I didn't think today was going to be much fun from the look of the radar in NW Missouri. But check out these shots I took while out today. One tank of gas, I can hardly believe it!

Eagleville, MO - 2:59pm
Was watching the storm motions in S Iowa,and N Missouri, and looked like things had a little twist to them, so I took a leisurely drive towards Bethany, MO, and next thing I know the cell in S Iowa went tornado warned. I stepped it up a little for the intercept, but before I crossed into IA. The cell I had been watching in N MO really came together, and I just couldn't leave it. Pretty soon the whole line congealed together, and I figured it was over for anything good to come out of it. But there for about 20 minutes I thought the thing was going to cough it up.

Cameron, MO - 6:24pm
A cool shelf rolled through, and I let it go once it took off over the backroads. Nice pics though. I consider today a success only using under a tank of gas for the views I pulled in.

Cameron, MO (shelf 1)
Cameron, MO (shelf 2)
Cameron, MO (shelf 3)
Cameron, MO (shelf 4)
Eagleville, MO (cell 1)
Eagleville, MO (cell 2)
Eagleville, MO (cell 3)

Chris Rice

After this season has taken it's toll on the old Sony HandyCam. I decided to go ahead and make the upgrade to HD. Here's a still taken directly from the video on chase in IA. I plan on repairing the old camera, and mounting both for different angles.

Here's the only shot we're able to catch of the better looking tornado near Morrill, KS. This shot was looking to our NW. It fully formed to the ground seconds later, but we're too busy staying ahead of the storm as we turned east to get a better shot of it. When we stopped to get out and film it, the second one hit us by suprise. So yeah, were just glad to be alive!

Now that I'm taking a second look at this shot. My attention was focused on the darker tornado off to the right that also made ground contact. It appears to be a larger rain wrapped tornado on the ground to the left. What is everyone elses opinion on this? We immediately took a right turn after that photo was taken, and my focus was mainly keeping the vehicle on the road. I think the outer darker tornado was a satellite tornado wrapping around the larger one...

We saw the first tornado touch down at 7:27pm, near Morrill, KS. Storms were racing NE at close to 60mph, and it was near impossible to get a shot while on the move, so we stopped, started to set up cameras, and then we noticed a tornado snuck up behind us, and by the time we were back in the truck it was too late, and we took a direct hit. Thank God it was a very weak tornado!

Here's a photo John snapped just moments before it hit us looking to our south. You can see the swirl directly on the road behind us. I will post a larger image on my site later, you can see really well. This makes 3 tornadoes in 2 days, 2 of them being close calls, and were still alive. NO COMPLAINTS!!!

I was hoping someone at Severe Studios would have a copy of the video as the tornado spun off in the field after it ran us over. I think we're streaming at the time, and thought I hit the "record" button, but it didn't record, probably due to me freaking out!

Here's a photo of a funnel/tornado? from Pratt, KS yesterday. My wife Roni snapped the photo as we headed N towards Pratt on Hwy 281. Sorry the picture is not clearer, she was trying to get me to stop, but I was trying to get a better shot around the scud cloud blocking our view. It didn't last long. I could not confirm if it was making ground contact, but it does coincide with the tornado report from yesterday that was made to SPC at the same exact time.

WALL CLOUDS - TENNIS BALL SIZE HAIL

The chase...
Target was Witchita Falls, TX - we targeted 2 different cells that had the most promise for a day time show, but didn't produce any tornadoes, just large hail, and a few wall clouds. We took the attached photo with a cell phone and will have the video we shot uploaded to www.stormchaselive.com as soon as it is edited.

Technical stuff...
Oklahoma and N. Texas for the most part, was not good for streaming in the rural sections, mostly slow connections, and would drop about every 10 minutes, EVDO was rarely available. We did use Alltel card with amplifier. So far streaming has been exceptionally good in Kansas, and Missouri.

Chris