We left Valpo around 9:30am. We were heading southwest to Missouri. the morning's convective outlook called for a slight risk of severe t-storms over MO andd southern IA. The morning radar showed some fairly impressive t-storms moving eastward along the IA/MO border. We though that the outflow boundries would provide the convergence for some afternoon t-storms in MO. CAPEs were ok, around 1500-2000 J/KG, but wind sheer was mostly unidirectional. No threat of tornadoes, just large hail and damaging winds.

Skies remain fairly clear though afternoon with only scattered t-showers.. Temps were fairly warm and dewpoints of about 60 degrees. Saw nothing and tommorrow was to be a relocation day before more significant t-storms were expected.

Today's forecast was not impressive. A cold front had slipped southward and dry air had build in. There was only a slight risk of warm frontal storms, but these were to occur at night. The weather was mostly sunny with temps in Northern KS around 80... dewpoints in the low 50s. We drove out to northcentral KS to prepare for the following day's possible severe weather outbreak. We stayed in Marysville, KS.

This morning was our best news yet. SPC put out a moderate risk of severe storms in OK, KS, and NE. This would become almost an everday forecast. A large trough was forecasted to deepen in the Rockies and spit out shortwaves everyday or so for the upcoming week. Warm air was surging northward along a 50kt low-level jet through central OK and central KS. Dewpoints were progged to be in the mid 50s to 60 degrees along the NE border by afternoon. CAPEs of 2500-3000 J/KG were located over our region with helicity values around 300-400. Tornadoes were possible along the warm front. We headed north to central NE, but the shortwave was slow in moving out. Convecton did not fire until 5:00 and later. The best dynamics did not come together until right after sunset. At that time many of the storms we were watching went tornadic. A MCC also began to develop along the NE/KS border. After avoiding several tornado warnings because of bad positioning and lack of sunlight, we headed home by 8:30. There were several confirmed tornadoes in our chase area, but we did not see any. An impressive supercell developed by late night, and after making a huge right turn, it headed toward us from the west. Though it bowed out by the time it reached us, we were treated to 50+ mph winds and heavy rain as it rolled though. We also met NOMISSIT (Mississippi State chase team) that night. Appartently they reported a mile wide wedge on the ground with that storm as it made its turn. For some reason they were chasing at night. After shaking our heads, we finally went to bed at 2:30am. Their tornado never verified.

Today's forecast was slightly promising, outflow from last night's storms was very strong, and had polluted the airmass quite a bit. SPC called for a moderate risk in our area along the warm front. Unfortunately because the airmass never recovered from the MCC last night, nothing happened. We traveled along the same path of yesterday, but only saw mostly sunny skies. The next shortwave was setting off severe weather in CO and WY around 6pm. Maybe tomorrow.

This was our final day in Marysville, KS. The morning's convective outlook called for a moderate risk in south central KS and the OK/TX panhandle. The main focus was a dryline moving out of CO and NM. We headed west but there was so much cold advection down the lee side of the Rockies we had little hope of chasing out there. Temps were in the mid 50s and there was a heavy overcast with light rain and fog. Meanwhile in central KS, temps were breaking into the 90s. We set up just south of the warm sector near Great Bend and east some after traveling through the fog towards Goodland, KS. Around 4:30 after gasing up in Great Bend we noticed the dryline with some small fair weather comulus. We headed east to get in front of a few developing cu. In 30 minutes the cumulus blew up to severe t-storms with tornadoes. This was possibly the best storm we had seen. It was a classic textbook storm with inflow stretching around to the NE and a huge anvil with beautiful mammatus clouds. This storm produced tornadoes in Great Bend. We raced along side this storm for some time. During our chase, we saw five gustnadoes (including an impressive family of gustnadoes not more than 50 feet outside of our left windows), and a huge shelf cloud with a downburst that stirred up some dust from the fields. The dust ended up hiding a wall cloud to our north, and we busted away from the storm once we regained visibility. We ran into NOMISSIT again and their children. They reported a tornado... didn't verify again. They must have reported a weak gustnado.

Today we headed south to intercept the dryline that was moving out of NM. SPC put out a moderate risk once again for the TX panhandle, western KS and western OK. We stopped in Liberal, KS for a hotel and a check of current conditions as well as radar. The best conditions were coming together in the TX panhandle and further south. We headed onto the caprock and began to get reports of tornadic storms as we faded in and out of radio reception areas. Unfortunately there was so much low-level moisture, all we saw was fog. We had to abort any intercept with the storms because the storms themselves only looked like dark spots in the fog. If we were to see anything, it would be on top of us before we would see it. Because conditions were shaping up for an impressive outbreak in central and eastern OK the next day, we stopped and headed home.

We were briefed in the morning about today's severe weather. The trough of low pressure was begining to pull out of the Rockies and fantastic dynamics were going to develop to our east in OK and KS. The best CAPEs (3000 J/KG) were located over central and eastern OK. Helicities were significant also, around 350-400. Tornadoes were the main threat, and SPC put out another moderate risk. We drove to Blackwood, OK in northcentral OK. After checking out the radars, we figured we would have to head south to find the bet conditions. A strong dryline had developed and the area of low pressure was deepening and heading east across the OK/KS border. Dewpoints were in the 10s to the west of the line... 70s ahead. WOW! We headed just north of OK city before we interecpted an impressive HP supercell north of the city. We saw an impressive hail shaft as well and a nice shelf cloud. Unfortunately the mesocyclone was wrapped in rain, and we couldn't see any possible tornado. We headed further south toward the south side of the city, stopping once because of dime sized hail. Once we got around this storm, we saw one of the most impressive storms yet. Though we were on the back side of this storm, the striations were incredible and the storm had good inflow and an impressive flanking line extending southwest. All of this was lit very will by the sunset.

After this storm made its way through the city, we headed in and had some pizza at a place that had several televisions running stations with current radar. Apparently a quasi-stationary boundry developed right over the city, and the storms were training along this boundry. OKC had quite a bit of flooding from these storms and we ran into a few flooded roads on our way back.

Today we needed to get east. Most of the day was spent driving though MO. The storm of yesterday had wrapped up and swang its cold front further to the east. Conditions were ok for storms and SPC put out a slight risk. The shear was tremendous, and most of the towers that went up got sheared apart. Unfortunately we got stuck in traffic an hour outside of St. Louis, and not more than 50 feet from the exit, one of Missouri's finest pulled three VUSIT cars over for attempting to drive on the shoulder to exit 50 feet from where it was marked. By the time we were finished, we were tired and had missed most of the storms. As a result, we simply headed to Mt. Vernon, IL and planned on returning home Tuesday.

Everyone got some much needed sleep last night. Today's severe weather situation looked okay. SPC put out a slight for part of IL, IN and KY. We headed out around 10am but around 11, realized that conditions were getting much better. The front was forecasted to lift north and provide significant shear for tornadoes. Storms began to develop with a few reports of tornadoes near Urnbana and Danville and we began to chase as we went home. Instability was margional with temps only in the 60s, but the dynamics had overcome some of this problem. We had a few reports of tornadoes from spotters, but they had the storms moving in different directons. Our persut officially ended went John Gumm hydroplaned for about 400 ft and rear-ended John Eylander at a stop sign. We snapped Gumm's car back together and reported Big John's wrecked bumper to the police and headed home. When we arrived back in Valpo from our 4500 mile, 8 day trip, temps were in the low to mid 50s with a stiff north wind and exciting stratoform mist. A boring end to an exiting chase in the plains.