As April arrives each year it brings lots of cheer to those who dislike the harsh winter months we experience in the northern states. Flowers bloom, the grass begins to grow, and people enjoy spending time outside. For me, though, Spring time means something else; the arrival of another storm season. I have always been a bit of a weather nerd… OK, so a big weather nerd, and this year I had the chance to take a storm chasing “vacation” with 10 other students majoring in meteorology. Anyone who follows any national news knows that the 2011 storm season was incredibly active and one of the deadliest ever, and I got the chance to spend 16 days studying and photographing some of these storms on the Great Plains.

These pictures were taken just outside of Topeka, KS on May 21st. This was our first day on the road, traveling from Champaign, IL through Kansas City and into the Topeka area where the chance for storms was extremely marginal (The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center gave a 5% chance of tornadic activity in our target area). Surprisingly, 22 tornadoes were reported on this day throughout the area. The first picture is of a mesocyclone with strong rotation (apparent by the tiered levels of the storm all the way to the funnel cloud at the base), and the second is a closer picture of the funnel itself.

The following day, the chase was just a couple hours to our south near the Kansas/Oklahoma/Missouri border. We set out for a target of Miami, OK where this picture was taken. The picture shows a funnel cloud and storm with strengthening rotation that would continue on about 25 miles up the road to produce an EF-5 tornado in Joplin, MO which killed almost 160 people.

This photo was taken near Oklahoma City on May 24th. This particular picture shows a large, violently rotating funnel that I witnessed touching down shortly after this was taken. The thick haze on the horizon plus a distance of approximately 12 miles between us and the storm made it very difficult to photograph, and only after lots of contrast enhancement was I able to make the storm visible in the photo (hence the low quality). Also, unlike typical tornadoes, this one was so large and violent that the entire cloud base seemed to touch the ground.

On one of our final days on the Plains, we stopped briefly to shoot some lightning pictures from the approaching storm. These photos were taken near Hays, KS.

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