June 12th Southeast KS Night Chase

I chased Saturday in Kansas originally targeting the area near Salina in apparently one of my worst
forecasts in some time.  The day started odd with large 'sucker' storms and tornado warnings on the
southern NE border.  I also was unable to get cell data from the internet anywhere except in Salina
(intermittently), and Wichita (where I had stayed the night).

I headed north to Salina from Wichita and continued on near the convergence zone SE of the low to
just west of the town of Beloit hwy 24.  I sat there for awhile trying to make up my mind. I
considered going north to NE (about 70miles), but I didn't want to chase NE, and my forecast area did
not include it.  I stuck with my target and eventually a cell went up near Lincoln that was headed
across hwy 81 toward Minneapolis and Bennington. I launched myself toward this cell (which was now
severe warned) from the north expecting to encounter large hail as I punched the core. I even put on
my racquetball goggles just in case. As I did this a strange thing happened.  The storm which
initially had a huge hard tower and distinct lowered area began to disintegrate. I got south of it
and it was practically gone. NWS cancelled the svr warn on it because it had weakened.  I went on
back to Salina for data, and heard on the NWS radio of another svr warned cell that had weakened and
the warning cancelled. 'What was up?', I thought. All the storms in the central area which I thought
might have been big and tornadic had turned to crap.

I got radar finally in Salina and saw a tiny cell near Clay Center quickly growing, and I also noted
the obvious supercellular storm south of Wichita with the tornado warnings.  I debated for some time
as to which to take. It was getting late, and generally my area had busted. I considered the north
storm as it was closer, but after a bit it became clear that the (now) line of cells from NE was
coming south in what looked to be a big bow echo / derecho shaped structure. It was fast approaching
the Clay Center storm. I didn't want to have anything to do with that and knew I had to return to
Austin that night anyway.  So, at last moment I opted for the storm south of Wichita Hell or Bust! I
punched it down the highway and meticulously plotted with Delorme to find an approach to get me to
the tornadic portion of the storm as quickly as possible. Light would be running out as it was
already after 7 or 7:30 and a ways to go.  I was encouraged by the slow movement of the storm.
Technically most of the approach went well except that I had an unreal distance to cover for the time
given. I really didn't want to speed either. I hit a couple of traffic construction slowdowns north
of Wichita, and then as I took 15 south to the town of Derby hit a real construction / "Sunday
Driver" zone. At this point there was still plenty of light and I could see the entire structure of
the supercell. I took a couple of shots of it and it looks like and atomic bomb blast! However Derby
and all the people driving on the backroads did me in. I tried to go across over to Rose Hill and
could see the ongoing violent lightning near the wallcloud, but traffic was crazy for backroad rural.
Seemed everyone was on the street and most were coming from the storm direction like they were
fleeing. I continued from Rose Hill after the sun had set in twilight heading from Douglass, but
Douglass REALLY had a lot of traffic and slow speeds. The lightning was almost insane and violent on
the backside of this storm now.  It was doing those quick brilliant 'flicks' cloud to ground which at
times were blinding in the pseudo dark.  Fortunately most of it was staying near the wallcloud area
and not venturing further out. Somewhere near Douglass I kept hearing reports of a large tornado on
the ground near Atlanta. I was determined to catch this storm.

Long story short....I continued to follow this storm into the darkness as everyone else apparently
quit after the daylight Bonanza. I took hwy 160 east over to west of Grenola and got out and chatted
with some local Skywarn spotters that had seen all the tornadoes.  We were parked in the immense
darkness all around with the large rainfree base stretching out all around us. In the distance
(10miles) east we watched the wall cloud and pseudo funnel illuminated by the intense lightning.
Eventually the spotters got tired. It had been a long day for them and their area was west anyway.
They left and I was alone. This was one fascinating storm, and tornado warnings were going out for
Moline.  I shot east down 160 and got to 4 miles west of Moline for a perfect view of the tornadic
portion of the storm which was only 5 or so miles away at this point.  This was incredible to watch
and in many ways more rewarding than a daytime tornado.  As I watched a ground area became obscured,
but not by normal precip as this was a strong inflow area. I pulled out my VX2000 and turned the
shutter speed down to 8! It was actually picking up everything in all the lightning blasts.
Basically I was looking at a large lowered area, with brilliant lightning flashes constantly going on
illuminating it.   Underneath was a wide dust or precip curtain. It appeared to me at the time that
there was probably a tornado in progress but I could not distinctly see where. Today I just reviewed
the tape for a couple of hours and I am able to see a persistent large cone shape to ground that
appears to be behind the rain curtain veil.  The image is consistently in the video for a few minutes
and can be seen during lightning flashes.  For a while it has almost a stovepipe look. Later when it
dissipates I can see a clear, dark funnel that appears above where the feature was so I'm pretty sure
I caught a night tornado just east of Moline.  NWS should do a damage survey there in the area of
their tornado warning for that area to verify.

Strangely as this storm moved toward and past Elk Falls the tornadic portion of the storm along with
most of the lightning just vanished with a minute or two. NWS cancelled their warning saying it had
weakened.  Overhead, the rainfree base had disappeared and in it's place were clear skies with the
stars shining.   I stood watching this dumbfounded while a light persistent rain fell on me. Totally
awesome!!! That's why we chase!
 

Tornado Extreme Storm Chase