May 18, 2026    
(Click on images to enlarge them)

This was a very hyped day for the potential of strong tornadoes.  My son Ryan and I went back and forth about taking a trip out to Kansas for this event, but finally in the early morning, we decided to head out to take a chance on seeing a Tornado.  The Storm Prediction Center had a Moderate Risk of Severe Weather with a 15%, double hatched area for Tornadoes.

We had little time to waste as the storms were predicted to initiate in the mid afternoon and we had a 6-7 hour drive ahead of us.  It was very frustrating heading west on I-70 as multiple road construction delays were constant through the state of Missouri.  As we continued to move west, storms began to initiate in our Kansas target zone.  We set our sight on exiting the Interstate in Junction City to head northward to intercept a growing Supercell.  As typical on our trip, the traffic came to a complete standstill before our Junction City exit, but as luck would have it, we had an exit just before the traffic came to a halt.  We were able to take the alternate roads to the north, then west toward Clay Center, Kansas to get into position to intercept the Tornado warned Supercell.  As we moved within range, we could see a well formed wall cloud.

 
Storm Chaser Traffic became very heavy as we got closer to the wall cloud. 



Maneuvering our way through the chaos was a challenge.  Fortunately for us, we picked the right time to poke ourselves into the mass of cars and we were able to pull up right underneath the rotating wall cloud as it began dropping down a Tornado. 





We quickly found an open spot to park on one of the side roads to watch the Tornado drop down and work its way across the open fields next to us. 







We eventually pulled out of the side road and headed north to follow the rotation that was moving away from us to the northeast.  Off in the distance, we watched Tornado rope out and die.

As we traveled northward and then eastward, we became aware of a new tornado spinning up near the town of Blue Rapids, Kansas.  We were behind the storm and the traffic posed a huge problem as we tried to position ourselves ahead of the storm. 




We finally did work our way through the road network to place ourselves in front of the storm for an intercept, but the road we needed to place us into a position to view the on-coming Tornado was blocked off by police.  That ended our hopes of catching a look at this tornado as rain blocked the view.  Other road options to catch the Tornado were nonexistent.


As we continued eastward, the storms evolved into a squall line and put and end to our chase.
This was a day where due to the extreme amount of chaser traffic, we choose different routes, way out in front to approach the storms away from the traffic horde and then tried to poke into the mass of chasers at the proper time for storm viewing.  That proved successful for our Tornado intercept, but we were not successful for the second Tornado opportunity as we were eventually stuck in the chase conga line.
National Weather Service Storm Damage Survey
(our Tornado in yellow)

             
Complete Trip Map
 Zoomed Chase Area


17.5 Hours  -  934 Miles
Click on the link below to see video of some of these storms.
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