There was so much to love about this day but it did come with its own challenges early on. Before we really dive into it, I just have to say thank you to my close friend Bunee. With as much driving as I had been doing, it was nice to finally capture a couple of days worth of rest and relaxation. Thanks to him, I was able to stay at his place and man was it heavenly to sleep in a real bed again. More details about him and his company can be found in the episode but here’s a link to his website, for those of you interested. (https://www.windsweptmedia.net/) The day before all of this excitement would begin, I was considering a push into northwestern Iowa. There was, however, one massive error in this consideration. That was the simple fact that I was looking at the wrong data. Yes, I felt utterly embarrassed for doing this but you know, things happen. Let’s just hope this was a one time thing. Ha! Once I saw the right data, Centralia, Kansas became a new target. As this most memorable day was underway, I changed my mind and wanted to go to Holton but had given thought to Seneca, as well. The biggest issue was cell service, or the lack of, but I have to say this first. The drive from Yukon, Oklahoma to Holton, Kansas, especially along I-70, well, that was one of the most boring and unexciting drives in all my storm chasing life. Finally in Holton, the now long wait would begin. It was nice to be in my target zone so early but I had to pass the time, as well. I went on Facebook Live for one hour, discussing the unseen competition of storm chasing, and was just overall bored. I was in near the best position I could be in but I reminded myself not to go crazy for the first bit of convection I would see on radar. Thankfully, I maintained that but I had the looming concern about cell service since this was new territory for me. Finally, as storms were taking off, I saw I had one choice to make. Either sit still or gamble going to Corning. When I first saw this town on the map, I actually thought it said Corny. I think I’m needing new glasses or something but once there, I realized that this was one limited location in so many ways. Road networks, or the lack of, was my first biggest concern, but then also I had a limited field of view to watch anything from. This meant I had to stay right where I was, for the most part, which was in front of a cemetery. I mean, that’s not creepy, right? As this first storm began to mature and develop, I put the camera on it to record while I used my other camera to film other stuff. It was nice and I was thoroughly impressed with the lightning and also the overall storm structure. Some of the other clouds located to my south also had beautiful striation features, as well. Unfortunately for my main storm of interest, I don’t think she was feeling all that tornado friendly but while filming her, I didn’t give recognition to this storm coming in behind her. It was not until I zoomed out on radar that I began to see the bigger picture coming my way. Indeed, that little storm coming in behind the big girl was getting interesting. Going tornado warned due to a spotted funnel, I was in the near right position to intercept it. However, I wanted to get just a little south largely due to the fact that I did not want to get taken over by the incoming rain and possible hail with this storm. This only gave me one choice: 52nd Road. When I tell you this town is small, it’s no bigger than .3 square miles with a population of not even 220 people, according to a 2020 Census Bureau report. Therefore, this was my only real choice for a suitable road option. As I’m making my way to this road, the beauty was putting down a tornado! I mean, not like a small one either! She was brewing it up and was putting on quite the show! Immediately and with minimal thought, I was afraid I’d go through the same thing I experienced with the Nebraska tornadoes I saw! That this baby was going to do the whole “tap dance” number on me and I wasn’t going to let that happen again! Once safely parked, I just started recording, with the hopes to get at least 60 seconds of tornado footage, at the absolute minimum! Oh, but no, this dancing delight was not done and she started out pretty big, as well. I later learned that she did destroy one building but other than that, she was as open territory as you could ever ask for. Some people would come to call her the Vermillion/ Centralia tornado because she was much closer to those towns when she first came down. Anyway, although I could hear the hail hitting around me and the tornado siren sounding so loud, I didn’t care! I wanted my first tornado time lapse since 2022 and this was the opportunity to get it! With so much delight, I got her! She was mine! It was like that perfect relationship that I always wanted but never really had! Before I continue, I will be a little self critical right here. In the episode, you get to see and hear this beautiful baby in all her glory and her surrounding sounds. Unfortunately, because audio recording is not my first strength with anything, I did not capture the best audio. I did enhance it as best as I could, to ensure continuity in the output levels, but trust me, I am sorry for the way this turned out. I hope this part of the episode can be forgiven by you and that you’ll watch her perform until the end. Anyway, as this baby continued, I could not believe what I was seeing. She was on the ground for close to almost 15 minutes! This was crazy and to make it more exciting, once I had my tripod secured, I finally decided to move in for a closer shot. Though, I definitely need a better tactic for smooth zooming and my stability was not the best either. Truth be told, I was shaking from all of the excitement I was feeling. As she’s coming closer, the locals came to me to ask what I thought about her. Some commented about me coming so far for her while others asked what I thought they should do. Because I didn’t want you to hear those conversations, I made it a point to edit out the talks. I wanted you to keep your focus on this baby and her true beauty. As a little more time had passed, I finally started to realize, “oh man, she’s much closer now” and even though she was starting to lift, I realized it was time to move south. Considering she had almost lifted but came back down, safety was the new priority. That’s when I moved to 44th Road but then, this blocked my view so I wanted a better spot. Instead of using wisdom and getting on Kansas Highway 9 once it was safe to do so, I chose to take 40th Road instead. While I got to shoot something I never thought I would capture, horizontal vorticity, I also would end up with a low tire pressure situation that put me into a slight panic. My vehicle is not meant for those kinds of roads and certainly, that also means my tire selections are not the most widespread for the different terrain types or situations. This is why I miss my truck so much. Not the cost but the flexibility of location exploring. Think of horizontal vorticity as like a barrel that you roll down a hill. This barrel is spinning constantly and at some point, it can accelerate the potential for a tornado. My understanding of this is that is exactly what happened here. Although she never produced another tornado, I was able to capture this process of vorticity on camera! I really have a deeper love for severe weather when I’m able to capture on camera different severe weather processes that I’ve only ever learned about, truth be told. While my chase day was over, and I’m eating dinner at Boomer’s Grill in Holton, my gracious server asked where I was from. I mean, I had my computer and cameras out so it was easy to notice I was not from around there. That’s when I told her I was a storm chaser out of Texas. Of course, she had thought it was cool but asked if I caught the Westmoreland, Kansas tornado. I honestly did not know about this tornado so I was like, “what, when, where?” I had almost no cell service in the restaurant so I couldn’t look it up either. This EF-3 tornado left 3 injured and 1 loss of life in its 2.6 mile long path. More about that tornado can be found by following this link from the local National Weather Service (https://www.weather.gov/top/April302024Storms). I only brought it up because my server had mentioned that someone in her family received some damage from that tornado. Fortunately, nobody she knew was injured but the family member was a little shaken up from it as they were not that far from the tornado when the incident took place. While storm chasing can be one of the most exciting things to do, I do think it’s important to stay in remembrance of those who are affected and impacted by the forces of nature. Nobody asks for these sorts of things to happen to them. It’s just how things go when they do happen but let us not forget, even in the midst of our celebrations, that not everyone has the same story to share. By this point in time, 2024 had already been a monster of its own. See you next time, where a very cruel act of Mother Nature would tease me in ways that I was not impressed with. Though, she was out in the middle of nowhere so there’s that.