chilli02

Nothing too impressive so far but this storm just started blowing up less than half an hour ago. We also hear that the first storm produced a funnel cloud near Atchison, KS. But, it's too late to worry about that storm now so we pull off of I-29 at the first Platte City exit to grab a couple pics and work out a quick game plan. In the few minutes we spend doing that the storm picks up speed and gets a few miles ahead of us. So we take 92 highway east to 169 in Smithville and head north to 116. After taking a right on 116 we realize that the storm is putting a decent amount of real estate between it and ourselves. We hear on the weather radio that this storm is moving about 50 mph. There is no way we will ever get in front of this storm but we decide to keep chasing anyway. While we try to catch up we did get a couple shots of the storm trying to get a little stronger.

As we continued across 116 to I-35 N to Hwy 36 E we finally make a little bit of progress on catching this speed demon. The next series of pics show the storm with a rainbow on it's back side and a few shots of it really trying to get it's act together. We did just about catch up to the storm at its peak. The NWS out of Pleasant Hill had issued a tornado warning for the storm when it went over Hamilton, MO. We were just a few miles to the north and east of there when we pulled off of HWY 36 onto a gravel road to get out of the Jeep and watch the storm for a while. The storm did have some rotation and a wall cloud when it went overhead. For about a minute or so I really thought it was going to do something. We thought it was hailing on us and we were in a good 30+ mph inflow band. It wasn't actually hailing on us, what we thought was little hail actually turned out being pea size gravel lifted off of the gravel road and hitting us. The wind may have been higher too, but I'm not sure because at this point in time I did not have a hand held anemometer so I am just guessing. But, a mini vortex did form right above us. It was almost like looking staight up and seeing a toilet bowl flush right above your head. It was a rather small, compact rotation right overhead but it did make me think for a second that we might be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Apparently the Storm Spotter that had pulled up thought so also and called it in to the NWS. I must say that the chain of events that followed impressed me. Within about 30 seconds of seeing that funnel start to form above us the spotter called in the storm, the sirens started going off in Chillicothe and the alarms were going off on my weather radio for the tornado warning that had just been issued. I know that the NWS was watching the storm closely on radar but I'm still impressed with how quick the information flowed and the warnings were sounded. Unfortunately, as I was still using a very cheap digital camera the pictures that came out are poor at best. Also, while this was going on above me I pretty much just stood in awe and didn't think to put my camera to my face to snap a few photos. Fortunately for the residents of Chillicothe, MO the funnel never did fully develop and no tornado touched down. So, after that long winded (especially if you know me) rambling here are the pics from the above chain of events.

After the storm moved past us we hit the road again and headed throught Chillicothe. The storm showed a little rotation going over Chillicothe towards the ENE. We then had problems finding decent roads where we needed them and finally abandonded the chase when we came across a flooded road between Chillicothe and Kirksville, MO. We took a few pictures on the way back that were kind of interesting but nothing too impressive as far as storms go. But here are a couple scenic shots from the ride home.

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