Today I left Cheyenne east on 80 to chase storms out near kimball, NE. By the time I got there the target storm had died but there was a couple more storms that exploded, these looked isolated and very robust. I continued to chase the southern cell that was headed from southwest nebraksa to northwest Kansas. I chased this storm over some great distance, when it got into Cheyenne County Kansas, that is when it went crazy. Softball hail was reported and then when I caught up to the storm it had mad wind shear and a rotating wall cloud. I stayed in front of it as it moved Southward through Cheyenne County, When I went south on 21 to St Francis I noticed it started to get rain wraped. When the road curved back east I got a bad feeling, especially the way the wind was blowing and the way the rain curtains were moving. I decided to not drive through the cell to get to the south in position. It was too dangerous, and I also didnt let a few other drivers go through yet as well. After this area passed 21 to the south I rushed east then south to Highway 36. Once I got there I turned west to get back to 385 because I didnt want to drive through the hail core to get to goodland. When I got about a mile west, the storm caught up to me, I pulled over because the wind was getting too strong and turned it into the wind. All of a suddon and explosion of wind made the previous wind speed a joke blew out my plexi window, riped my hail guard off the henges, and then fliped a semi truck just down the road from me. I went down the road to check on the truck driver, I said "man are you ok? because you just drove through a tornado" he said "no I didnt, because I didn't make it" lol. Anyway this storm had amazing structure for July, it blew me away. After seeing the radar, most people can say thats one of the best hooks seen in July.
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