The Institute's mobile unit left Memphis early in the morning and reached northern Missouri in plenty of time. Parameters centered on two areas: north central Missouri and southern Iowa, and southwest of Kansas City. Storms fired late in the afternoon and built southwestward from eastern Iowa.
I was afraid to go to the Iowa low because of the moisture. That took away the best shear, and much of the rest of the area was in southwesterly winds. Model shear values still painted an encouraging picture. I finally chose south central Iowa where storms formed around 5:30-6pm. The first batch was a cluster that crossed east central Iowa. Storms built into northern Missouri through the evening. One cell went up northwest of Topeka early and hailed.
All in all, no tornadoes reported; in fact, no tornado warnings went out that I could find. Large hail reports were common, but I avoided the stones. I photographed a storm allegedly producing 70mph winds and then got out of the way as the last light faded. Lightning was not great.
I had a rough ride in southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas the next morning due to heavy rains and strong winds. Then the storms rolled over the Institute and we lost power for over a day.