Date: 25 May 2012

Location: Central & Southwest Kansas from Liebenthal to Bunker Hill to La Crosse, KS

Shoot Type: Storm Chase

Synopsis:
The first storms I chased were up in the Liebenthal area which became outflow-dominant as they moved east-northeast south of I-70 between Hays and Russell. I eventually made it up to I-70 and followed this storm as far east as Bunker Hill. I photographed some high-based storm structure here, but it was new development way back down to the southwest that caught my eye. I abandoned the northern storms and dropped back south on Hwy 281 at Russell with only one goal in mind: Get in position of Tail-end Charlie (along the Rush-Ness County line). I did make it down there in position at around 8:30pm. From 8:30pm to about 10:50pm, I followed the slow-moving cyclic, tornadic supercell as it rolled across Rush County. I observed no less than 5 tornadoes with this storm. I stayed a bit farther back, capturing storm structure along with the tornado. After dark, I went north of Hwy 4 at Bison about 5 or 6 miles and photographed a beautiful, tall tornado which was lightning illuminated off to my north-northwest. Up through early June, this was certainly the storm of the year for me in 2012.