Storm Chase Details
Chase Date: May 26, 2008
Miles Logged: 1225
States Chased: KS
Tornadoes Witnessed: 1
Largest Hail Encountered: 2.5"
Milestones:
First plains tornado
Severe Risks: SPC Outlooks
Chase Recap:
Monday there was again a Moderate Risk for South Central Kansas. We started in Dodge City, and took showers and generally took our time getting up and getting ready. It was almost 11am before we finally hit the road towards Greensburg. We spent quite a few hours in Greensburg looking around at the massive destruction caused by the nations first EF-5 tornado. We eventually headed east to Pratt, KS where we met up with Dennis Sherrod and Chris Rice.
Eventually a cell started firing near Protection, KS and we headed back southwest towards that cell. We were right under the cell when a tornado warning was issued for it. It dropped some very low clouds around us, and a funnel hung from the storm into the field right next to us. Lightning struck the phone pole right by us and scared us all half to death. We decided to move then and headed towards Greensburg in order to not get cored by hail.
We headed east of Greensburg, and stopped while we filmed a good funnel. Once that dissipated, we headed further east towards Pratt again. The cell flared up all around us and we ended up getting cored by 2-3 inch hail. It left some dents in the car, but didn’t harm any of the glass.
David Drummond called shortly afterwards, and was just south of Pratt. He wanted to make sure we were ok after seeing us get cored in that cell. We decided to meet up in Pratt, and we headed to the city. While we were waiting for him, the sky became very ominous. The buildings in Pratt obscured our view, but there was inflow on either side of the building to our south going towards each other, so we knew we were in trouble. We started heading south in Pratt, and then the Tornado Sirens started going off.
We hurried out of town and got south of town. We saw the wall cloud and headed east and then north again to US 400/54. While we were heading east, the meso came almost right over the road in front of us, and rain bands were swirling around it. It briefly touched down a Tornado right in front of us. We followed this cell for miles to the North and East until it got too dark, and really started going linear. We gave up and headed towards Hutchinson, KS and got dinner. We then headed home, getting back into Fort Wayne around noon the next day.
