Chasing storms: Excitement, fear, frustration, and blue skies

OSKALOOSA, Iowa — Driving around Dallas and Boone Counties Tuesday morning there were some approaching storms with what looked to be lots of moisture. I stopped my car at the entrance to Bouton off Highway 169. There were some bright nearby strikes of lightning and loud cracks of thunder. Then, the skies opened, and heavy rains knocked the visibility down to around a half mile. Driving into Bouton on a gravel road the wipers full-speed, could barely see where I was going.

Water was backing up just west of the new Post Office, and Community Center. I can’t remember the last time I saw rain come down this hard. It caused a little flash flooding in downtown Bouton.

There was no sign of any tornado, or high winds even, just lots of rain. So I edited the video to send to WHO 13 to air on the news. As I was ready to hit “send” to get the video on its way, my cellphone alert went off, getting word on the 13WarnMe app and from WHO 13 Assignment Editor, Matt Baker warning me there was a tornado near Bouton.

This is the scary part of storm chasing. Word of a tornado close by, and you don’t know where. On WHO 13 Gabe and Jeriann were saying the tornado was tracking to the north, just north of Bouton. I was about a mile or so south in the Xenia Rural Water office parking lot.

So I was good. I followed the storm for a while, but other than a little rain, I couldn’t see anything. I never saw a tornado today, but that’s ok.

After a lunch break to re-group, I headed south and east of the metro area to Knoxville. I caught a storm front there going east-northeast, but could never really catch that one. That’s the frustrating part. So I stopped and just reported what happened on this day from the Oskaloosa town square with the Mahaska County Courthouse in the background, and beautiful sunshine.

You never know what to expect when you are chasing storms.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to who13.com.