Tuesday, June 03, 2008 Northwest Missouri

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas: 11:00 A.M.
Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 2:00 A.M. (Next Day)
Total Hours On Road: 15 Hours 00 Minutes
Total Miles Traveled: 535 Miles
2008 Pontiac G6 Yellow 2 Door Passenger Car

Tornadoes: 00
Funnel Clouds: 01
Wall Clouds: 02
Hail: No
Flooding: No


Today started with a Moderate Risk of severe thunderstorms over north central Missouri, with a 15% chance of tornadoes over this same area. I decided to take my chances and chase in Northern Missouri today. I had chased in this area many years ago, and I remembered that the terrain had a lot of hills and trees. I figured it would not be as bad as my chases this year in Southeast Oklahoma.

I proceeded to drive north in Missouri until a storm developed near Plattsburg, Missouri, located southeast of St. Joseph. I watched this storm as it became organized and it developed a nice looking wall cloud south of Polo, Missouri, located in Southwest Caldwell County, Missouri. This wall cloud persisted for quite some time, as I followed this storm east across Southern Caldwell County, Northern Ray County, and Central Carroll County.

The wall cloud consisted of anywhere from your classic looking wall cloud to being a blocky wall cloud. I took several photographs of this feature as I traveled mainly rural back roads throughout this area. I followed this tornado warned storm until I got to Highway 65 east of Bogard, Missouri. At this time, the wall cloud was very large, and it produced at least one very small needle shaped funnel cloud. I could not tell if this brief funnel was touching the ground, as a hill obstructed my view.

I attempted to continue following the storm east, but I had a hard time finding my way across a creek/river in the area, so I had to do a lot of back tracking. The sun set, and I was left with hardly any light at all. I decided to call it a day, so I headed back home. On my way home, I drove some very heavy rainfall most of the time on the road. It made for some slow driving. Also on my way home, I was keeping tabs on the 80-90 MPH winds in the storms that roared through the city in which I live. The storms caused some major damage to trees and some buildings throughout the Pittsburg, Kansas area.

I'm glad I decided to chase in Northwest Missouri today. I got to see some great supercell thunderstorm structure. Needless to say, I was also satisfied with the photographs I took of the various wall clouds I witnessed throughout the day. If the need ever arises again I will definately chase in the Northwest Missouri area in the future.


Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas