Friday, June 06, 2008 Southwest Missouri Wall Clouds

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 12:55 P.M.
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 6:50 P.M.
Total Hours On Road: 5 Hours 55 Minutes
Total Miles Traveled: 267 Miles
2008 Pontiac G6 Yellow 2 Door Passenger Car

Tornadoes: 00
Funnel Clouds: 00
Wall Clouds: 02
Hail: No
Flooding: No


Today was an unplanned chase day. I planned to just hang out at home and rest up after spending the last three days on the road chasing storms. The forecast for today showed that thunderstorms were possible over Southwest Missouri, but that area is not my favorite place to chase storms. The hilly terrain and trees makes it difficult to see the storms after they develop.

I decided to just drive around in Southwest Missouri and see what popped up. Storms started firing up, and all I hoped for was a few storms that I could photograph. The first storm I intercepted produced a wall cloud over northeastern sections of Springfield, Missouri. I photographed the wall cloud, as it started dissipating northeast of Springfield. I decided to head towards home, since storms were developing between Springfield and Joplin.

The next storm I intercepted was southwest of Golden City, Missouri. I witnessed a very large wall cloud within the updraft area of this mini supercell thunderstorm. The wall cloud itself did not appear to be rotating, but there was evidence of rotation just above the wall cloud, with a collar cloud visible. At times, the wall cloud appeared to be just mere feet above the ground. I contacted the Springfield Missouri National Weather Service office to report what I was seeing with this storm. The individual with whom I spoke told me that he saw on radar the area where I was seeing the wall cloud. This wall cloud dissipated before the updraft area of the storm moved south of Golden City.

I decided to stop chasing this storm, since it was moving into an area of less desireable terrain. This storm reportedly dropped a tornado later on in the evening, but I'm not sure if this report was validated. I headed towards home, to get some rest and return the rental car.

Later on in the evening, I became the hunted. Another mini-supercell thunderstorm developed in Southern Cherokee County, Kansas, and a few funnel clouds and tornadoes were reported with this storm. I stayed home in Pittsburg, Kansas, and one of the updraft portions of the storm ended up moving over the eastern part of Pittsburg. No damage occurred in Pittsburg with this storm, but with the sirens sounding for almost 45 minutes, it made for a very tense evening. So much for just kicking back and just resting.


Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas