"It's Kansas. It's June."

Storm Clouds

Storm shot taken near K-4 & 24 Hwy.

Storm from Wittenberg Road

This is Chuck's favorite.

Awesome thunderstorm cloud

Storm Chasers Wiley & Chuck

Chuck's truck which we call "Storm Tracker One".

This is my favorite storm picture.

Pretty Kansas sunset after the storm.

Chuck, Wiley and I chased a little storm on June 10th. I took these pictures of the storm. The storm did not produce any strong wind, hail or tornadoes in our area. Lately we have been in a constant cycle of storms.

Today, June 19th, Chuck saw a funnel cloud. He didn't have a camera with him to take a picture but several other people around town also saw the funnel and they played video of it on the news. The funnel never actually touched the ground.

Last Wednesday (June 10) & Thursday (June 11) we had heavy storms all around Topeka. Wall clouds, funnel clouds and tornadoes were spotted in Shawnee and several surrounding counties. June 11th, Manhattan & Chapman were hit by tornadoes which caused extensive damage and killed two people.

During one large storm on June 10th, the television station stated a possible tornado was headed towards Lake Shawnee. I thought, "Hey, that's where I am!" I don't mind chasing tornadoes but I don't like being chased BY THEM.

I was at home and called Chuck who was in Osage City (which was also being hit by storms). We decided I should just leave and go to Erica's house as our house doesn't have a full basement. Our house is a split level and the basement is really only four feet deep with windows on the front.

I grabbed the cats and threw them in the downstairs bathroom (probably the safest room in the house since it's small & an interior room) and took Wiley with me. I could hear the cats yowling as I ran out the door. I had difficulty driving to Erica's because it was raining so hard that the streets were flooding. I heard later on the news several high water rescues had to be performed around town.

By the time I had almost reached Erica's I heard on the news the storm was headed East and our neighborhood was safe so I just turned around and went home. In the twenty minutes I was gone, our cat Sox had clawed the half inch of carpet which extended beyond the bathroom door where it met the tile floor. Apparently, he had viewed the bathroom as some kind of tiled prison and decided to attempt an escape tunnel.

One day I mentioned to Chuck, "Hey, where you paying attention to the weather? Did you know we were under a tornado watch? (A watch is when conditions are favorable for a tornado, a tornado warning is when the sirens are sounded because a tornado has been sighted). Chuck responded, "It's Kansas. It's June. I just always ASSUME we're under a tornado watch."