It was decided at approximately 10am, that if we were going to chase the relatively close storms that day we needed to get moving - as they were going to be no closer than 3 hours drive time. We initially considered Ottawa, KS as a good starting target but as we headed out, the Day 1 CO gave a greater hatch to areas in Northwest Missouri.

En-route we changed our mind, and decided to head towards St Joseph, MO. With about an hour left to travel, the storms began to fire in and around the more southern area (as in Ottawa!). We assumed a position near Platte City, MO and decided to wait the next 35-40 minutes for the first of the cells to come to us.

Nothing tornadic about the storms but we got in behind the strongest lead cell, and followed it from Platte City to near Excelsior Springs. While in the chase near Kearney, MO we took some video of a nice green tint to a portion of the storm, and decided to hold off pursuit until that portion crossed the road a mile or so in front of us.

We should have waited just a bit longer, as we approached Kearney, the cell unloaded nickel and quarter sized hail. We pulled into a driveway, got to an opposing side of the house and waited for the hail to subside. It was a very loud 3-4 minutes. Hail covered the ground and roads. It was the first hail storm of any significance that I've ever gotten myself into while driving. Previously I had always managed to place myself on the more friendly 'side' of the storm. Roads in this area weren't cooperating (I've never seen so many bridge replacements!) so we had to travel the one road that normally we would have preferred NOT to travel down.

The storm ultimately continued to be SVR warned, with many reports of hail in some cases near golf-ball sized. My truck is very happy to have not been made to endure golf ball hail.

It was a decent ad-hoc chase day, and very good for my first-time chasing navigator! We're entering what appears to be a week of calmer weather. Preparations for the next chase are already in the works. Expect to see live video streaming during our next adventure.