Today there are contradictory predictions so we're hedging our bets and will be heading to Dodge City. We have a poor breakfast and head off. If you want tea, you have to ask for “hot tea” and as for milk. Today, by the time they figure it out I end up with some luke worm swill.
We get to Dodge City and have two hours to kill. I get some souvenirs for the kids and go to the Boot Hill museum. An old guy I sat next to on the plane was fulfilling a boyhood ambition to visit Dodge City, home to the “gunfight at the OK Coral”. I think he will be disappointed. Most of the town is shut. I get my photo taken by a statue of Wyett Earp and we're off again.
We head off to Greensberg which got totally destroyed by an EF5, mile and a half wide tornado in may 2007. I feel a bit like a voyeur and am slightly apprehensive about what we'll see. The town has, however, embraced the disaster and is selling memorabilia celebrating the rebirth.
Even a year on, nothing can prepare you for what you see. Standing in the down town area there is not much evidence that a town existed bar the indestructible concrete grain silos, Nearly everything above ground level has either been smashed or has just disappeared. I take a photo of some poor persons basement which now looks more like s swimming pool. Here and there there are the remains of walls and the concrete slabs scraped clean of habitation. I buy some more souvenirs and have a look at “the biggest hand dug well in the world”. All in all a pretty sobering experience.
We head off towards Wichita, Kansas after in interesting wind pattern. There's nothing on radar and no mention by the NWS but Todd has a hunch. Sure enough a storm starts to develop at around 6.00. We run into a Sheriff at a truck stop and he's glad to here we are off to the east. He tells us the story of how he got to Greensberg to help with the clean up the day after it happend. It's pushing 100f and we leave town.
The storms are forming a line, so no rotation and no supercell. We have a chat with a policeman who is less interested in the weather and more concerned about our driving. The storms never really get going and today looks like a bust, but that's part and parcel of storm chasing.
We head off to Blackwell Oklahoma and are booked into a Comfort Inn. As we head towards the hotel massive (non-tornadic) storms are coming our way and there is lots of lightening in the distance which lifts the gloomy mood. We cross a bridge over a lake which is instantly recognisable from the film Twister where the cow flies through the air.
We get to the hotel just as the storm hits. The rain is torrential, the wind is breathtaking and lightening is flashing every second. When it eases off I go out and try my hand at taking photos of lightening. I've tried this before and it's not easy. I get a couple of iffy shots and the storm retreats into the distance, so I go to bed. I'm totally knackered and am relieved to go to bed by 10.30. I find out in the morning that another storm came in at 11 and had even better lightening than the first. Bummer.
Total Miles:417
Photos in next post
Cheers
Adam
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