Chase 4: Better Than The Boobie Prize

After sleeping on a side street in Dodge City, KS, on Friday night, I headed down to Oklahoma per Bob Schaefer's instructions after deciding to bypass Greensburg, sure to be blocked off anyway after last night's town-removing monster tornado. Today was to be my first true textbook chase. Part of that was seeing what seemed like hundreds of other chasers on the road. At the beginning of the action it was as if every car or truck with antennas was going every which-way, like ants buzzing around an ant hill after it's been disturbed.


I ended up south of Laverne, OK, on a fast-moving supercell showing some lowerings but nothing really substantial. I met three guys in a nice new yellow Dodge Dakota and watched the cell pass with them, which was pretty cool in the light of some of my other chaser interactions. They took off and soon afterward, so did I, at first on the cell I was on earlier and then just to find a place to kick back and wait for the late afternoon round of initiation. On the way to my waiting spot I encountered a few openly contemptuous chasers. I guess my bubbling-over-with-enthusiasm personal style didn't suit them too well. Once again, denied by the cool kids...

After a few hours of kicking back along Oklahoma highway 64, Bob had me heading back to Buffalo, OK. New storms were going up. I pulled off on a side road, watching and taking pictures. Cells were lighting up one after another. I decided to go with my gut, which was telling me to hold back for the new cells. Then I picked one and headed off back up toward Kansas.


Here's my cell with its developing flanking line.




Along the way I stopped and watched some significant lowerings and funnels, but no touchdowns as far as I could tell. I kept going north, finally ending up in Coldwater, KS.

Here I joined a whole fat clot of chasers moving north along the highway. I passed many sitting on the side of the road, which was a great move on my part. When I finally stopped, it was on. My first tornado:




As I continued to chase, I ended up in the southeast corner of the Greensburg tornado's path, which curiously knocked down this phone pole while leaving the others standing.