23 June 2022
Dodge City, KS to Salina, KS
327 km
I had a solid eight hours and we met up at nine for the briefing. They were optimistic on getting a decent storm despite the high pressure system to the south. We headed north out of Dodge City and stopped for Mexican in Wakeeny.
We didn’t have to go much farther and hung in the area waiting for the storms to initiate.
At one gas stop, we watched a young woman, who was dressed a bit like a hippie, walk from pump to pump asking if they could spare a gallon of gas. She got someone to fill up her can (about two gallons) and she went back to her van and let a guy fill the van. They were taking up the space of four pumps complete with traffic cones and three dogs off leash enjoying the shade.
A few minutes later, the guy started going from pump to pump. Didn’t take long for him to give up. None of the guys pumping gas would have anything to do with him. We drove off but I’m guessing the girl was back at it.
Storms started to initiate near Wakeeny and we started five hours of start and stop chasing as we followed the high precipitation storm.
At one stop, an amazing wall cloud was skirting the ground and we got about twenty minutes to watch it.
The lightning was impressive.
Blows my mind that it didn’t drop a tornado.
At one point, I looked to my right to take some shots of the group and the lightning in the distance.
And that is how we recharge storm chasers.
As we drove away, a tornado did form to our left. We pulled over on the side of the road but by the time I got out, it had dissipated.
The rain hit and we headed out, making a sudden stop when our driver Matt spotted another tornado. We piled out. Those on the left side of the van got better pics than those of us who had to round the van. That’s how short lived it was.
Yeah. It’s that vertical cloud in the middle there.
We kept leap frogging ahead, stopping for a few minutes just off the interstate and then heading out as the rain reached us.
At one stop, a tornado formed probably about a mile away. We took shelter against the van so that we were shaded from the pelting rain and got a few pictures. It lasted about a minute.
We were soaked to the bone and continued heading east.
We pulled off a road to watch the storm from a distance when tornado number four appeared.
I got a half dozen pictures before it dissipated.
We stayed for about a half hour as the storm finally dissipated around eight.
We went back to the Baymont for the night.
This time, I got a room with a working TV.
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Bill Reid’s entry for 23 June 2023
Fantastic timelapse and shots of lightning! Were the lightning shots part of the photos that make up the timelapse? or did you have another camera with a lightning trigger? Cheers
Thanks Anthony. The lightning shots are primarily taken with a second camera with a lightning trigger (Pluto or Lightning Bug). I use three cameras now – one Nikon Z7 and two Olympus OMDs.