MAIN PAGE	*IMAGES BY YEAR*	CHASE VIDEOS
IMAGE LICENSING	STOCK IMAGES	TOPICS
PRINT SALES	CHASING LINKS	WALLPAPER IMAGES
FAQ/INFO	ABOUT	CONTACT

Today was a rather large severe weather outbreak across MO, IL and surrounding areas. Very widespread fires also took place in west TX during the afternoon as high winds and high temps blasted the area. I woke up a little before 5 a.m. after a whopping 3 hours of sleep. I leave Blair around 7 a.m. and head for an early target around St. Joe. It was a bit odd heading to a target you'd be at by 10 a.m. I figured this day could start very early, but I really had no idea it'd be going before 8 a.m.! As I drove south down I-29 I watched this wild supercell trash Lawrence and KC on my xm wxworx. This radar is at 8:13 a.m. as the storm leaves Lawrence. It produced severe wind and hail damage on the KU campus east into KC. This storm was in low 40 temps well north of the sfc warm front. It was tornado warned for a good while as it rampaged across northern MO.
Here is another elevated storm moving up behind the KC storm. It is right over northern St. Joe. It made a big mess of the interstate between exit 53 and 56. I really thought I was going to get stuck in the hail driving my rear wheel drive Mustang. Keep in mind that before the hail the temps were in the low 40s. With the hail the air is not much above freezing so this was indeed slick hail.
Here is one of the off ramps. It was quite slick.
I parked at this gas station for a while as I really wasn't sure I wanted to get back on the interstate.
Well I got back on the interstate and quickly regretted doing so. This girl didn't want to go very fast and I thought for sure I would be screwed on one of these inclines. The stones were now freezing together a bit and the road was amazingly rough. Then it got even more interesting. The winds were howling out of the due east and I'm going south. This ambulance passes me on the left here. As he does so he is driving with his tires in the deeper stuff. Well this wall of ice plasters my windwhield and I can't see a damn thing. It scared the crap out of me as I didn't want to go to the right at all and get in the stuff on the shoulder. I cranked the wipers and they were already screwed up. They had ice stuck to them like you get in heavy snow and all they did was smear it a bit. So here I am unable to slow down for fear of not getting up the hill, I can't see much, and I have more traffic ready to go by and splash more ice on me. Well thankfully they weren't driving in the piles. I was soooooo glad to get out of that.
I stop at the Days Inn and get wifi, after trying a whole plaza with no luck. Well not long after being there another hailer comes into southern St. Joe this time. It goes tornado warned as I sit in the hail from it.
After it let up a bit I try to go east after the tornado warning and once again encounter road problems because of the hail. I didn't want to screw my day by sliding off the road so I turned around and head back to the motel.
Up to quarter sized hail where I gave up.
It wasn't long and stuff was firing in se KS(around noon). A PDS tornado watch was issued for all of MO, eastern KS and part of IL. I went to KC and drove around the west side to intercept a storm already tornado warned. The storms on the north end of this weren't looking so hot on radar so I backtrack east to the south of KC. I then fly south on 69 to intercept the larger supercells down there. I liked the area closer to KC as the warm front was there, but I was affraid I would end up being behind on the day if I didn't get out of there.
I was a bit nervous trying to beat this middle tornado warned supercell. It was quite close, but I made it. I go east and stop somewhere near Amoret MO on the border.
Here is the view looking just to the nw. I had just driven south through the area that wall cloud is. Notice the two tail clouds streaming sw into it.
This storm had a looooong rfd right now. You can see this little notching area south of the wall cloud. The rfd briefly tried to cut in there and wrap something up, but it didn't last long.

The main rfd notch quickly grew and cut east. The precip was really wrapping around hard right now.

As I go east with the storm it became painfully obvious I would never stay with it. It would have required some seriously speedy driving and I wasn't in the mood to do so. That or I wasn't thinking it would be worth it. I don't know, I never tried hard to stay with it once I was on it. It had a nice wall cloud with it I guess, but it just did not look that great. It was probably the looooooooooong linearish gust front it had. The rfd seemed too large to ever really cut in nice. Well apparently it tornadoes right after I leave it(according to a damage survey).
You can see the reflectivity showing up on the long rfd with the northern one. The southern one was looking good and it looked like if I dropped south right now I wouldn't have the stress like I did the first time.
Springfield MO radar of the southern one when I pull over just north of Rich Hill MO.
When I first stopped I thought it could tornado very soon.
Notice the vault "grow" as it moves ne. It weakens right as it passes me. I was amazed at the speed this storm approached. I was like, do something now because I again don't think I can stay with you.

It looked pretty nice while it was still out there a bit.

"Tail cloud" rolling east. You can see an rfd cut filled with precip here. I let this go right over me as it did not look threatening at all. It had that, "I'm being severely undercut" look to it.
I could not see any rotation in any of this as it approached.
Right now I'm think my chase day is almost over. I knew I wouldn't stay with this and it was trending downward fast. I give a weak attempt at going after it but it wasn't looking like it was worth it. Even on radar it is looking worse and worse. Well, little did I know what would become of this storm. This storm went bonkers across all of central MO, then through IL, then through IN before it died in MI! The first return of this storm showed up in ne OK. So that is OK, KS, MO, IL, IN, and MI this storm travelled! It was a storm for over 17 hours and something like 700 miles. It was a tornadic beast most of that time. It tears up stuff on the south side of Sedalia as well as southern Springfield IL. Today was about being on the storm at the right time. I was a bit early I guess.
So I went east and quickly give up. I then backtrack to Rich Hill MO and get gas. I sat in that town for about an hour as the dryline was still well west into KS. I decide to drift north after a blip shows up sw of KC. That stuff never looked very good up there so I sat on the se side of the city. I pondered chasing into the night.
As the supercells erupted along the dryline in eastern KS at sunset I decided to give it a shot in the dark. I drove east on I-70 while keeping my eye on a growing storm to the sw. It looked like it would be the best one as it was out ahead a bit.
Well it wasn't long and it was tornado warned. At Concordia MO I decide I was far enough east I should drop south. Well after getting through town and south I rethought this. I pulled over south of town to see if I could see anything. I saw a bit of lightning and that was about it.
My thinking was that I'd just sit here until I could see the base or tornado. I really liked this open area I found and didn't want to leave it. XM is not nearly as good as these radar images here. I really wasn't sure if the storm had a hook and where exactly on xm the rotation would be. I wasn't sure if this was already severely rain wrapped or what. So without being able to see any features and this radar not helping a whole lot I really wasn't sure exactly where the rotation was. What was becoming more clear on the radar loop was that it was likely coming directly at me, give or take a couple miles. I should have flown south right away, but the speeds they were moving combined with not so great terrain south of I-70 was talking me out of it. Wx-Worx is often a scan behind, or 5 minutes behind as well. Add in the fact it is 5 minutes per scan to begin with and there is a 5-10 minute slowness to the radar. In such a volitile environment such as this day one is just asking for it if they take any extra chances at night.
The few lightning strikes quickly got closer and I started to get rained on. I almost felt like a deer in headlights right here. I was affraid to drop south now incase it turned right just a tad. I knew at this point I did not have time to do it and find a spot to view(storms today were moving at upwards of 60mph). I was a little affraid to slide north back into town as I knew for certain I would gain no visual clues up there. And I was mostly affraid to sit in this spot any longer hoping for some structure. I didn't care for that feeling as it grew. I really wanted to stay there because I could see at least something, but at the same time I really wasn't thinking it was a wise idea. It never once crossed my mind to go north and then east on I-70. I am shocked now and in wonderment as to why this never came to me. It is like when you feel you are in danger your mind can shut out options.
I decided to head north till I knew I was out of the way. I went through Concordia and kept on going. These two are at the same time, with the velocity on the bottom showing the couplet. I guess I sort of wish I had shear markers on xm now. I did not think that was that far north. I would have went south if I knew it was right there. I left a couple minutes before these.
I'm now north out of the way near Alma MO. I feel like an idiot for not thinking of going east. It is bugging me as to why it never crossed my mind when I was trying to figure out what to do. It is like I got fixed on 3 choices, sit, fly south, or fly north. The most safetly conscious decision won out. If you go north the gap between you and the hook isn't closing as fast as if you try to go south, or sit. With the storm speeds(evidently this tornado moved a bit over 30 miles in 36 minutes...or a bit over 50mph) and the fact I was already in precip from the storm, the fly south at the last second option wasn't winning me over. I guess going east right then probably wouldn't have felt too great either. I pushed the fly south thing early in the day and I guess I didn't feel like doing it again. As soon as I left this spot my xm died on me. It would no longer update or find a satellite. I hear others had this same problem at the same time. It really was the worst time to have it happen. According to the damage survey the tornado was still on the ground at the time of this velocity grab. Probably wise I went north. It apparently passed a couple miles south of where I was parked and continued on for several more miles.
Anyway, after letting it pass to my south I drop back south. I heard a report on the radio station out of Marshall that someone was reporting their house trashed by baseball hail, south of Concordia near where I was parked. I found these stones after hitting dense hail fog. There was a very strong tree smell in the area now. Not sure if it was a pine smell but it was definitely new. Not sure if hail would do that but I'm sure a tornado would. I could also smell a fire somewhere now.
I get a room in Concordia MO as the squall line closes in. Note the supercell party continues on into the night. To the top left here is KC.
I tried some lightning shots but the low clouds rolled in, hiding all the anvil crawlers that were happening.
Quite the day.

These are the two long lived tornadic supercells near Sedalia during the day. The southern one is the mother of all supercells which was a storm for over 17 hours and some 700 + miles from OK to MI. It has it's eyes set on Sedalia at this time. I believe it started producing that tornado about now.
The southern storm is now hitting Sedalia. Now remember these two and the fact one is hitting Sedalia and the other is pretty close.
A few minutes later and note the "double hook" feature on the Sedalia storm. The one occludes as the new one is already going strong.
New hook taking over. The loop of that process is pretty cool. Note how it does that right after it hit just south of Sedalia.
Here they are further east about to slide north of St. Louis.
Here is the same southern supercell now hitting Springfield IL with a strong tornado. This was the same storm I was on as it crossed into MO from KS. It continues through IL, into IN, and into MI as it dies. WOW! This was happening at 8 p.m. So those two ravaged the area right around Sedalia MO on east to this point. Well, now at 8 p.m. as this is happening in IL from the same storm, the area around Sedalia is getting ready for another round.
My night stuff above is the stuff that goes near Sedalia. Here is a composition I made with one frame with the day stuff hitting the Sedalia area with the later night storms overlayed on the same map. That is simply crazy. I'm pretty certain all these storms produced tornadoes. The two supercells at night followed almost right over the same path as the two earlier in the day.
A little after 10 p.m. and Springfield MO is getting in on the "fun". Only 2 hours earlier the all day superstorm was hitting Springfield IL, now an entirely different one is hitting Springfield MO.
Now at 11:12 p.m. another strong supercell with hook is entering Jefferson City MO. Maybe one very boring day I'll grab even more supercells from this crazy crazy day.