2018Oct07pictures.html

After a Saturday full of hiking and wildlife photography, I was thrilled to have a Sunday with absolutely nothing to do. I woke up early and figured since my girl friend, Jennifer Crutchfield had a meeting, I would do some bird photography for a few hours. I headed north where there was a drastic temperature reduction. It was warm and humid in St. Charles, MO, while in Elsberry, MO, it was chilly with thick fog. This should have been a big clue to me as I looked at the weather forecast. I found a few birds, took some pictures, then came home and got on Facebook instead. While relaxing and goofing off on the computer, I get a text from my dad saying that SPC upgraded to a 2% tornado risk. I thought it was interesting, but I didn't think much of it. As I continued to fiddle around on my computer, both Brian Stertz and my dad were texting each other about the storms popping up on radar. Soon Brian said if we had the day free, we needed to get west on a supercell that had just developed and was showing signs of being tornadic. My dad was on the fence and he decided that he was too far away and wouldn't be able to make it in time. I lived closer to the storm so I immediately pushed Jennifer out the front door with me and headed west on Interstate 70. We went through the initial line, which was out ahead of the supercell. There was torrential rain and wicked cloud to ground lightning. Our target storm weakened as we approached Interstate 61, so we switched gears and began looking at the storm coming up from near Jefferson City, MO as it was now tornado warned. As we continued west and approached Warrenton, MO, I looked at the radar again and the storm we were initially targeting once again had a nice hook. I felt we needed to go north. I discussed that option with my chase partners (who were now-casting for me at their homes) and they agreed on the move.

Jennifer and I moved north on Highway 47 out of Warrenton. Trees were a big problem as they obscured our view of the base. We could see where the circulation was located as clouds were screaming into the storm. We finally got to a field with a view of the base. Under the base was a conical lowering. Within about 30 seconds, a pointy tail started descending out of the lowering. I immediately pulled over as I knew what was happening. A tornado was now in progress! Jennifer and I bailed out of the car as the tornado rapidly grew in size. The tornado became a rather large cone and was fully condensed with good contrast. The motion was incredible as we were only a few miles to the East of the northeast moving tornado. Jennifer took photos as I shot video. As quickly as the tornado spun up, rain began to wrap around it. We had visual of the tornado for about a minute and a half before it was lost in the rain.

After determining that we were only 3 to 4 miles south of Hawk Point, MO, I called my dad so he could relay the report to the National Weather Service. We got back in the car and continued heading north. The rain cleared away from the circulation, but the tornado was gone and the circulation had weakened.

We took highway 47 to Troy and took Interstate 61 north. We pulled over onto a side road about a mile south of Auburn as the circulation came into view to our west. Though the circulation was not as strong as before, it was spinning very hard. Hard enough that I was ready for another tornado. After a few minutes, it crossed the highway and weakened as it did. As we were about to get back in the car, I noticed another updraft to the west. It was also rotating hard and soon some serious scud was being ingested into a small wall cloud. The scud formed a funnel shaped cloud. It was at this time that there was a possible brief tornado. Great distance and very poor contrast kept us from confirming a tornado. A few more minutes passed and we decided to call it a day as this storm weakened.

This was only my second chase as the lead chaser and I am thrilled that I got a tornado! For the entire chase there was never a severe weather watch or tornado warning issued for this storm. Additionally, there was only a marginal risk for severe weather. Jennifer and I have nothing to complain about from a day that exceeded expectations. I wasn't expecting to chase, let alone bag a tornado. A big thanks goes out to my father Richard Thies, and fellow chase partner, Brian Stertz, for the timely real time now-casts.