Not a portfolio shot, thanks to the radio tower. Shot this hand-held (i.e., no tripod)
Well, what a day! The photo above is from the Chapman, KS tornado, shortly before it crossed Interstate 70. This is the type of shot you want to get, with the sun peeking through the rain next to a dark, menacing tornado. Unfortunately, there happened to be a radio tower in our line of sight, but it was still an incredible view!
After chasing a “troll” storm (i.e., a storm that looks promising enough to woo us in before subsequently dying in front of our eyes) early in the afternoon, a very strong storm developed near Salina, KS around 5pm and was tornado-warned soon after. We decided to give it a shot and head north to see if we could catch a glimpse of the storm and possible tornado near sunset.
Promising cell developing east of Wichita, KS. This fell apart not too long after this photo was taken
Great view of the backside of the tornado-warned storm near Abilene, KS
We made our way north and approached the strong storm, which was now near Abilene, KS, from the south. Heading through Abilene, we caught a view of a very well-defined wall cloud under the storm, filled with rain, and the tornado inside. We decided to hop on I-70 eastbound to try and get ahead of the storm, that was still north of Abilene. We took the next exit a mile or two down the road to capture a few photos and some video of the tornado before getting back on the interstate, continuing eastbound to the exit for Chapman, KS.
Our view of the strong tornado from exit 277 off of I-70, just east of Abilene, KS. The tornado was probably ~2 miles to our north here. Also, as you can see from the vehicles lining the on ramp on the other side of the road, there were a large number of chasers that decided to take a quick pit stop here as well
The rain-wrapped tornado about to cross I-70 about 3 miles west of Chapman, KS. Here, you can see the entire wall cloud. This thing was dark and quite intimidating!
We quickly made our way south through the small town of Chapman, to the foreboding sound of blaring tornado sirens, and pulled off the road about 2 miles south of town. This area was a zoo… many chasers everywhere, trying to stay ahead of the approaching storm and hoping that everyone in Chapman was taking cover. The town was in the direct path of the tornado, although it seems that they had about 15 minutes or so of warning.
Looking northwest, with the town of Chapman on the lower right side of the image (where all the trees are). By this point, we could barely see the tornado inside
We sat tight for about 10 minutes, watching the storm advance toward us. I’ve never heard a tornado before, but people have always said it sounds like a freight train. They weren’t lying. I was astounded by how loud it was from where we were, just 1-2 miles away. We were in a very “safe” position here (last photo above) and had several escape routes nearby in case we needed to get out of Dodge fast. At some point during this time, the tornado became completely rain-wrapped and we never saw it again. Soon after, we hopped in the car and dropped south, eventually deciding to abandon the storm given the fact that the sun had set and we were losing daylight.
Turns out that the tornado skirted the south side of Chapman, somewhere between the town and our location in the previous photo. I’m glad we moved when we did. It would have been a close call for sure.
As I write this, we’re once again on the road in central Kansas heading after storms to the south. Today is a “Moderate Risk” day, as determined by the Storm Prediction Center. There is potential for a number of fairly strong tornadoes, so we shall try to find at least one of them, if they indeed form. This may end up being the best day of the chase, in terms of the environmental conditions and tornadic potential.
I’ll try to check back tomorrow!