September 15 2010 - Tornado Warned Storm Near Severy Kansas

 I had watched the storm form and the great radar presentation it had but nearly waited to long to head out for an intercept. After I got about 15 minutes out I realized I had left my cameras tripod mount on the desk so I was already off to a bad start. I got slowed down by some road construction South of Yates Center that put me back 15 minutes or so and ended up near Fall River on 400 when I heard that there was a verified tornado on the ground near Severy.

 I could see a section of intense lighting under the base of the storm that was highly suspect as I topped a few hills but I could see nothing definite. I stopped about 7 miles East of Severy to shoot the structure because I knew there was some history of monster hail in a few of the storms and that the tornado was supposed to be along HWY 400 so I decided not to punch through. Being the structure fan I am I started shooting in the path of the oncoming tornado with my Pentax K-7 and my Sigma 10-20mm Superwide Lens which gives great structure pictures but puts you much closer to the action than it appears in a photo. I wasn't let down even though it was pretty dark already....



 Again, in this case I already know am in the path of a reported oncoming tornado, this is not the place to be! These photos while in my opinion show the beauty of the oncoming storm are a perfect example of why it is often what you do not see that makes them quite dangerous. I never seen this until after reviewing the photos but a lightning strike in just the right place in the clouds revealed a rain wrapped tornado moving right at me. This is a perfect example of why a rain wrapped tornado is so very dangerous.



 The next hazard was of course my second favorite part of a storm, Lighting. The lighting was quite intense here. This is a photo shot a few seconds behind the one that revealed the rain wrapped tornado in which it is again not even visible to the camera.



 The lighting show goes on as it gets closer.



 And after many close calls, too close for comfort. Again this is at Super Wide Angle.



 I moved back to near Fall River as the tornado sirens started sounding there to catch some more lightning and then back to Fredonia where we got run over by high winds and torrential rain. Again, these and many other photos are for sale and can be found on my website at KansasHorizons.com