Great Success

After traveling over 4,000 miles in 4 days, stretching 9 states, its finally time to conclude this epic adventure. Some may ask if it was worth driving this far to chase storms. The only answer to that question is yes. And how can it not be...

After the photo had been edited.

I haven't posted in a couple days but I am sure that everyone knows that we in fact did see a tornado. Not only did we see a tornado but it was the strongest confirmed tornado, an EF-4, of the more than 100 that touched down on April 14th. It was a pretty incredible experience.

I woke up around 9AM Saturday morning and started checking forecasts and discussions to see where people were targeting. I chose Salina Kansas based on the location. It was in the middle of everything and had accessible roads going all directions. We sat at a McDonalds in the middle of the town to use their free internet while we waited for the storms to come. After an hour of waiting, there were several storms popping up to the southwest of us that we had a play on, 2 of the 5 had already produced a tornado, so I picked the one farthest north to start. With them travelling in a North, Northeast path they were easy to track based on our position.


After driving about 20 minutes west I decided the storm we were on wasnt strong enough to keep producing tornadoes so we tracked back east and found a country road that went south and took it. It connected with another highway road just past Lake Kanopolis. We went west about a 100 yards and found a small turn out area to park.

We sat here for fifteen or so minutes before other chasers started showing up. We knew we were in the right place with our position. Another 20 minutes and some intense gumball/golfball sized hail and the giant EF-4 was staring straight at us. We then sat at the top of the platteu for about 10 minutes before we realized that we needed to leave because it was headed straight for us. At about 1/4 mile away it was time to book it out of there. We went east down the highway cruising as the tornado was barreling down on us. When we passed another chaser stopped we assumed we were safe and got out and watched the action unfold. And what an incredible experience it was. The power that it had was just immense. You just cant describe it. You just feel the wind sucking you into the tornado, that if you jumped off the ground that you would just sail into it.

This is my personal favorite.

Me after it had passed.

The two goons I dragged with me.

Some people have been asking if I would do it again, and yes in a heart beat I would. I never though imagined that I would be interviewing live on Q13, what an adventure this has been and I want to thank everyone for their prayers while we were gone. Thanks for all your support!

Chase Day

So today we are chasing. Today has also made national news for the severity of the storms. Right now we are going to drive north to Salina Kansas where there is a truck stop littered with chasers where we might try and tag along with one of them. The storms should start going up in the next 3-4 hours, around 3PM local time/1PM Pacific time as the dry line starts to move across the middle of the state. Its a bit nerve-racking when you pick the one day the entire chase season that is high risk. Wish us luck! We are going to try and bring back some incredible video for everyone to see. Ill try and post later tonight maybe when we get to Denver on our journey home.

Point of Attack

Today we left nowhere and are still nowhere in Wichita Kansas. Its amazing how you can drive for 300 miles and the scenery really doesn't change, but at the same time its so different and beautiful. The rolling hills of Nebraska and Kansas are incredible, as well as the towns. We drove through one town called Stockton today and all I could picture were scenes from Twister. It was a really cool town though, very small and quite "cute" for lack of a better word. Then after settling in in Wichita we decided to have a real meal for once and went to a place called Granite City Brewery. It was like the Ram for those who know what I am talking about, literally. Same food choices, same kinds of beer, just a different state. It was great too. We were treated like royalty while we were there. Once they found out we were from Seattle only there to chase storms we had people walking up to us all night. But now I turn to our storms.

It has made National News and when I sat down tonight to do some homework, I pulled up yahoo, and there was the headline. How bad is it? I guess we will find out tomorrow, and all I know is that last time the National Weather Service gave "high risk" 24 hours in advance was in April of 2006, where over 91 tornadoes touched down and it stretched across 13 states.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_6%E2%80%938,_2006_tornado_outbreak

Tomorrow, the storms should start forming along the dryline at around 3-4PM, so it will be a waiting game and placement. Right now though, "high risk" has been issued from Salina KS, down to Oklahoma City. Wichita is right in the middle. Thats all for now Ill try and post in the morning an exact location of where we will be, also look for pictures! Hopefully of some tornadoes...

High Risk... High Reward

It is day three and of course we had to stop at a Starbucks, not only for some coffee but internet to do some work. Yesterday we drove just over 1,200 miles to get to North Platte, Nebraska. We traveled out of Montana and the Rocky Mountains down into the beautiful plains of Wyoming. It is such an easy drive because the speed limits are so ridiculously high... When speed limits are 75 its so easy to set the cruise control right at 82. The car has held up great so far. Now to storms....

Wyoming

Yesterday as we were filling up with gas I was checking some stuff on my phone and saw the town we were headed to was Tornado warned... Unfortunately it was already dark and we were still two hours away, but now I know we are in the right area. A bit of a lightning show the last 2 hours as we drove and got our adrenaline going as we pulled into town.

However today as I woke around 8AM (not sure what time zone, 2 hr difference) was checking the SPC, NOAA and a couple other sites and saw that the storms were tracking farther east than anticipated. Unfortunately we would have had to drive to Kansas City/ middle parts of Missouri for a less than 10% chance of seeing anything. After a couple more hours of sleep I checked again and realized that tomorrow, Saturday, is setting up to be a record breaking type day. Not to alarm anyone but it is what is considered a "High Risk" outlook.
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day2otlk.html
What does this mean? Alot... Four major cities (Oklahoma City, Wichita, Omaha, Kansas City) are in the cross hairs for what could be a deadly day. We have already decided to drive to Wichita tonight to set up camp and then drive to an open area with a large road network away from any cities or debris for our chase day. We are going to take precautions tomorrow because with a day like this, safety first.

Secondly this is what they consider to be a outbreak day, or multiple tornadoes. How many? Well for reference the last time a "high risk" was posted a day in advance was in April 7th 2006 where over 91 tornadoes spawned stretching 9 different states.

I don't think that we could have picked a better weekend to be chasing. (Sorry mom). Ill post again tonight to give a target area of where we will be in the morning.

It is day two of the adventure and we have stopped in Butte Montana for some Starbucks and internet. Other than a small hiccup and a sleep stop this morning we have been making great time. The storms look like they are tracking a bit farther north tomorrow which benefits our chase day. Instead of driving south through Colorado we will be heading east into the western tip of Nebraska where we will have a nice set up for tomorrow. We still have alot of driving ahead of us. Sadly tomorrows storms are just a precursor to Saturday where they could experience outbreak tornado activity. Ill try and update tonight as the model runs come in so I can give a target area of where we should be.

So with my minimal amount of school this week, and optimal set up for severe weather over the great plains. I couldn't think of a better weekend to do something that I have wanted to do for years. Tonight around 9PM, me Andrew Knutzen and Trevor Herndon, will be driving for the border of Colorado and Kansas and might drive as far east as Dodge City, Kansas to chase some tornadoes. Things are setting up really nicely for tornadic activity Thursday-Saturday. There is strong shear, which is cross winds at different elevations, and a very defined dry line, which is an area where there is high dew points to the east then following behind to the west much lower. These are two key ingredients which will be key for Thursday and Friday's set up. The dry line is usually where storms tend to fire off. We are going to drive I-90 to Montana then head south through Wyoming and Colorado and finally into Kansas where we will set up shop.

Ill try and update this at least once a day for people who want to follow my travels and hopefully I will be able to post some pictures like the one above soon! Also please excuse my spelling and punctuation, Ill clean it up when I return.