May 6, 2023

May 6 looked like a potent warm front setup. I targeted the Maryville area, in northwest Missouri, just east of the triple point, and arrived by early afternoon to a couple of developing cells.

I got on the dominant cell near Conception Junction and watched it develop from downstream to the east.

I got into the notch, and found a viewing perch in a windfarm. The turbines cranked hard overhead, the blades making an ominous whooshing sound as they sliced through the strong inflow winds. The supercell dramatically organized as it approached.

I setup for a ultra-wide angle time lapse, and then my phone went off for a tornado warning. The texture in the vault was exquisite, and would be one of the better structured supercells I’d chase in recent history.

Storm motion had a slight south component to it, which would keep me out of the path. I was in an excellent position for a backlit tornado show, and the supercell cycled right in front of me with a wall cloud and wrapping RFD clear slot. It couldn’t pull off the tornado, however, and I started to get clipped by the rain and hail in the forward flank.

The rest of the chase was spent stair stepping across northwest Missouri as the storm cycled with a gorgeous updraft base.

Under the base as the storm cycles with another RFD clear slot:

Golden evening light under a sculpted updraft base:

The base filled in with rain as the storm transitioned into a high precipitation state. A tornado was reported, but I couldn’t see anything even from the notch. I ran east to stay ahead of the rear flank core. More and more chasers were joining the party as this was the only game in town. There was a steady stream of chaser traffic on the paved east and south options, but it was moving smoothly. Light was fading and the storm was solidly HP so I decided to duck south, get out of the way of it, and maybe run well downstream to shoot structure and lightning. I cleared the RFD core no problem, getting a smattering of light right. A chaser came up real hot on my six, flashing amber and white lights blazing. All I could see in my back window was piercing, strobing lights as they tailgated me. There were several chasers ahead of me, so there was nowhere to really go, and no real reason to be driving like a maniac. We were clear of the storm and with the traffic you wouldn’t be getting ahead anyway. I think they hoped I’d think they were an emergency vehicle and yield to them, but I knew better. They finally passed me, and then started tailgating the next car in the line, lightbars blazing as they rode right on their bumper.

I flashed my high beams at them a few times as a way of saying, “Yo, calm down and get off everyone’s ass.” They retaliated by activating a literally blinding rear facing LED for a few seconds. The light maxed out the dashcam sensor. I had to hold my hand up to block the light and look at the white lines on the side of the road. They eventually turned off all the lights once we were in the clear air south of the storm. The driver pulled over at the Highway 36 intersection and I stopped to confront them. I didn’t know who it was at the time, but later learned it was CJ Lergner of Chicago and Midwest Storm Chasers, a problem child of storm chasing who has been arrested for interfering with first responders, and has a long history of causing strife with other chasers and even the National Weather Service. As I swore at him, he tried to give the excuse that he needed all of the lights to be visible in the rain through which we were driving, but as you can see in the above shot, all of the traffic was perfectly visible. I was then told to mind my own business, but when you create a hazard with blinding lights and bad driving, you’re now everyone’s business and are going to be publicly called out every time. Please avoid CJ Lergner and his “services”.

After that incident, I ran east on Highway 36. I saw a power flash to my northeast, but through the rain in the rear flank and fading light I couldn’t make out anything else. I’d later learn there was a big tornadic circulation under a shaggy wall cloud, and Reed Timmer and Jamie Winterstern, director of “Supercell” were on it in the Dominator. The warning was upgraded for a confirmed tornado, and I tried in vain to stair step up to the rear flank to get a peak at something backlit by lightning, but all I could see was more rear flank precipitation core.

Night fell so I got east ahead of the storm and stopped to shoot some lightning and structure. The lightning illuminated gust front of the supercell approached in shades of green and purple.

I called the chase, but the show wasn’t over. As I drove east down 36 toward home, anvil crawlers raked the sky above a lower overcast layer. This created an effect in the clouds that looked like moving, glowing spots (middle left in the image). It was mesmerizing. Meanwhile, what looked like a full moon was rising, blood red in the east sky (middle right in the image). A gorgeous end to a well rounded chase.

Despite the annoying run in with another chaser, this turned out to be one of my better structure chases in recent years. The sculpted supercell that tracked across northern Missouri was a real classic, and there were plenty of photogenic moments in and after the chase as well.