DAY 15: Des Moines to St. Louis

By DAN ROBINSON Editor/Photographer

A long day in Iowa and Missouri on Thursday, and not much to show for it. We 'cell hopped' our way south from near Des Moines, watching numerous storms race northeastward past us. They were moving too fast to keep up with, so we would get into position for the southern side of each storm, then drop south to the next one to repeat the process. We did this at least 9 or 10 times. None of the storms looked like they had much potential to produce tornadoes, thanks to southwesterly (non-backed) surface winds.

Aside from a couple of nice lightning strikes and a cool timelapse of an advancing rain shaft, the day was another bust. We headed back to St. Louis to wait for the squall line for some possible lightning shots over the city. However, the squall line never could fill in upstream of downtown, so we didn't get our chance. The storms finally exploded over Illinois, 20 miles too late.

We will likely not make it home today in time to catch the storms moving through eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. While the system certainly did not live up to the hype, I'm thankful we were able to go and see the sights that we did. I did get some good video here and there, so the trip was not a loss. And once again, our prayers for safety were answered.