Spinning Wheels In Tornado Watch 484 Bust

With much promise for storm photography grabs following Tornado Watch 484, issued for Eastern Iowa at 2:55 pm CDT, Monday, September 19, 2016, I was primed and ready and with apparent ample time for interception. The first cell went severe in the farthest NE county in Iowa at 2:25 pm, and rolled southeast down the Mississippi River. Still quite a distance from me, but I decided to get close as I could to it. The above image shows the cell in the northeast sky at 4:00 pm as seen from County Home Road (E34), about a half-mile east of the center of Whittier, Iowa. The severe warning was lifted fifteen minutes later from the Iowa border, and I decided end my pursuit at Anamosa, Iowa.

Twin cells moving southeast began firing up ESE of Des Moines and became severe-warned around 4:40 pm, and I headed south to make a play on these. This image shows the anvil of the nearer of the two cells (located about 60 miles to the southwest near Oskaloosa, Iowa) around 5:15 pm, just about the time its severe warning was lifted. I am southbound on the I-380 Five-In-One bridge in downtown Cedar Rapids. I followed on after the southernmost cell, which now had become severe-warned and was going strong, but by Hills, Iowa I knew it was too far away--moving SSE into Missouri. And in between these two cells--CLEAR SKIES. I had just experienced the dreaded tornado watch bust! Better luck next time. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.