Well, dog tired from a three day marathon chase that began in Se KS on Saturday night and ended with the supercell bomb chase just south of Tulsa, OK last night. Leaving Missouri on Saturday morning I had no idea that on this chase I would see Tim Marshall, Dave Hoadley, Cloud 9, The Vortex Team, Doppler on Wheels, Jim Leonard, The Meatwagon (which enjoyed the RFD blast along with our chase team), the best back sheared anvil EAST of I-35 and ------4 tornados, one tube near Benton, KS on Sunday, one elongated cone near Beggs, OK, wedge hybrid near Slick, OK, and the famous White Tube tornado on 75 south near Winchester, OK (all on monday)....This was a WOW chase....(Jay, I will give you a copy of the tape for the picnic....)

Our chase team varied at times but consisted of three TWC forecasters, Mike Phelps and Matt &and Betsy Crowther, Jay Antle, John Rogers and a few others. We had six chase vehicles in our armada and at times, a few tag alongs from the general public.

The May 24 chase in se KS was eventful in that a chaser convergence gathered at a local gas station to watch a severe storm to the west. Cloud 9, Jim Leonard amongst others joined to watch the spectacle. Afterwards it was off to Wichita, KS to spend the night.

The next day we camped out near Medicine Lodge in south central KS, playing the dryline as opposed to the surface low to the north. When the storms began to fire up to the north, we left and payed dearly. The largest supercell of the evening formed just east of medicine lodge and produced the great wedge that Cloud 9 saw at 8:30. We did see many funnels and a narrow tube tornado near Benton, KS. After the lighting show it was back to Wichita to the Chaser Super 8 motel where amongst others, David Hoadley was staying.

The next morning we chatted with Tim Marshall a bit (always a pleasant experience) and decided to camp out just east/southeast of OKC to play the dryline again, however, at 4:00 the congestus was much more impressive to the north so we decide to beline for just south of Tulsa, OK. We left Shawnee and took 177 north to 66 east and hey, we hear the Vortex Crew coming up on our heels!! Towers are firing up and at 5:30, the first tornado watch is issued.

Chasing in northeast Oklahoma is not easy and we soon find ourselves with several supercells to choose from. The atmosphere was primed; the temp was 87, dewpoint was 73 and winds out of the southeast at 15 when the first towers went up at 0Z (the CAPE was 5-7000kj!!!) Okay that gives you serious hail......amongst other things.....

The details of the chase are still fuzzy because I did not keep track of the roads we were on, however, I do know our first tornado was the elongated cone near the town of Beggs, (Upon watching the footage of the elongated cone tornado it is interesting to hear Eric Rasmussens voice on the tape, camcorder had picked up the Vortex transmissions from the scanner),The second tornado of the day was a real fluke. We had decided to bag the storm when off to the southwest we saw a lowering and within seconds, a large wedge hybrid decended. Rain wrapped but awesome in size. The third and final tornado of the day was seen along 75 south near the town of Winchester, a white tube that split in half when it fizzled, really neat!

In all, our chase footage from Sunday in central Kansas and Monday in Oklahoma, tallied 7 funnel clouds, 14+ wall clouds and four tornadoes, the best being the hybrid wedge heading northeast as we stared at it to the southwest...Okay good thing it roped out!!! Well, the infamous "White Tornado" along 75 highway was memorable too.

For me this was a dream chase, meeting so many great chasers, having the Vortex crew within 3 miles of our target zone, many tornados and then to end the day with the most awesome back sheared anvil I have ever seen; the mamamtus stretched to the west for miles.....Each protrusion glowed red as the sun set...awesome!!!

John Moser's chase log.

More photos to be posted within the next week.

Click on a thumbnail to see a larger image..............

Just waiting for the towers to go up.