Fly-er Wall

Storm Chasing -- Northwestern Missouri Thursday 29 March 2012

Severe Weather Season is Upon Us!

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Here are a few photos from the trip, which can also be found here....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ohnoitsstevo/sets/72157629335098848/

Dashcam Video of the Wall Cloud by Rockport, Missouri

Departing Kansas City

After much dicking around with the switcher and a lot of hard work to find that my suspicions were confirmed -- the inverter is not enough to run all that stuff, I finally left all the complication behind and ran with the computer, aircard, smart phones and gopro dash camera.  The day was gorgeous.

No Signs of severe weather in the metro area.

I stopped at Friendly Bean Coffee on the way out.

Brief Stop Over in St. Joseph, Missouri

Nothing was happening yet, so we decided to stop over in St. Joseph for a rest and to stretch and pee.  While doing that, I took the opportunity to do some drive through daytripping.

I love this ice cream parlor.  I didn't stop, as I was in the search of more kawfee....

Old theaters in St. Joe.

Tima desperately needed some nice grass to... well, you know....

More shots of the ice cream place.

We stopped in a church parking lot for the rest.

Gorgeous park in St. Joe.

We have found KAWFEEE!!!  This is a really nice place on the strip next to a gas station.  I got a french press and mug and coffee and some other treats there.  I went to the side deck and watched as the weather finally started developing to the west and northwest.  I had my coffee and headed out to northwestern Missouri.

Hazels Gourmet Coffee & Tea, St. Joseph, Missouri

Driving up I-29

Once we got underway, I was wondering if we loitered too long in St. Joe.  However, it didn't take long up I-29 before we could make out the shape of a massive wall cloud northwest of us -- a sure sign of rotation within the meso-cyclone.   The drive up was beautiful in the late afternoon sunlight.  We found some exits in which to observe the rotation from a safe distance.  It looked as if the rotation had made it to the ground, but that view was obscured by trees, so I moved forward to the next exit.  I could see a flanking line above my head leading into the rotating wall cloud.  Copious lightening made me decide to stay in and take all further pictures from inside the car.  I got to the exit for Rockport Missouri, and was beginning to feel that I was too close.  I also found myself amongst a lot of other chasers.  I passed through Rockport as the wall cloud had moved east, and found myself on a side road looking north.  I thought I observed a funnel cloud form, but it was too distant to tell for sure.  I watch the dash cam video later and I wonder, still.  I regret that I should have stayed on that feature of the wall cloud a little longer.  Dusk fell quickly and visibility went to nothing.  I headed east in the rain and passed through Tarkio, Missouri.  East of there, in the lightening flashes, I could make out what looked like several successive funnel clouds form and reform out of the wall cloud.  Another line of severe storms was coming at me from the west, and I didn't want to meet up with whatever they might produce in the dark.  Punching the core of severe thunderstorms is scary at night.  I decided to get gas at a truckstop in Rockport and try to find good wifi in order to feed back some pix and maybe phone video.  Data out here sucked, and even the McDonalds did not have any internet access.  I wasted time with that as hail started falling on me.  It was pea sized and I was under the awning ot the truck stop.  I made it back by midnight and managed to get some stills fed back.

Rockport, Missouri