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
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Tuesday, April 05, 2005 Storm Chase Northeast Oklahoma
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
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
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