April 10, 2005 - Storms in South Central Kansas
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Chase route
Began the day intending on either not chasing, or staying close to Oklahoma
City. By noon there was still a cold drizzle in the metro but to the northwest
it was clearing in front of the dryline. I was bored and decided to chase a bit.
I figured the area just northwest of Enid could fire some decent storms, and
that was where the dryline curved back to the northwest. After getting to Enid
the dryline was still well to the west so Alva was the next target. Arriving in
Alva it became clear that we'd have to go into Kansas to see any convection. I
had said there was no way I was going to Kansas! Oh, well. North to Kansas!
Stopping for gas in Medicine Lodge we had developing towers to our west, but the
better organized stuff was still to our north. We kept north on US 281 until we
reached the warned storms near Pratt. I had pulled over to try and get some
radar data when I was passed by the Shane Adams, Chad Lawson, Mickey Ptak
convoy. We all were headed toward Great Bend south of Saint John when I picked
up the Barton County law enforcement on the radio. They were watching a tornado
on the ground about 25 miles north of us, near Great Bend. Great! Did I mention
that something was messed up on my engine? Anytime my RPMs got under 2000 there
was a loud clanging noise. Above 2000 RPM it sounded fine. Well, I didn't want
to drive any further from home in case I had engine problems so I turned east on
US 50 south of Saint John, trying to keep my engine speed going. I took a few
more pictures along the way but my chase was pretty well over. The next day I
took my Rodeo to the shop. Turns out the hydraulic tensioner for the
timing belt had failed. It wasn't a cheap fix ($290) but could have been worse I
suppose. Mechanic went ahead and replaced timing belt since he had old one off.
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