Northern Illinois Storm Chaser

My first and second Kansas tornado! Got down there on the 13th stayed in Cameron, MO. I was 13 years old and back then all we had was a weather radio. We knew storms were going to fire in OK and KS, but had no laptop and the only other means of media was from AM radio. While fueling up in Wichita (we were going to head to OKC) we overheard Wichita mentioning tornadoes along US 54 corridor in Kansas. We decided to head west on 54 to Pratt. We got there at about 1:30 PM and booked a hotel room at the Super 8 across from the Pizza Hut and next to the Mc Donalds along 54 just east of 281. A severe T storm watch went up to the north for the Salina area as we ate at Pizza Hut. As we paid, a tornado watch went up for Oklahoma. So we were caught in the middle. We were baited south to Medicine Lodge, thinking if anything went up in N Oklahoma we MAY be able to get down there and catch it. Back then the NOAA Weather Radio coverage was bad in this area so we were going all visual. Looking for towers and trying to stay away from the stratiform precip to the east. Finally a storm popped just SW of Medicine Lodge. We were thinking showtime. It struggle to do much of anything as we head south. Finally just south of Medicine Lodge we let it pass over and were not impressed. So we sat there for ten minutes admiring the Kansas landscape. We had a brief transmission from ICT of a severe thunder storm warning for the storm we just let pass over (by that time it was near Attica) so we blasted north up 281 to Medicine Lodge, thinking we would be blasting east to Attica.

Just as we hit Medicine Lodge, we looked NW at a large newly developed supercell. Where did that come from?! We blasted north up 281 toward Pratt. As we blasted north on 281 this LARGE core came into view to the north. From east to west, the northern horizon was filled by dark precip. The large rainfree base to the west and the low ragged wall cloud about 10 miles off (near the town of Haviland) For the next 15 minutes we sat 7 miles south of Pratt and watched this beautiful jaw dropping storm move ESE. We let the wall cloud get within 1/2 mile of us (It was so surreal to see scud developing 100 feet off the ground and get drawn in to the center of circulation within such a close proximity of us) Anyway, as this storm was moving overhead we dropped south a mile to see a large cone funnel dipping down around the same area we were in. Then we heard it.....what the.......is that???? whoooosssshhhhhhh! Then it hit, like a giant white fist. The RFD. Winds gusted to 80 mph from the WNW and rocked us. I was standing on the opposite side of the road and was blown to my knees. That was the inexperience in us though. We should have went south and continued east, instead of going south and sitting south. We got blasted by wind and dime sized hail for 5 minutes and then it all stopped and it was a brilliant blue cloud free sky behind it. As it blasted east, we tried catching up to it, but with our crappy minivan, we could not take the dirt/mud roads. So we lost time driving back through Pratt, and then east on 54. We got the beginning of the Pratt tornado, but missed the large hybrid wedge that Mike Umschied and Jay Antle documented. Just as we got east of Pratt, we saw it again. A stout stove pipe about 5 miles to the SE. With a beautiful rainbow painted across the sky. It was a shot made in heaven.