Make sure to click bottom right and play it in 720p HD

Last year I got in 2 good chases. I was out there during the entire month of May, and we remember how not so well that went! Sadly, I missed all of the good June chase opportunities.
Not even a week into getting out to Kansas to join up with John, I believe it was the first of May, we took a chance on a decent set up southwest of Wichita Falls, Texas.
After a long drive from Lawrence, Kansas, we got down there right as things where brewing. We took a stab jumping on the developing storm northeast of where a current tornado warning was issued on the storm southwest of it. We were still getting into position from our long drive, so the storm to the northeast was our easiest play as well. It’s a good thing we did so, as we would of missed out on both storms if we would have attempted going after the southern most cell first. All those hours of driving for nothing was avoided!!!

We went after the northern most storm and caught it from it’s near birth till death. It gave us a nice showing, including a short gustnado, which sadly we were driving when that occurred so we could neither get video nor take pictures of it.

Here is the video of that chase. Enjoy!

The second chase was of course the Kirksville, MO tornado.

That day, sadly, was without John as he had to study for finals. So I went out with a couple of my friends from Nebraska. It’s a little, and at times very, frustrating chasing down a tornadic storm with people you’re uncomfortable working with. So I was going through those emotions while on this chase. We positioned ourselves north of Kirksville when the warnings went out and with the not so fun roads that the area has up there we pretty much just sat on the main highway and then on some secondary country roads for a few minutes, but quickly went back. So from the highway, we sat and watched and waited for the storm to move in towards us. Hearing the reports of a tornado on the ground, and it being rain wrapped, I was being even more cautious…… especially with the guys I was with. We watched it come all the way in though, saw the funnel early on, then continued watching the wall cloud until it hid from us behind all the rain. Had some nice shots of the storm where you could see absolutely nothing but the storm wrapped in rain. But, as it moved in we got ourselves a decent look at the tornado as the video shows below. Check it Out!

The best part of the view we had was the tornado crossing the road behind us and into the town. That was a sweet shot! Just seeing the rain wrapping around it, it was awesome! Sadly, I thought I was recording it, but accidently stopped recording it during that part………so I didn’t get the video of it.

The second video shows some of the tornado damage. The first video is just HD shots of the storm.

After the Kirksville storm there were no more good opportunities to chase, and that’s what ended my year, as I had to get home by the end of May. Therefore, missing all of the good June opportunities.

This year will be slightly different though, because I will be out there as much as possible and hopefully get a lot more chances for good chases! I’m looking forward to my 2010 storm chase!
In my profile I listed some goals I had for this year, and with the weathers cooperation I’m hoping for at least 6 good chases/tornadoes.

Keep up to date with us, as we will keep you in the loop with what we are doing and what’s going on. Soon we will bring you many great images and video of severe weather and tornadoes!

Andrew