Maybe I should have taken the pancake printer as an omen.
The pancake printer is just one of many breakfast phenomena one encounters in Tornado Alley hotels, and it’s probably better than the make-your-own-waffle machines in terms of safety and mess. But waffle machines can do shapes, and I have yet to see a pancake in the shape of Texas.
Still, I named a fictional Kansas town Pancake in my Storm Seekers novels. And southern Kansas was where our troupe headed first on May 18, 2025, positioning ourselves between two storm targets. Which, my friends, is almost always an error – or at least it is if you hang out too long, waiting for things to happen, leaving you far from both targets should one of them fire.
There was a really fun chaser convergence at the Casey’s in Medicine Lodge, Kansas.
By the time we got to the cell north of Waynoka, Oklahoma, it had produced a tornado.
Finally, when a nice storm formed along the dryline southwest of us in Oklahoma, we went after it, but we were already too late. It spawned a tornado we didn’t see, then weakened.
Still, it had lovely structure at sunset, and I got a couple of decent photos, which I consider the mark of a good day. It might not have been a great one, but that’s the way storm chasing rolls sometimes.
To start a slide show of the photos, click on any one below.
