IT'S HAPPENING... we just can't see it!

Gahhhh so close yet so far I guess is what I can say about yesterday's chase. We were on the right storm but we didn't see the tornado at the time. We moved about a minute before it crossed right where we were. But first to the previous day, where the beers were already out despite the group not having seen a tornado just yet. We had a long drive from St Paul, Minnesota to Kansas City, Missouri and it was decided to have all the Aussies (and a Pom) in one van. Um hello! I'm pretty sure it started with me having a beer with lunch then one of our tour guides (and resident alcohol connoiseur) Kevin encouraged everyone in our van to grab some drinks and we started downing them. There was a bit of singing, a bit of drinking - we even stole some people from the other van. Red Van became Party Van. I think some people regretted it in the morning.



Louise (UK - Essex), me, Nicole (Ballarat), "Chip" (Alice Springs)and Michael (Melbourne)

But everyone made it to the van for the big chase day. We travelled just under three hours south to Wichita, Kansas and just got into Oklahoma before we saw storms start to fire (maybe a tad earlier than expected) to our northwest (but conveniently, storms were moving south fairly slowly). It was a bit of a blur when the chase began, I don't know exactly where we were, but storms were exploding like we'd never seen before.

Massive updrafts!!!

Mammatus - an indication of strong updrafts

Storm's a coming - time to take the roof off this van!

But then of course we got on the best storms of the tour and there were road blocks in the form of COMBINE HARVESTERS on the road followed by a dozen semi-trailers. It was SO frustrating but we cleared them and found it pretty smooth sailing. After a little bit of driving things started happening. We got out of the van for a better look and I got this shot:

All this was getting sucked up into the storm

 Then I saw this:

Wall cloud - the place tornadoes drop from, usually

Not long after, we found a nearer wall cloud where it was ALL happening. It's kind of hard to explain, but there was rotation on the ground (dust devils) and in the sky (funnels) but none of it connected to each other, new clouds getting sucked up into the storm - it's hard to explain. But we couldn't stay long, the storm wouldn't let us! We took to the dirt roads to go south to stay in the "notch" of the storm. We had a few photo stops before the storm REALLY matured and we found a main road to wait and watch.



Imagine all that spinning anti-clockwise. You wouldn't have had to imagine it if my video I was trying to post below loaded.

Rotating funnel poking out of the clouds

(Insert video here - it was good)

The side of the highway gave us an excellent 360 degree view of the storm. Rain curtains were wrapping around the storm, the wind was up and we started hearing tornado sirens. There was a powerflash (the wind had pretty much ripped the power lines off down the line, under which we standing) and the rain was coming. We had to move!! So in the van we went, moments before the rain (which we later figured out had a tornado hidden in it) passed. We went a little way down the road before stopping again. Another great funnel had formed (I got video of it - the upload failed :S) so we watched that die then THUMP. A golf ball. THUMP. A tennis ball. No, a sporting goods store didn't get sucked up into a tornado. These were the sizes of hailstones that began to fall around us. Back in the van!!! Photos of hail the size of GRAPEFRUIT emerged shortly after. That's at least a 5 INCH circumference. Big stuff!


Tornado was in behind this rain

(A video was supposed to here but the internet had other plans)


But the excitement ended there as another storm crossed this monster's path and it descended into mostly heavy rain and some hail. We traversed the storm down to Norman, Oklahoma where we had dinner. The storm eventually caught up with us while we were in having dinner, which cut out the satellite TV (much to the annoyance of all those watching Oklahoma City Thunder getting towelled up in the NBA playoffs). Today we're heading to Kansas to chase. I'll look out for Dorothy for you! Or if you like you can try to spot her yourself on the live stream - live.tvnweather.com. We are the Extreme Tornado Tours tag. Let me know on Facebook or Twitter if you are watching and I'll try to give you a wave.