Well as usual, I am falling behind again on my posts here…too many rock collecting trips I guess…this is a squall line that passed through Sullivan a few weeks ago, July 4th to be exact…one of our junior firefighters photographed it on the other side of town about the same time I shot it on the east side of town…

this was the first shot and then took this a few min later looking further east…

..and then west…

..and then west expanded even more…

..it came in from the north and was moving pretty rapidly, I drove down to Walmart`s west entrance and photographed it there as well…

..and then drove out to the South Service Road in front of Steak and Shake…

..and looking toward Lowe`s….

…clouds can be a lot of fun to photograph….

This has to be the stormiest year I can remember, one of the worst years for tornadoes and severe storms ever. This weekend Sullivan hosted the 25th annual Meramac Community Fair and last night would have wrapped it up with entertainment by Alderwood Band followed by Craig Morgan. While the Alderwood Band was able to start off, Morgan never took the stage due to a large wall cloud entering the fairgrounds with some rotation at the base of it and chasing everyone from the fairgrounds in fear, just before dark settled in last night. Some of our firefighters observed it and said it appeared to come down within feet of the ground before raising back up into the sky and moving northeast. I was able to view a few photos of it taken by amateur shooters and have to admit it did have a scarey look to it.

While all this was going on, I was at work in fire dispatch in St Louis County last night and we had a rough night of storms as well. Just before the first set of many storms rolled through, a Burlington Northern Train derailed in Shrewsbury, one of the six cities I dispatch for, and damaged a trestle, setting off a chain of events that lasted all through the night for those of us in the dispatch center.

After dispatching a first alarm assignment of several trucks to assist the Shrewsbury Fire Department with the derailment and subsequent evacuation of several homes and buildings in the area, storms began rolling through our area from northwest to southeast and we saw heavy rains driven by wind and dangerous lightning in one storm after the other. The wind knocked down power lines and a few trees, some on to homes in the area, and the lightning set off several alarms in homes and businesses, prompting our center to dispatch firefighters and police officers to many calls for the next few hours. By 3 am, all of the firefighters were back in their stations for the remainder of the night, or so we thought…and a few minutes later, we received a 911 call from a resident of Clayton who told us her neighbors home was on fire…a large home and well involved with heavy flames…I dispatched a first alarm assignment once again and on arrival, the bat chief requested a second alarm and so we sent even more firefighters and equipment to the fire….and woke up a few fire chiefs as well. This call lasted until I was relieved at my post by another dispatcher and I was able to then drive home and get some rest….prob the longest and busiest night I have ever seen in several years there.

I took today off to hopefully go rockhunting, but was way too tired to do so today…but did manage to capture a nice sunset tonight…

Well I came home sick last night and knowing there were some severe storms, possibly tornadic activity coming our way through the night, I went to bed as early as I could and of course the first storms hit about 4 am and the wind blowing into my bedroom window brought me right out of a deep sleep….I texted my supervisor and warned her it was a bit windy and coming through my town and likely headed toward St Louis County…she couldnt believe I was awake that hour of the morning after going home sick, lol. I felt a sense of responsibility about warning them at least.

I then slept through the next storm about 5 am, when my mom later told me that the second storm actually had more wind with it, but I remember I had shut my bedroom window so likely didnt hear it that time.

When I finally woke up about 9:30 and opened the front door to let the house air out…I found this large limb waiting on the front porch, inches from my door, to greet me….

..this afternoon when the storms fired up, and boy did they fire up…we had notice that one was south of Rolla and coming right at Cuba and then Sullivan, and it had prompted tornado warnings south of Rolla and for us in advance of it, so I boxed up all my nicer crystals and minerals and packed them to the basement…thinking they are going to stay down there til the season is over.

We had a vehicle accident call about 4 pm and so Missy and I headed that way, two miles west of town on I-44 and while out there on a hilltop, I spotted what looked like a wall cloud over Bourbon…shot this photo of it…

…we had mostly flash flooding more than anything else, but after seeing what the folks in Joplin have had to endure the last few days…..its just really scarey when the clouds darken down and roll in….and our thoughts and prayers are still with the folks down in southwest Missouri, especially the Joplin area and now the Sedalia area, as the city of Sedalia took a direct hit from a severe tornado this afternoon as well…