Prelude to an EF4 Tornado

On Tuesday, May 28, 2019 Jeff and Kat Piotrowski intercepted a storm that initiated near Reading, KS. They waited at S. Hoch Rd. Just North of the West end of Melverne Reservoir. For the first 15 minutes the visuals of the storm were eerie and obscure. What looked like heavy fog at the base of the storm was tremendous amounts of precipitation. The possibility of this system being a dangerous rain wrapped tornado was not what Jeff and Kat had hoped for. As the wall cloud on the south end emerged, Kat was certain she could see tags to the ground. She was hesitant to “pull the trigger” as Jeff said, because this storms heavy precip was playing games with her visual. As soon as she thought she saw a tag to the ground, then she felt sure she didn’t. This storm was a mind bender for sure. Trying to gain an accurate visual, put them dangerously close to the rapidly approaching wall cloud. Jeff and Kat turned north onto hwy170 heading toward Osage City. Looking to the Southwest, Kat could see a definitive funnel but again, tags to the ground were illusionary. This dangerous storm was rapidly gaining strength and speed on the forward motion. They trqcked the storm east of Osage City and the storm had almost doubled in size , the circulation was completely rain wrapped. Jeff said the rain wrapped circulation looked like a giant merry-go-round of rain curtains. The circulation crossed behind them on Hwy 31, they went North on 75. Heavy precip was all around them. The tornado alert warning sent alarms going off in their chase vehicle. It was time to make a decision. Should they continue to chase this rain wrapped monster or head for home. Exhaustion after 5 days of successful chasing out in the plains factored into their decision. They opted to pull off the storm.
At present the Kansas City, Pleasant Hill, Missouri NWS office states this storm developed a tornado south of Clinton Lake in SW Douglas County KS, The tornado continued for 31.82 miles across and near KS communities, southeastern Lawrence KS, through Linwood KS and the area west of Bonner springs, KS. This estimated one mile wide tornado continued for 31.82 miles with a maximum rating of EF-4, Peak Winds 170 Mph.