Day Four

SPC has a slight risk for areas south and east (esp. east) of us.  After morning briefing, we decided to head east on I80 from Council Bluffs to the western suburbs of Des Moines, where I learned that the Super Walmart here was basically the same as the one in Brockport, except that they sell the Des Moines Register instead of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.  Whee.

I took over the driving from there, giving Gustavo the navigation/monitoring duties.  We then headed south on I35 to south-central Iowa, where we found out what level B service means for a road (it means the roads are rutted dirt and that you drive on them at your own risk).  This didn’t last long. 

We continued on US34 for a bit through southern Iowa when an interesting cell began to develop between 3 and 3:30 pm.  We managed to chase it for some time.  It put down 1.25” hail in some places (we didn’t see it), and had some nice structure and lightning.  The weak winds and wind shear aloft made for a slower moving cell, which made it chasable.  Our first success!

We eventually made our way down into the land of lettered highways: northeastern Missouri (Gustavo’s first foray into the state—he only has nine more to go now, unlike me, who has yet on this trip to set foot or tires into a new state).   While driving through here we encountered a pretty stupid little dog whose apparent favorite place to lie is the middle of the road.  Can't vouch for his current state of health, but he was fine when we drove by.

We tried chasing another promising cell, but while we tried to get into better position, it petered out as it crossed into Illinois, so we gave up on it in Wayland, MO (see below).

Heading up north on 27, we went back to Iowa for the evening, landing in Mount Pleasant, which was anything but: at 7 pm CDT, the temperature was 77F, and the dew point was 75F.  Muggy doesn’t even come close to describing it.    The kids wanted Pizza Hut, so the youngster and I demolished a really unhealthy pizza.

Interesting choice to be made tomorrow…travel back to the Dakotas for early next week when the weather looks promising, or stay in this area to chase marginal conditions in the hopes of seeing something, then making a very arduous drive back to the north and west in less time than before.  We’ll see how things look in the morning…either way, lots of driving to come, and only three of us to do it between two vans—decisions, decisions.