Chase Report: 5 Apr, 2010 - Funnel cloud near Fortescue, MO

Depart Perry, OK: 9:30 a.m.
Arrive Hiawatha, KS: 11:30 p.m.
630 miles
Solo chase, day 2

After a fitful three hours of train-horn riddled sleep, woke up and headed North from Perry, OK. There were two potential plays. The warm front/Triple point scenario target was SW IA. The dryline play was Central/S KS. I went up to Wichita and waited for a whle trying to decide which area to take. I did not like the prospects of a blue-sky bust for the DL target, so I went the safe route and headed towards KC and the warm front.

Took 44 up to KC, and then went north to St. Joseph's, MO. There were agitated Cu streets going in NE KS/NW MO going much of the afternoon. Saw and briefly filmed a nice horseshoe vortex up somewhere near St. Josephs. As the day waned on, the Cu could not break the cap. Things looked pretty bad, so a little after 7, I headed south to get in position for Tuesday.

About this time, fellow Austin chaser Bill Tabor called and told me about a radar fine line showing up on Topeka, KS moving N in NE KS. I had lost data earlier, so was unaware this had kicked off (thanks, Bill!). I turned west, and about 15 minutes later, started seeing towering Cu and Cb tops in NE KS. This view is looking West across the MO river from I-29 parallel with the KS/NE border, 7:35 CST:

Headed in that direction, and ended up crossing the MO river on 159 at Rulo, NE. By now, the fine line had exploded into an E-W oriented series of 3 supercells (initially 2, but the western cell split, I believe). I got on the leading cell near Falls City and followed it east as it went towards the MO river North of 159.

It was about 8:30, after dark, when lightning illuminated a solid wall cloud to the north of Hwy 159. Terrain made it difficult to see what was going on, but it appeared to have a lowering. I filmed briefly, then repositioned further E to get a better view.

At ~8:40, I found a nice spot to observe along Hwy 159, about 2 miles east of the Missouri River between Rulo, NE and Fortescue, MO.

I got a nice clear view of the wall cloud feature, and noted a definite funnel cloud at around 8:40. Here is a sequence of three shots, spanning ~ 90 seconds. They are video stills taken using the low-light mode of my Sony:

Tried to phone in report, but could not connect to the 800 number (was having numerous problems with phone at the time). I called Austin chaser Randy Denzer to possibly have him relay a report for me, but by then funnel cloud had dissipated. The wall cloud persisted and continued moving east. Chaser Bart Comstock lodged a SN report of the wall cloud at 8:41. Phone went completely dead about this time. The charger had bitten the dust, and it took me a while to locate my backup charger and get the phone going again. Computer also died and had to be rebooted. The usual techno-gadget nonsense that always occurs at the worst possible time.

I turned west towards the western two cells, which both had nice, supercellular appearance on radar (thanks to two KC chasers who were watching the Falls City cell with me for letting me look at their radar). By the time I got to Hiawatha, KS and turned west on 36 to intercept, the cells were weakening. Called it a night and stayed at the Hiawatha Inn (much nicer than the previous night's stay in the Budget Inn in Perry).