8:15am – Woke up missing my girlfriend. Forgot my good zip off pants/shorts that I use for camping/hiking at the last hotel. Hopefully not a sign of a bad day to come.
Map analysis begins.
9:45am – Paul is hopping around all happy. The model runs for the past few days have been wrong and now the latest model runs have aligned with his forecast. Perfect position for today. The play is Wichita.
10:35am – North bound and down. Wichita/Hutchinson is the target area.
1:15pm – In Wichita for lunch at Hog Wild. Winds are still stongly from the south so we are hoping they start to back in response to the low off to the west. We need more moisture. Heading to Newton for some DQ and hang out. May have to drift north during the afternoon, but we want to stay on the southern edge.
2:00pm – stopping for a bit of softball
3:15pm – Stopping for DQ. CU fields are going up to our north west. The show should start in about an hour.
4:40pm – Chase mode! Storms firing to the north.
5:30pm – first photo op on a storm. Man I love the smell of a thunderstorm.
6:00pm – Going to tempt the storm and get in close for some hail. Why not! It’s not my van and it was Paul’s idea.
7:11pm – Tornado report on our storm. We can’t see it.
[update after the fact....so we did actually see the tornado, we just couldn't tell from our side of the storm. It's the dust whirl behind the trees. Video images from the other side of the storm clearly show a _VERY_ small tornado.]
8:00pm – Storm fizzled out. Heading back south to position for tomorrow.
9:30pm – Dinner at McDonalds and then back on the road to Wichita, KS for the night.
Could be an early morning long drive.