe lights.
I don't think I've ever been so happy to see a crappy little town in the middle of nowhere.
Dinner at Denny's (ew).
All in all, it was an exciting and interesting day. And I'm pretty proud of myself for not flipping out in all the scary driving. Go me!
A supercell started forming east of us, and so we got on the road. Our caravan was Roger and Elke in the lead car, us in the middle, and this random guy, Jaime, who decided to follow us for the day. The hoards of storm chasers all over the road is bizarre. We drove past the TIV. It is pretty stupid looking.
We then tried to get to the southeast side of the storm. That is supposed to put is in the rain free base and give us the best view of any possible tornadoes. This took a couple of hours and brought us into southeast Nebraska. Although we didn't see any tornadoes with this storm, we did get to see beautiful cloud formations.
This one looks like the luck dragon from the never ending story.
After this storm began to peter out, Dave and Roger decided our next best option would be to head over the Missouri River into Missouri and chase a storm there. After crossing the river we drove through a town called Oregon, which had baseball sized hail lying on the side of the road. Now, we got to Oregon about 20 minutes after the storm came through, so the hail had some time to melt. That means it was closer to softballs or grapefruits when it fell.
The roads in Missouri weren't cooperating with us. We couldn't get to the safest part of the storm without punching through the hook echo to get there. So that's what we (and I use the word "we" loosely. I didn't decide a whole lot.) decided to do.
We headed east through the town of Maysville. It was pouring rain, with serious winds trying to push me off the road. As we were driving through the center of town, there was a stillness. No one was on the roads, the sky was DARK and the tornado sirens were blaring. It was one of the eeriest things I've ever experienced.
However, after driving through rotating curtains of rain and hail, and not being able to see what was on the other side of those curtains (i.e. a tornado), we decided to head south and out of harm's way. While driving, we saw a funnel cloud, but it never became a tornado.
We ended up at a gas station with a bunch of other chasers and waited for dark. Mother nature put on quite the lightning show while we waited.
We then decided to head to St. Joseph, Missouri, where we would spend the night. I was pretty excited because I'd been driving for almost 9 hours nonstop and I was exhausted, hungry, and thirsty. But there was a catch. In order to go the 30 miles to get to St. Joseph, we had to drive between two major storm cores. I opted to keep driving so that Dave could watch the radar. It was the scariest drive I've ever done. It was raining so hard that I couldn't see the road in front of me, I had to focus on keeping my tire on the white line. It was the only way I could make sure to stay on the road. It started hailing, mostly pea sized, but with the occasional golf ball. It was LOUD. The constant lightning was like strobe lights.
I don't think I've ever been so happy to see a crappy little town in the middle of nowhere.
Dinner at Denny's (ew).
All in all, it was an exciting and interesting day. And I'm pretty proud of myself for not flipping out in all the scary driving. Go me!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Day 2. We're not in Kansas Anymore, Toto.
This was what is known as a "Down Day."
We got off to a slow start this morning, finally heading out of Wichita around noon and heading north toward Nebraska. We started the day chasing what looked to be a good storm system that was going to produce a tornado. However - and bear with me here, I don't know much about meteorology - the winds were coming from the north and pushed the storm south and turned it into a bunch of nothing.
I'm having some trouble coming to terms with the idea of chasing and celebrating violent storms. How am I going to feel when I, or when I see someone else, display joy and elation upon seeing a force of nature that can cause massive destruction, and could take lives? Is it OK to be excited about a tornado when I know what it can do? I asked my cousin about this and he says that he doesn't feel joy upon seeing a tornado. He's not someone who jumps up and down. He says the ideal sighting occurs in a cornfield somewhere away from all people and animals. He says it is definitely exciting, but he says that it's a feeling of awe more than anything else. A lot of chasers justify their hobby by saying that the storms would happen anyway, whether they are there watching the tornado or not. And that's true. We'll see what happens this week when I'm actually in the situation.
We drove about 250 miles and ended up in York, Nebraska, where we met up with a couple of David's friends, Roger and Elke at this beautiful place called Recharge Lake. We spent a few hours there, just hanging out, waiting to see what the weather would do.
While we were there, we kept checking the forecast to see whether the weather would change and become favorable for storms. It never did.
So while we sat around, David brushed Thunder.
Doesn't he look handsome?
Then we left for the hotel, America's Best Value Inn. Nicer than expected and complete with drunk guys grilling in the parking lot. I'm pretty sure they live there.
So after dinner we went to bed, hoping for a more active day tomorrow.
We got off to a slow start this morning, finally heading out of Wichita around noon and heading north toward Nebraska. We started the day chasing what looked to be a good storm system that was going to produce a tornado. However - and bear with me here, I don't know much about meteorology - the winds were coming from the north and pushed the storm south and turned it into a bunch of nothing.
I'm having some trouble coming to terms with the idea of chasing and celebrating violent storms. How am I going to feel when I, or when I see someone else, display joy and elation upon seeing a force of nature that can cause massive destruction, and could take lives? Is it OK to be excited about a tornado when I know what it can do? I asked my cousin about this and he says that he doesn't feel joy upon seeing a tornado. He's not someone who jumps up and down. He says the ideal sighting occurs in a cornfield somewhere away from all people and animals. He says it is definitely exciting, but he says that it's a feeling of awe more than anything else. A lot of chasers justify their hobby by saying that the storms would happen anyway, whether they are there watching the tornado or not. And that's true. We'll see what happens this week when I'm actually in the situation.
We drove about 250 miles and ended up in York, Nebraska, where we met up with a couple of David's friends, Roger and Elke at this beautiful place called Recharge Lake. We spent a few hours there, just hanging out, waiting to see what the weather would do.
While we were there, we kept checking the forecast to see whether the weather would change and become favorable for storms. It never did.
So while we sat around, David brushed Thunder.
Doesn't he look handsome?
Then we left for the hotel, America's Best Value Inn. Nicer than expected and complete with drunk guys grilling in the parking lot. I'm pretty sure they live there.So after dinner we went to bed, hoping for a more active day tomorrow.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Day 1, Arrival in Wichita
My flight landed at Wichita Mid Continental Airport at 2:40pm. It is the bittiest airport I've ever seen. It has only one terminal and only 12 gates.
I got to my hotel, a Holiday Inn (it's really nice!), got checked in, and turned on the TV. The first channel I flipped to was the weather channel. They were talking about storm chasing.
That's when I started getting nervous.
I went to Old Town to get dinner and a beer and calm myself down. The cab ride from the hotel only took about 5 minutes and cost $4.50. After dinner I checked google maps on my phone and decided that since it was only 1.1 miles back to the hotel, I'd walk. I didn't count on all the abandoned buildings and the empty parking garages that I'd have to pass. Eek.
Then I got a text message from Dave saying that they saw a 25 minute tornado in eastern Wyoming and were heading back to Wichita tonight so that he can pick me up, and take his friend, Emily, to the airport in the morning.
So now I sit. And wait. And try not to let my neuroses and anxiety take over.
We'll be chasing in central Nebraska tomorrow.
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