Contribution

Oh, no you didn't!

Did this dude seriously just stick his tongue out at me?

Back to the East

Well, time to head back east.  Explored seven-states and traveled almost 4,000 miles (the equivalent of a drive from Washington, DC to Anchorage, Alaska) in the past couple weeks.

States explored this April

Kansas University

for J

 Tree forts, Awesome.

So far 54 tornadoes have been reported from today's storm, with Mississippi and Alabama getting the brunt of the storm, as was expected.  Wasn't planning on chasing today (if I was, my plan was to stay at the SE-corner of Missouri last night, and then to follow the storms across the south-central U.S. in the morning).

As I figured I was too late to track any of the real activity, I decided to half-explore / half-track the one storm I thought had potential.  I ended up starting in eastern Oklahoma and tracking the storm across Rogers, Arkansas and up through Table Rock Lake to Springfield, Missouri.  While I was surrounded by some very intimidating clouds (below picture was the standard view of the day), I managed today to stay out of the hail and 70+ mph winds this storm recording through careful GPS navigation on my Doppler display.

Near Springfield, MO

While there was a clear wall cloud that I tracked for miles, I never positively saw anything touchdown (despite a lot of semi-funnels that were sticking-out).  According to the National Weather Service though, a F0 did in fact touchdown 5-miles east of me at the exact time I was driving through (18:40) and was recorded with 80 mph winds.  I swear I saw a clear funnel at this point while looking over the lake, but it was only two quick looks I got and I shrugged it off as my mind playing tricks on me.  I guess I'll never know.

 After leaving Springfield, heading east to intercept storm brewing in southeast

Another 11 hour day and 600 mile drive.

Oh, Arkansas

Long day.  Chased storms through Nebraska (primarily around Lincoln, Omaha, and Fremont), and then back across eastern Kansas/western Missouri.  Hit with hail several times, largest being about the size of a nickel or quarter, and my car didn't seem to enjoy it.  Chased in a lot of tornado watches/warnings, but no sightings despite very strong activity at times (so much activity that it was very challenging to shoot.

Best part of the day was around Rock Port, MO where I was almost completely surrounded by thunder-storms, but with a clear view of the stars directly above me:

After meeting up with and following a crew of about 8-storm chasers, I have verified first-hand that (a) these guys are friggn' nuts, (b) they have no idea where they are going judging by the amount of u-turns they pull and (c) they drive like maniacs.  Below is one of the vehicles from the Discovery Channel show "Storm Chasers."  Also followed the storm chasing crew that provides coverage for The Weather Channel.  My respect for that has substantially decreased after I found him at the back of the pack following every other storm chaser's ideas.

At times the sky was gaining some pretty interesting colors.  Below is as-shot with slight increase in saturation, but no addition of color:

10 hours of chasing / 600 miles today.   That makes for 3,000 miles in the past week (the equivalent of driving from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco...and then a couple hundred miles more)

NOTE: Check back later for an update to this post (more pictures/stories).  Sorry, but I'm tired.

Today marks only the second day of storms for me since getting out here, but we were only hit with rain.  While no luck today on any worthwhile storms, hoping for a safe yet more active day tomorrow.

Wilson

Is it really necessary to label your garbage trucks 'inedible?'

Welcome to Iowa: You must be lost

I finally made it to Iowa today.

I'd rather have been in Nebraska.

 Rejected state motto's

In all honesty, Iowa was actually really nice, but without having gone into the cities, it was very similar to Nebraska's landscape and left me a little bored when it came to finding something I wanted to capture.

First thing you see when entering New Hampshire is a liquor store.  First thing you see when entering Iowa is Stoner Drugs.

Naturally, I decided I had to find and travel the first road I came across that was not intended for cars.  The result was I got stuck on some sort of wildlife preserve on a one-way road; I didn't realize this until I was a mile or two in.  It was either keep driving the road until I came out somewhere, or drive in reverse down the 8' wide road that had steep drop-offs into the streams around it.  As I am still living by my motto of No U-Turns. Ever. I drove through it, parking next to every "No Parking. Do Not Stop Vehicle" sign I found.  I should mention that this is where Iowa stood apart from Kansas, Nebraska, and just about every other state I've been in; while there were shotgun shells everywhere, for once none of the road signs were shot to pieces!  Iowans must be a bit more proper.  Or maybe they just have really bad aim.

I saw plenty of wildlife running around, but I was too concerned with getting out of the place to patiently wait to get good shots.  What I did do was wander into the wetlands barefoot (bad idea but I didn't want to get my shoes wet) to get a variety of different shots of how the area was growing in.

This makes my fifth state in the past two weeks.  Speaking of which, another Kansas fact I forgot to mention the other day (which I unfortunately did not get a picture of):

You know you are in Kansas when...

        ...you are filling your tank next to a man pumping gas wearing only a bathrobe, who is standing next to his wife (wearing only her pajamas) who is smoking a cigarette.

 Eh, what the heck, I'll throw in one more...

You know you are in Kansas when...

        ...you are driving behind a twenty-year old GMC truck that is going 35mph in a 55, when it suddenly accelerates to approximately 70mph while swerving towards a flock of turkeys crossing the road, only to slow back to 35 after failing to hit any of them.