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

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.