While travelling west through Kansas into Colorado, I heard an emergency report on the radio that a funnel cloud had been spotted in the town just ahead. I pulled into a rest area, and a warning siren began wailing as the air filled with yellow dust. In one of the more stupid moves of my life, I left the safety of the rest area and drove directly into the storm to try and photograph the tornado. Driving through the dust storm at near-zero visibility, I had no idea where the funnel cloud was and so was unable to photograph it. In terms of my safety, however, I was lucky: I suddenly emerged from the storm into bright sunshine. The fierce winds that had rocked my van had picked up dried weeds and left them hanging like ornaments from the power lines.

When I left the interstate to see if the storm had left any damage (and I couldn't find any), I discovered this charming old stakebed truck, a '46 Chevy, which is probably still used to haul hay bales each summer. The dark clouds show the thunderstorm receding in the distance.

Lee Rentz