This was one of those setups that I would not even consider other than possibly a local chase.  The forecast was for Strong Wind and  Hail, but with little to no Tornado potential. 

When our chase partner Brian Stertz said he was chasing it in his own Eastern Kansas "backyard" and asked if we would like to join him, my original thought was "No, Thanks" based on the lack of tornado potential.  That "No-Go" decision was confirmed after speaking with my son Ryan.  But..... 

Before I hung up the phone with Ryan, he throws out another option.  He says, why don't we hook this potential storm day up with a wildlife photo trip the following day to one of our favorite Wildlife Refuges near Brian's place, Loess Bluffs.  That was enough to tilt the scale for us to take the trip out to Kansas for a Storm opportunity plus a Wildlife photo trip.

Ryan and I waited until Friday morning, the day of, to leave.  Brian was going to put some work in before he could head out in the afternoon, so Ryan and I agree to meet him at his place at 2:00 and then we'd head out to our target of Emporia, Kansas.   A line of storms was already underway moving out of Nebraska into Northeast Kansas and Northwest Missouri as we made our way down I-35.  These storms were severe warned for wind and hail as they entered Kansas and Missouri, but then the line broke up as they moved southeastward.

We grabbed some late afternoon dinner at Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers in Emporia as we watched for any sign of new development.  As the remnants of the line of storms went by us to the east, a couple cells in the line regained intensity again and became severe warned with strong wind and large hail, especially the cell on the western edge of the now broken line in east central Kansas.

We drifted a bit east as new cells attempted to develop  just to the west of the passing line, but the storms to the west of the severe cell struggled in the strong cap and would go up and die.

With no new cell development, we finally decided to move toward the on-going severe warned storm to our east.  Although this storm was moving quite slow, as we made our approach, a closed road forcing a detour put an end to the possibility of circling around the storm in the daylight.  Nothing was lost as the severe warning was dropped and the storm transitioned into a big rain blob.

As the sun set, we saw no high wind, hail, or tornadoes on the day.  However, we were treated to a very bright orange underbelly of the storm with the sun making a late appearance to give us the dazzling sunset.