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
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