I drove from Colby, Kansas to Des Moines, Iowa via Omaha, Nebraska to chase the storms that made the news this evening. I was very close to the tornado in Stuart, Iowa, but it was rain wrapped and hard to see spot with all the trees and erratic drivers on Interstate 80.
The drivers along Interstate 80 were frankly making exceedingly stupid choices in the inclement weather. It was very common for drivers to just randomly stop in the left hand lane of the freeway, even though there was at least a mile of visibility. This, coupled with the number of trucks driven by folks using their smartphones, made my frustration levels skyrocket and I just decided to get out of there.
There are a number of reasons I dislike chasing storms east of Interstate 35 and north of Interstate 70. There’s too many trees to get good photos, there’s too many hills to see what’s going on, and for some reason the drivers in those parts think they need to be in the left most lane at all times.
I ended up driving down to Osceola, Iowa, where there were several storm cells moving through, but they didn’t get their act together enough to get spinning or anything. The most I witnessed was pea sized hail.
I decided to start heading south for the next area forecasted for severe weather, and that’s the Texarkana area. I knew I was too tired to make it all the way to the next target zone, but Kansas City was manageable. I’m situated for the night in Liberty, Missouri.
