Lights Over Gardner

Here's a few of the many great shots i took over Gardner on 6-22-09.

Father's Day LP Cell

I had a surprise chase on Father's Day weekend which was special because my 9-year old son joined me. We caught up with this LP cell with amazing structure and my son filmed his first tornado. We later gave a news team from KMBC some photos which made the news that night. Great Father's Day present!

Supercells & Lightning

Here's a few photos from my latest trip to SE KS & NW MO.

Rainbows and Lightning

Not every chase i go on ends with a tornado, but it's still not a fail. There is always so much to see and film if you take the time to look. Here are a few photos I took recently on "Failed" chases. The first two are from a tornado warned cell that traveled SE from the NW corner on MO over Chilicothe, MO. I missed the tornado but was able to work on my lightening photo skills. The next three photos I took south of the Kansas City metro around La Cygne, Kansas. It was a heavy rain/small hail cell with no risk of very severe weather. I rainbow formed next to a rain shaft and made for some very interesting photos. Enjoy.

Garden City Tornados

I headed to Garden City out of KC around 11:30 on 4-29-09 to track some cells i expected to pop up in the area. I encountered some flooding in Emporia, took a few pics and kept going. Got to Garden City in the area of the cell i wanted around 6pm. I saw some great structure and stayed on a wall coud i found. A gustnado dropped then a small tornado some time after that. I was hit by 1" hail but golfball and larger was less than one mile away. The ground was covered to appear like it had snowed. I followed the storm and got pics of a couple rain wrapped tornados and some damage. I came across a dairy farm where metal was blown into cows as the tornado passed over. Many cows badly hurt, but there was a gas meter hissing so i had to get out of the area. US-83 was shut down in both directions due to powerlines that ran across the road due to the tornado. I stayed in a dark area and took advantage of the light show to get some lightening pictures. At 11:30 i was ready to go to bed but the road was still closed, i went off road which was crazy as the roads were soaked due to the heavy rains over the last few days. Bed around 12:00.

Eudora Area Tornado Video

This video is a combination of three different videos that shows the formation of the Eudora area tornado. It's my first filmed tornado of 2009 and I'm very proud of it. Enjoy!

First Tornado of 2009

I tracked a cell showning good signs of rotation in the Lawrence Kansas area. I followed the NE tracking storm until i found a good area of rotation. I saw what looked like the start of a tornado so I stopped and readied the gear. I started filming and was lucky enough to get the official start of the tornado. It was picking up quite a bit on the ground which I later found out was a home and steel garage. I snapped a few photos and moved on to track another I thought may come along to the North. I did not arrive in time as i stopped to make sure everyone was OK at the house that got hit. I encountered very heavy rain and some minor flooding but no hail the rest of the chase.

1st Chase Possible

March 22nd & 23rd are shaping up to be a decent chase possiblity. SW Oklahoma up to western Nebraska are areas i'm looking at. Depending on work load i may make a run on Sunday night and be ready for an active Monday.