Arrived Salina, Kansas: 12:10 A.M. (Next Day)
Total Hours On Road: 12 Hours 40 Minutes
Total Miles Traveled: 668 Miles
2008 Pontiac G6 Yellow 2 Door Passenger Car
Tornadoes: 00
Funnel Clouds: 00
Wall Clouds: 02
Hail: No
Flooding: No
Today started with the Storm Prediction Center putting out a Moderate Risk of severe thunderstorms over North Central Kansas and South Central Nebraska. This area also had a 10% chance of tornadoes painted over it by the SPC. My original target area was going to be North Central Kansas, since I've chased in that area before.
As the day progressed, I saw that thunderstorms developing over Northern Kansas was not going to happen. I kept traveling north, and storms started developing along the Interstate 80 corridor to the west of Lincoln, Nebraska. I adjusted my target area, since I didn't want today to be a busted chase (blue sky and no storms).
I caught my first glimpse of the tornado warned cells that I was after, when I arrived in the area to the northeast of York, Nebraska, located in York County. I already knew that today was not going to be a great storm chasing day, when I saw my first severe storm of the day. The storm was practically linear in some aspects, with breaks in the line of storms. Each break in the line of storms had a updraft region, which would rotate. Several tornado warnings were issued for the area I was in, but trying to view these storms was not easy. The updraft areas of the storms were hard to pick out, since the skies were overcast. This was due to more storms trying to develop back down the line to my southwest. To put it simple, it was hard to tell what part of the storm I was looking at, since all the main storm features seemed to run together.
I did see a couple of wall clouds within the areas of rotation on two different areas of the line of storms. I was northeast of York, Nebraska, near Waco when I saw both of these wall clouds.
There may have been more to these wall clouds, but visibility was horrible where I was located. I kept hearing about possible tornado damage to my northwest, but if a tornado was there, I did not see it. Visibility was so bad, I did not want to put myself in danger of large hail or driving into a tornado. The storms were moving east towards the Lincoln, Nebraska area, and I did not want to deal with having to drive in a lot of traffic in a bigger city to keep up with this storm.I headed back south, where I had plans to stay overnight somewhere in Northern Kansas for tomorrow's much hyped-up tornado outbreak day. I did see some of the most amazing lightning in some newer storms to my south, as I drove. The lightning bolts mostly stayed in the upper anvil areas of these storms, and it was pretty much one bolt right after another. I stopped near Fairmont, Nebraska, and I got a few photographs of these storms to my south.
I stopped and took cover in Bruning, Nebraska from the large hail that was being reported with these storms. I didn't see any hail, but boy did it rain very hard. It's really nice having almost live radar beside me, as I'm driving through a storm like this one.I was going to get a motel room in Belleville, Kansas, but they were all full. I also tried to find a room in Concordia, Kansas but once again No Vacany. I spent a little more time on the road than I wanted, and I finally found a room at the Holiday Day Inn Convention Center in Salina, Kansas. This marked the first time that I stayed overnight on a storm chase. The forecasters have really talked up how big of a tornado day tomorrow will be, and Salina would put me in a prime starting point for the big show.
Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas
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