Wednesday, April 25, 2007 Centrailia, Oklahoma Wall Cloud

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

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 14 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

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