Date: April 8, 2013
Time: 4:00-7:30 PM MDT
Place: Burlington, CO and St. Francis, KS
Distance: 795 mi (155 positioning, 57 chasing, 583 to home)
Camera: T3i, GoPro, Lumix
Warnings: SVR, TOR
Rating: S5

Forecast and Set Up

I'd gone to bed the previous night expecting to leave Hays, Kansas for Oklahoma, but looking at early morning models changed my mind pretty quickly. Yesterday's southern capping along the dryline looked to be just as strong, maybe even stronger, today. It was unfortunate, since shear profiles and instability were very nice down there. My new target in NW Kansas didn't have these severe cap issues. Like yesterday, though, moisture was thinner further north, meaning that storm bases would be higher and tornadoes would be less likely. But I was at least confident we'd see storms (whereas Oklahoma might not see anything).

Before leaving Hays, Toni and I had a nice breakfast at a local place called Moka's. (It's weird, but we are really starting to love Hays. It's never let us down during our storm chases.) Driving west on I-70, low grey clouds, drizzle, and cool temperatures made me a little apprehensive about my target decision. It just didn't feel like a storm day. Sun finally started to break through the gloom once we got off the interstate at Oakley (where Toni was disappointed not to see the "World's Largest Prairie Dog"). About 40 miles SW of Oakley along highway 40, we pulled off the road at a beautiful rolling-hill vista next to some train tracks. I got out and played with the Konova slider for about an hour – trying different shots and techniques. Getting a smooth, free-hand slide is definitely tricky and takes practice. The conductor on a passing train must have thought I looked pretty weird with the whole slider rig set up.

We wandered west towards the Colorado border, checking out the local sights and awaiting storm initiation. North of Sharon Springs, we chased an antelope down a dirt road before sitting up camp to wait a while longer. Cells were bubbling up to our west in Colorado, and finally at 3:54 PM the first SVR warning was issued about 45 miles to our WNW.

The Chase

Driving north on Hwy 27, we stopped in Goodland to gas up. The warned cell was now just to our west down I-70 near Burlington, CO and was clearly becoming the dominant storm. I was tempted to approach head-on via the interstate, but remembered that Sprint 3G signal drops out at the CO border. So we continued north out of Goodland to get well ahead of the NE moving storm and to stay in cell service. Sixteen miles north of town, we pulled off onto a dirt road looking west at a very dark and ominous forward flank of the storm. Winds were howling at a constant 30 MPH directly into the storm. As the precipitation core slipped to our northwest, we starting to get a great look at the rain-free base on the SW side of the storm.

I'm always wary of my 2WD Sentra getting stuck in mud, so we almost never venture far down dirt roads. But in this case, I felt we could safely navigate west without getting into any precip. While driving directly towards the core of the supercell updraft, gigantic bolts of lightning reached down from the anvil overhead through the clear air and struck the prairie around us. After several miles, we pulled up next to an old abandoned farm and were greeted with the most spectacular view I'd ever seen on a storm chase. An enormous cork-screw LP supercell was just about 10 miles to our west and stretching overhead. Lightning crackled throughout the striated updraft. To our southwest, intense surface winds were picking up a miles-long fetch of dust and feeding into the core. Toni decided to wait in the car (inflow winds were actually pretty chilly) while I explored around the creepy abandoned farm buildings and snapped pictures of the amazing supercell structure.

As expected, the storm base was rather elevated and there was no sign of any lowering or wall cloud. But after sitting at our perfect position for about 15 minutes, I happened to look up from my camera equipment and spotted a well-defined landspout to our west - complete with dust-whirl reaching all the way into the cloud base. This was it; the first 2013 tornado!! I didn't even have time to reposition the camera and zoom all the way in before it was gone. But I didn't care! As pitiful as it was, I will cherish it forever.

After maintaining our position for at least half an hour, the updraft base was just a few miles to our northwest. Feeling emboldened, we decided to pursue to the north along dirt roads, despite precipitation having fallen on them. A funny moment occurred when we stopped to let Toni talk to some cows. As she was calling them to the car, I looked north toward the storm and nearly jumped out of my seatbelt. Over the next hill, a dark smoky column was rising from the ground - apparently indicating that another landspout was in progress! I gunned the engine and raced north(too fast for the dirt roads) excited that we were about to see tornado number 2 just in front of us. Upon cresting the hill, however, we burst out laughing as we realized the column was actually smoke rising from a lonely farmhouse chimney. From our previous vantage it had looked uncannily tornadic.

Darkness fell as we entered St. Francis, KS, with the storm pulling away to the northeast. Satisfied with the day, we decided it was time to head back towards Albuquerque (I had work the next day, and we were 550 miles from home). We grabbed a quick bite at Dairy Queen - not quite the requisite steak dinner - before beginning the long trip back. Interestingly, we passed the cold front near Limon, CO and realized how wholly unprepared we were for the arctic blast that awaited. Gassing up the car wearing shorts in 40 MPH winds and 35 degree temps is quite the shock to the system. Racing tumbleweeds down I-25, we pulled into Raton, NM at 2AM for a quick rest before we would continue the journey home the next morning.

Recap, Filmmaking Notes, and Lessons Learned