I caught the first storm of the day early in Rapids City Iowa. it wasn't much but did show a little rotation. Hopefully signs of things to come. I left that little storm behind and headed out west. Desmoines was my original target area, but when I got there it was still early enough so I headed south towards Kansas to maybe get on the big game hunt.
I made it down to Kansas city when the first storms in that area began firing in central Kansas, so I headed west for a minute only to realize that the turnpikes in Kansas were a trap. There are no off points. I jogged onto 335 at Topeka and was still trapped until I got to Emporia, Kansas where I stopped to fill up.
On the way I had noticed a small blip SW of Wichita a half hour earlier and thought nothing of it. By the time I got gas, reports were coming in of a big tornado about to enter Wichita. I spent the next hour following these reports and relaying them to a friend in Wichita who was hold up in her basement closet. A tornado did enter Wichita, but it had weakened considerably and it appeared that a disaster had been adverted.
Of course I noticed the direction of the storm and it was heading right up 35 to Emporia, and my location. I was stuck at a train as it approached and shot out of town to the north to try and intercept. That is when another tornado was reported on the ground just west of Emporia. I was, unfortunately, in its path rather than ahead of it to watch it. I kept myself ahead of the storm for a while, fighting the road networks which did not seem to want to allow me to get in proper position.
The tornado warning was cancelled but a severe thunderstorm warning was still in these storms. The storm finally overtook me and I got into some mid size hail of dime to quarter size and winds of 60-70 mph. I had gone a good ways back north so I decided not shoot back south, mainly because I had to work Tuesday. It had gotten dark and late so I pulled off for some much needed sleep.
On Monday, I drifted around Iowa for a while, waiting for storms to fire up. I stopped at a Best Buy to get some cards for my camera, but they had a clearance on the Cannon HF g10 HD camcorder for $750 marked down from $1099. I could not pass it up. As I got back to the car and unpacked the camera, the reports started coming in of a large tornado heading toward Oklahoma city. I followed the other chasers reports as the disaster unfolded. I was shocked at what I was hearing. Could it be happening again? Yes, Moore was struck with a devastating F5 and what really sunk my heart was hearing that grade schools full of children had taken a direct hit.
I did not feel much like chasing any longer and drove sadly home, listening to the accounts of what had unfolded on my radio. I had a sickening feeling in my stomach and then remembered the feeling of dread I had when I had first left home. I actually had a thought that maybe it was time to retire after 25 years chasing these deadly beasts. I reminded myself though that it was others like myself who were out there reporting this, getting the word out to the public to save lives. Now, several days later, I see that it had saved lives. People had taken precautions. The death toll could have been far higher.
This is the real reason why we chase storms. Yes, we get a thrill out of seeing a big storm with big tornadoes, but none of us ever wants to see what happened in Moore on Monday May 20th. We go out there to spot these storms and give early warnings to the public to save lives. We go out there to try and learn and understand tornadoes and severe weather so that we can make better forecasts and give more accurate and timely warning to people to save lives. And, if need be, we can be the ones on the spot initially to try and help those effected by the storms.
Early Iowa storm
Emporia, Ks area, cam 1
Emporia KS area cam 2
Very good stuff. I have often wondered how you deal with the conflicting emotions. Seeing the awesome power of nature has to be a thrill, but it is at such a high cost.
ReplyDeleteit is not always easy when there is loss of life.
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