18 May 2019
“Stop, Bill, stop.”
Alma, NE to Woodward, OK (654 km)
I was up at six but laid my head back down and woke at seven. Nothing like an extra hour of sleep.
I had my oatmeal and tea while I processed the time-lapses from the day before. We met up at the vans at nine and headed south right away because they expected some targets in Texas but after about an hour the forecast changed and we didn’t have to go as far with a system setting up in southern Kansas.
We stopped in Greensburg at the Crazy Mule for lunch. It had some interesting choices like the Elvis sandwich.That was peanut butter, banana, bacon on grilled bread.
He loved it.
We were back on the road by 2:30, heading southwest. There were several systems going up on the horizon and we had time to spare, so Bill pulled up to an old house on the prairie.
We had time to walk up to the house.
While the storm moved in from the west.
We went as far as Plains, Kansas to watch the approaching storm.
We were under an anvil watching what is called the whale’s mouth.
We stopped at a rest stop for a few minutes and had some cover when the rain picked up.
From there, we zig-zagged south into Oklahoma with the storm on our tail. The cold downdraft at one stop indicated the storm no longer had the ability to form a tornado, but the structure was amazing.
And for some reason, a herd of cows came running up to the fence line. It felt like they hadn’t seen a human being in months and were hoping for some hay.
We pulled into Buffalo, Oklahoma, where mammatus clouds were forming above the town.
We headed south towards Woodward, making a stop next to a wind farm to watch a growing storm on the horizon on one side.
And lightning on the other.
The rain chased me away and we drove a little farther where the mammatus was being lit up by the sunset.
Absolutely gorgeous.
When it had faded, we drove into Woodward and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then drove to the Northwest Inn for the night.
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