{"id":1094,"date":"2011-05-10T23:30:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-10T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/?p=1094"},"modified":"2026-01-13T05:11:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T05:11:28","slug":"10-may-2011-pratt-kansas-storm-chase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/2011\/05\/10\/10-may-2011-pratt-kansas-storm-chase\/","title":{"rendered":"10 May 2011 | Pratt, Kansas | Storm Chase"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My third day on the plains was a travel and practice day, in anticipation of the big Kansas outbreak day on Wednesday. South Dakota, Nebraska and northern Kansas fell away behind me as I made my way to Pratt, Kansas by late afternoon. A chance for a few elevated storms was forecast, and I took the opportunity to practice navigating around one of them on the awesome Kansas road network. As my sample storm drifted north-northeast, I gave the sandy, dusty farm roads a try, and got a good feel for how some of the dodgier ones were mingled in with the better-maintained roads. The consistency was a lot sloppier than the South Dakota experience the day before–definitely not something I want to be on when it’s wet. I gradually let the storm slip by to my north as it put on a nice lightning display for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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An elevated storm drifts along north of Pratt, Kansas, providing a nice opportunity to practice pacing and positioning along the local farm roads.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Radar view of my little practice storm.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Appreciating the sights along the way. This patched up old farm building was loaded with personality.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This was the one night I set aside for a motel to rest up for the big day on Wednesday. Money was tight, so I picked a low cost option on the east side of Pratt. The various long-term motel residents on the south wing were tailgate-partying and I probably would have been a little more unsettled if I wasn’t so tired. There were no bedbugs that I could see, but I kept everything off the floor anyway. I asked for replacement sheets that didn’t have hair on them. The new set of sheets had holes in them too, but thankfully no spare hair. I layered bath towels along my sleep area, maintained posture and had zero contact with the rest of the bed. Not ideal, but it was a great relief compared to the car seat sleeping position. It was so nice to have a shower too–don’t touch the walls, or shower curtains of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lessons Learned:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Less maintained Kansas roads can be dicey for a Honda Civic even when dry–stay away when wet.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Budget $60 for a less grungy motel experience. Bring a sleeping bag just in case.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Set video camera to 1\/30 sec. exposure to keep lightning from being chopped up by rolling shutter effect.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    My third day on the plains was a travel and practice day, in anticipation of the big Kansas outbreak day on Wednesday. South Dakota, Nebraska and northern Kansas fell away behind me as I made my way to Pratt, Kansas by late afternoon. A chance for a few elevated storms was forecast, and I took […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,50,40],"class_list":["post-1094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-storm-chase","tag-kansas","tag-storm-chasing","tag-storms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1101,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions\/1101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}