May 7, 2002. Day three of the first group on Cloud 9 Tours. We witnessed one large tornado in Kiowa Co. KS. It was rain wrapped and then was pushed out by the outflow of the storm. It roped out while being back lit. It soon dissipated. We continued east and got ahead of the storm again. South of Byers, Ks we saw a large wedge tornado. Mike Theiss deployed the Dillo-Cam and the Theiss Device in the path as Jim Leonard video taped him with the tornado aproaching. I blasted south to get out of the path of the tornado. I then went to Pratt, KS. Larg hail started coming down. I took shelter under a gas station overhang. The winds picked up and the hail reached about baseball size. Thee were several power flashes in town before power compleatly went out. After it calmed down, I went back to recover the Dillo-Cam. There were many large trees down in Pratt from the RFD and possible nearby tornado.
