I’ve been storm chasing now in the great plains for 15 years (you can see past posts here), and it’s such a strange and fascinating pursuit. I had thought once I had seen my first tornado, I could sort of check it off the list and move on. But instead—while we always have to acknowledge the dark side of storm impacts—I fell in love with the whole process. I love waking up in the morning with no idea where I’m going to end up that day. And after so much time (35 years now) in the big city, I need time in open spaces. I love sitting in front of a storm watching it develop, and that short time you get in front of tornado is mesmerizing and overwhelming and like nothing else. And since every storm is completely different, it never gets old.

One of the benefits of early retiring from full-time teaching is that—for the first time in years—I was able storm chase during May, which is historically peak storm season in the plains. And it was a great trip this year; I had several really good days, which make all the expense and thousands of miles of driving and exhaustion all worth it. But before I can chase, I have to get my car out to chase territory, and that part of the process is the most boring and exhausting part, plowing across NJ and PA and Ohio and…. Sadly, my chase partner of recent years was not available this year, which made for a bit of slog some days, but I was able to virtually chase with friends, messaging throughout and seeing them in person occasionally, which was great.

I had a lot of packing and prep work to do before I left on Thursday May 16 (after a great show the night before), and I made it to St. Clairsville, Ohio. On May 17, I pushed through to Saint Louis, and on May 18 I went to Kansas City to get my oil changed (the second time I’ve had my oil changed at this same dealer). It was a tedious 1400 miles in in three days, but I made it to Salina, Kansas, where I had some great BBQ (a storm chasing tradition), and got ready for the first chase day.

May 19

I started out Sunday May 19 in Salina, and was thinking about going down to Oklahoma, but stopped in Pratt to see what happened. Then, a cell fired up to my north and spun up a tornado, so I worked my way back up to it near Ellsworth Kansas.

Click any photo to enlarge.

Southwest of Ellsworth around 4:45 I saw what looked like a quick spin up:

I worked around the storm and ended up back at the same hotel in Salina. It was a great chase day, and Kansas is always my favorite place to chase.

It’s funny, these GPS tracks always look crazy, but since the storm is moving, there are targets and obstacles that come and go.

May 20

Waking up on Monday May 20, I was still fighting a horrible cough that had been left over from a cold nearly a month before, and I was really dragging from the long drive out and a long chase day on Sunday. The setup was in far northeastern Colorado, about a five hour drive (very doable by storm chasing standards). My gut was to just head up to Iowa for the setup on the 21st, but instead I got FOMOed into the drive and the potential of a sunset supercell tornado. I've been chasing that for probably 11 years since my first tornado in Rozel, which was spectacular. I hit the road, and passed by some pretty significant damage on I70 from the previous day’s tornado, including large highway signs blown down. I eventually sat in a park in lovely St. Francis Kansas, read a book and took a walk around the town. Then started driving west and ended up west of Otis, Colorado, where the storm finally fired. I think I saw a quick spin up.

It eventually turned right towards me and lots of cloud to ground lightning started forming out east of the storm. So I leap frogged the storm back east, and eventually bailed once the sun set. I ended up driving another two hours to the only room I could find in North Platte, Nebraska through some strong non severe thunderstorms. I at least got a nice lightning show, but the rain and wind were getting pretty old. I actually beeped twice instinctively at tumbleweed blowing across the road, and eventually got to North Platte in the middle of yet another strong thunderstorm. In the end, I probably should have listened to my gut and taken it easy and done my laundry and gotten to Iowa, but it was fun to watch this storm develop and try to make a tornado. The storm went on for hours and covered Otis and Yuma—towns I had driven through a couple hours earlier—in drifts of of softball size hail.

May 21

One of the reasons I picked North Platte for a room on the 20th was that a huge tornado outbreak was forecast along the Nebraska/Iowa border on the 21st. But I was so tired from the cough and the four non stop 10 hour plus driving days that I just didn’t have it in me to get up at 6am and blast east. It turned out there was a big outbreak over there, but honestly I’m not that sad I missed it since the storms were flying really fast and there was a lot of traffic, and a town, tragically, got devastated by a tornado. We like to see them in open country far from towns, and since there’s so much open space in the plains, hitting a town is thankfully rare, but always tragic.

I headed south to get in position for the next day and stayed at a Hampton Inn (I already have my Hilton Diamond status this year after so much travel) attached to a casino, where I did my laundry and threw away $10 in a Little Shop of Horrors movie-themed slot machine (I picked that machine because I worked on that movie).

May 22

Wednesday May 22 was one of those just really frustrating days, like chasing a mirage. This was one false summit after another, one where "oh I can make that storm, just another hour" led to another almost 500 mile day. Starting south of Wichita, hours later I finally got on a severe-warned storm near Weatherford, TX just in time to watch it die (see timelapse). I headed up to Wichita Falls TX for the night.

May 23

Thursday May 23 was one of those just amazing chase days. I started out in Wichita Falls, TX, and then moved north into Oklahoma and west and watched storms bubble along the dryline for a while near Sweetwater.

Two storms eventually initiated down to the south. I got on the base of the north one near Erick right near the Texas (panhandle) border.

I ended up getting in the hail from this storm and there was no (non-dirt) east road, so I headed south to the second storm. The south storm was competing against several other updrafts in the area but eventually intensified, and I got on it near Duke in far southwestern Oklahoma. It tried to form a wall cloud for a while.

I repositioned down Highway 34 south of Duke (where, unbeknownst to me, a huge tornado would cross later) and got around to north of Eldorado and back on the base of the storm, which had moved northeast by then.

Here, I experienced the most intense, sustained inflow winds I've ever experienced (I measured over 40MPH)—see the video below.

The storm eventually moved east and I moved east and back up Highway 34. There was a huge chaser convergence here, but this was the spot, and I ran into my friends Nick and Michael—with whom I had been messaging for days—for the first time on the trip. We watched there in awe as the storm made several forms of tornadoes.

The tornado interacted with some unseen forces and started surging southeast—right at us. I bailed south, not really worried about the storm, but instead about navigating a chaser convergence traffic jam and the storm by myself. Nick and Michael also headed south shortly thereafter, but then the storm turned back northeast and they stayed and had an awesome experience there. I wish I could have been there, but given everything I would make the same decision again—I’m always worried about chaser traffic jams and erratic behavior. People freak out in front of storms, doing crazy things like stopping dead in the middle of the road, or even (as I had happen to me later) sprinting directly across a road in front of on coming traffic. And one of these days a chaser traffic jam will be overrun by a large tornado. I don’t want to be anywhere near that.

I made it to south of the storm and watched its further evolution there.

Sadly, the perfect paved east road that would have run right along the storm was closed for construction, so I had to run south and then east 15 miles on dirt roads through a data hole, poking north occasionally to try and see what was going on. I was in the clear to the south, but when I lost visibility and data I didn't know that the tornado had started curving north up into the rain and hail.

The sun was setting and outflow from the storm was surging south, and was so strong I had a hard time standing and setting up my tripod to get some photos. It was eerie, but one of the advantages of doing this for so long I understand enough about what was happening (even without data) that I could feel safe shooting here.

I was blocked by a river from getting further east, but was finally able to get enough data in Elmer to book a room up in Altus. However, the tornado-warned storm was heading right for Altus, but thankfully had weakened by then. And then another severe storm formed behind it, so I waited down near Elmer and shot some lightning-illuminated clouds.

When I finally got into Altus, there were drifts of hail at my hotel, and part of the ceiling had collapsed at the entrance. And there was flooding in town from the immense amount of rain that had poured out.

I had the traditional celebratory steak with Nick and Michael at Applebee's (often the only place open late in these small plains towns), which was full of chasers. But I was sad to hear from them that at least one house was destroyed by the storm; fortunately the occupants rode it out in their shelter and were OK.

I don’t really have any goals in storm chasing, but I generally like to see tornadoes in as many states as possible. I have already seen them in Kansas, Texas, Illinois and Iowa, but this was my first in Oklahoma, and it was a very memorable day.

May 24

I started in Altus, OK and headed over and had lunch with Nick and Michael in Ardmore. Storms were getting crunchy right outside the restaurant, and then I headed east and north a bit and got on a severe thunderstorm near Gene Autry. A storm to the south got a tornado warning, so I tried to head down there but there was a huge traffic jam in Madill (train hit a car apparently) and so I headed back east ended up hanging out between the two storms and shot a timelapse of the south storm. I then headed back to Ardmore for the night.

May 25

For Saturday May 25, there were two primary target zones; one in southern OK and into TX, and the other in northern OK and into KS. Being tired and still getting beat up by this relentless cough, I went for the easier terrain up north; I always chase Kansas if that's an option. I left out of Ardmore OK and headed north, waiting for a while in Enid and then in Altus. Two storms fired, and my gut is always to go the south one, but the north actually looked better. I got on the base west of Hardtner Kansas, and got to watch the storm grow.

I then followed the storm east and unfortunately misread the map thinking a road was dirt that wasn't, so dropped back south into Oklahoma and headed east and then back up to the storm. There was some crazy dust getting sucked into the storm, and it then went on to form a (I think rain wrapped) tornado. I got right up behind it but then my road unexpectedly turned to dirt and then I started getting blasted with hail and RFD winds (rear flank downdraft, which form powerful winds behind tornadoes). I drove as fast as I could back west to get clear (and sadly, due to a stupid technical mistake, I lost that dashcam video). I then followed behind the storm up into my room in Wichita. Sadly, along the way I passed a home that had been pretty badly damaged by the storm, but was happy to see a lot of chasers who got there before me helping out and emergency services had already arrived. So there wasn't much I had to offer, so I kept going (I also saw some chasers towing a car out of a ditch previously). Amazingly, in 15 years of doing this, this was the first time I had seen fresh damage to a home from a storm. I heard on the news later that everyone was fine, which is good news. It turned out that the storm of the day was on the southern target, but after getting an impressive storm on Thursday and being tired after almost 4000 miles diving by myself, I didn't have any FOMO.

May 26

I ran behind a strong line of storms across Missouri that put a big tornado-warned storm just south of St. Louis. Unfortunately, because of this relentless cough kicking my ass, I got a late start and could not get in front of it. So, I called it a chase trip.

On May 27 I travelled to Knoxville TN, then on the 28th I went to hang out with my sister in Asheville for a few days. Then I visited my brother and father in Maryland before returning home.

In the end it was one of the best trips in recent years, 6337 miles. And I’m already thinking about getting back out there next season. Maybe chase the monsoon in August?

Toyota RAV4 Hybrids Are Awesome

I should mention that my car is a critical part of the trip, and I’ve put 65000 miles on my 2021 Toyota RAV4 hybrid in a little over three years, which is kind of crazy because I go weeks at a time home in NYC without driving it at all. It’s the best car I’ve ever had, and the hail guard has worked out well.

Great Plains Storm Chase 2024