5/1/08 REPORTS: IA/SD/NE/KS/MO/OK

[Van DeWald]

Called in the first tornado report south of Rock Valley around 650 pm in northwest Iowa. Here's a quick pic. It eventually grew to 1/2 mile wide and did damage. Came across a farmstead that was hit, but the house was OK. Still on the chase, more pics and vids later.

http://vansvault.org/stormtrack/webIMG_0849.jpg

Van

[Jason McKittrick]

I left Omaha around 2PM, intercepted the triple point storm near Yankton. I briefly followed the Bon Homme Co cell as it looked like it might be the dominant one early on. Had to double back once the Yankton storm got its act together. I flanked the core to the NE and was able to avoid the tennis ball sized hail that I later saw littering the road between Irene and Hurley. After I was able to get to the southern flank of the storm I observed a violently rotating wall cloud. The circulation was rain wrapped. I was able to stay in the bears cage for about 10 miles. I witnessed and filmed two brief/weak touchdowns from about .75 mile away. Not a bad chase only spent ~$125.00 on gas.
Well Mike H., I guess I have some crow to eat later, tornadoes in SD and 72 dew in Ardmore, IMPRESSIVE.

[Mike Hollingshead]

Nice job Van. Wish I would have been over there, if only to not be in freaking rain the whole day.

Was on the se SD pretty long lived supercell from the start of its life till just w of Sioux Falls. I'm not sure I can remember seeing a storm cycle that many times always looking like it was about to get it done, then crash and get cold. I think I probably saw 5 good cycles, while missing several staying with it in its core. Core always contained hail, some fair sized, probably quarters with occasional golf balls. Not a terrible day, other than being made a fool of by the storm several times after saying, "it's certainly going to tube this time". It was amazing how fast it would decide to get organized. Also amazing was how intense the inflow would get once you edged north of due east of it. You'd be calm, then BAM you were back in strong ene winds.

For future chasers in this area....the bridge area south of Yankton is a MESS. Must have taken me 20 minutes to get 2 miles.

Anyway, congrats to all the others likely bagging today. Cool to see everyone got daylight storms.

[Damon Scott Hynes]

See what happens when your laptop crashes and all you have to depend on is NOAA radio?

I snuck into the Onawa, IA library, noticed the MD for the Norfolk/Sioux City area and figured I was in high cotton. Crossed the river at Decatur with an eye toward Norfolk, but when I noticed the winds turning from the SW and the radio told me Norfolk was already back to the 60s with 40-ish dews I pretty much figured I was screwed. Drove up to SUX to get back onto I-29 for home, saw the towers north of SUX. Didn't look that impressive and that was another hour north. Silly me :mad:.

Mike, I thought you'd be posting from La Crosse by now :D

[Jeff Miller]

Caught the Rock Valley, IA Tornado as well!

Checked visible satellite at 5:21 and left Sioux City. Headed NE on HWY 75, noticed a severe thunderstorm building to my northwest. Jigsawed on several roads back and forth..ended up in Hudson, IA. I moved North then on Chestnut (I believe) then turned right on 18. From there I saw the large dusty tornado. Toward the end of the life cycle, it was a nice white tornado from my vantage point. Roped nicely. I had to use a 35mm camera, it took 6 photos of the tornado, then messed up on the film advance. I hope the pics are still good.

I then drove into Rock Valley. Telephone poles, about 9 of them, snapped at the base and lying down on the ground. Power completely out, trees shredded with the classic "Tornado look". The damage didn't look horrific, but definately cut a fine path through the town. It took me 20-30 minutes to get out of the town due to traffic rerouting.

In the town I stopped at a convenience store with a group of 10-20 people who observed and videotaped the tornado. They got some great video and will be posting it on YouTube, they said. The whole town was out of power, traffic was a mess.

120 miles round trip, 1 Tornado. Not a bad chase day at all! I want to add this was a totally blind chase - using only visual cues. Not even a cell phone, and still nabbed a tornado. Wow!

[Van DeWald]

Jeff,

Here was the tornado as it roped out. It was gone in another 30 seconds. Total lifespan was about 40 minutes I think, if it was the same cell. Will have to check radar.

http://vansvault.org/stormtrack/webIMG_0857.jpg

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to grab still pics during it's half-mile wide phase, but I do have video, and can grab a screen cap when I get home.

Was surprised to see this come out of the thundershowers that it did. I first saw what was a dust devil or landspout, and thought it was a plume of smoke. But it was moving. There were actually 2 landsputs at the same time, about 1/2 mile apart. But, the parent thundershower quickly grabbed ahold of one, and it instantly became attached the base of the updraft.

Here it is in dust devil form, beginning to become attached to the showers overhead.

http://vansvault.org/stormtrack/webIMG_0807.jpg

Overall an impressive setup. I'm sure there will be some great pics from down south too!

[Chris Sokol]

OK...going to have to get a mod to update this thread title to include Oklahoma. Couldn't chase today due to work, so I stayed in Oklahoma City...and still got a tornado. Picked up the cell just south of Crossroads Mall (after punching through the hail, which was in excess of golfballs) and tracked it through Oklahoma County. Incredible structure, incredible motion, and one brief tornado. Great day, considering I wasn't planning on chasing at all!

[Mike Peregrine]

Congrats and nice work to the tube catchers out there today. Couldn't make up my mind where I wanted to go. Ended up heading SE of KC to Ottawa as initiation was underway. The northern cell over DeSoto ended up producing a spectacular hook on radar as it went through Wyandotte Co. (KCK). By that time I was settled into the hail and downdraft fest in Ottawa with quarter size, as I received reports of a tornado closer to my original target (east of STJ near Plattsburg). Decided to move east from Ottawa under clear air. Followed the storm through Spring Hill, just south of Olathe. Rotation would try to tighten up, but there were two cells competing and it would get screwed up every time it made an attempt. They finally merged after dark, which is when the more interesting stuff happened as the storm moved into the city. If I could sum up this chase in one word, it would be RAIN.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/mikeperegrine/_MG_3975_3_4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/mikeperegrine/_MG_3982_3_4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/mikeperegrine/_MG_3988_89_90.jpg

[Simon Brewer]

Was up near Stillwater waiting for a tower to explode to my SW and then a cell blew up near Norman, and I just couldn't resist... So I hauled it south and caught the storm near Jones, OK. Beautiful structure and 4+ inch diameter hail!!! I wish I would have stayed in my target; would have been on the Osage Co. cell, oh well...

Simon

[cstrunk]

My story is about the same as Mike Peregrine's, so I'll keep it relatively short.

Scott Bell and I departed from St. Joe, MO about 4:30 and blasted south through KC and watched the towers explode just to our west. We made it to Ottawa just before the first storm we were watching reached town. Observations pretty similar to Mike's. We drifted a little ways south while watching the storms begin to form into a linear mess. We watched several areas of interest, but nothing worthwhile could develop.

We meandered our way north, letting a tornado warned storm with rain-wrapped rotation pass by northeast of Spring Hill, KS. After that we called it quits and drove home.

I'd like to thank Scott again for letting me tag along for this chase. I had a lot of fun!

[Rocky Rascovich]

Pretty good chase today in my backyard.. well, sort of. went south toward Purcell where winds were backing on the mesonet and bubbling Cu was occurring. Sat in Purcell until about 1700cdt with Dave Ewoldt monitoring bubbling congestus then erupted into a Cb with overturning, explosive convection. It went severe within literally 30min. from CI.

I tracked it through southern Okla. County, dodging the 2" diameter hailstones that were deposited just prior to my arrival through Midwest City and the Crossroads Mall area. I continued up north and east zig zagging into Lincoln Co. as the cell cycled with attendant wall clouds and amazing structure. I missed it the tornado that probably occurred while I was in the trees heading up north of Choctaw. Congrats to Chris Sokol who nabbed that one.

Still, it was a good chase, as I said, the structure... was incredible. Now I have a narrow but fierce looking squall line bearing down on the farm as of this writing with copious amounts of IC lightning.

Rocky&family

[Daniel Christianson]

Got off work, hooked up with my friend Mark, we headed north on I-29 decided to keep trucking along not noticing we missed our Hwy 75 North exit from Sioux City, so we ended up Northeast on Hwy 60 then took a left on a gravel road short of Lemar's IA, saw the bubbled CU couldnt pick up on any warnings till we tuned in the radio and was picking up the station from Sioux Center, we didnt realize we were to the east of the tornado was being reported. We soon realized well, i didnt but my friend Mark, called out what's that, is it could it be we saw a little wrapped up white cone, and passed the field and got a clear view of the derbi being swept up. We got out filmed mayb a 1min or so, should of stayed where we were at but went north thinking it was going to get stronger. Nope... I could not believe there wasnt much rain, nor lightning with this storm, oh well 300 miles" it was worth it. We saw damage south on Hwy 75 south of Rock Valley, some farms got hit, power poles down along a gravel road outside. Does anyone not have anything better to do in RockValley, i swear with all the damn traffic and lookers , didnt even see a cop directing traffic in town.

Not a bad way to start 2008, ill post pics later.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/NEdaNE04/5-1-08/rock2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/NEdaNE04/5-1-08/rock3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/NEdaNE04/l_c4404e680e5927360314e690248b1444.jpg

Mark .W

( vid caps )

[Shane Adams]

Got home from work around 3pm. Loaded radar/satellite loops, OK mesonet, and took a shower. Got my vidcam out and charged the batteries. Sat there thinking we might have something, then when the initial cu field disappeared thought "screw it." Put vidcam up. A while later noticed the retreating dryline had seemingly settled into a spot just west of I-35. Then noticed a brand new cu field pop up instantly. That was all I needed. Grabbed my gear and headed west to OK9, where I sat across from the Riverwind watching this storm blow-up over a matter of a few minutes. Met up with Chad and his woman in Moore, and started north and east, stopping every so often to get a look at this incredible striated supercell.

Got separated from Chad northbound on Anderson road, north of I-40. I don't know what roads I took, as today I wasn't even using a map, just picking roads that went the direction I wanted. There were repeated cycles, with many attempts at TG. However one in particular wrapped up extremely tight, and was the most pronounced and violent rotation of the evening. I was going up and down hills with trees lining each side, watching this lowered area spinning rapidly. A funnel formed, and TG looked imminent, and I commented on my video "damn, this looks like we're getting ready to have a tornado here." Time was around 7:23-7:24pmCDT by my timestamp. Not long after this area of concentrated, violent rotation ended, a white cone funnel developed, rotating around the southern periphery of the wall cloud. As I pulled over after this funnel, Mickey appeared behind me.

Chad called a bit later asking me if I'd seen the tornado, to which I replied "what tornado?" He explained he'd been sitting at NE23rd and Henney road, and saw a tree rip up out of the ground below the violently-rotating lowered area I'd seen earlier. So I guess I didn't and did see the tornado LOL.

I was getting very low on gas, and we were in BFE nearing dark northeast of Harrah. I caught up to Chad, and then Mick caught up to us. We wanted to keep going after the sup, so we ditched my car on a backroad at a gate entrance and took off in Chad's car. Mick had to turn back because of family commitments, so Chad, his woman, and I trudged on a bit longer. We gave up north of Agra, after the lightning ceased and the base raised. It took us 30 minutes to find my car, then Chad let me out, I put some gas in at I-44/US66, and headed home.

A great backyard chase, and a great example of how not to let your guard down on iffy days. An awesome supercell, brief tornado, and home before midnight. Not a bad way to start the month of May.

[Mike Hollingshead]

Couple pics of the se SD supercell.

http://www.extremeinstability.com/stormpics/2008/08-5-1-3379.jpg

http://www.extremeinstability.com/stormpics/2008/08-5-1-3388.jpg

It would get all nicely wrapped up, with a good sized vertical chunk of cloud getting the nice rfd treatment as it wraps it up....look like it'd for sure tornado, then bam, coldness look. I have to wonder how that storm would have done without eating the constant stream of small showers popping off the boundary to the nw into it.

[David Wolfson]

I and Klipsi (O. Steiger) had similar experiences to the others in southeastern KS. Decided after reaching our initial target of El Dorado, KS, that northern action was very suspect and in any case not reachable, so we went east to get on the good side of the dryline. Based on the RUC's prediction that the dryline lit up starting a bit before 23Z and tail-ended down just north of the OK border in the vicinity of Independence, we were planning to turn south at Iola or Ft. Scott when/if the cap broke.

...And sitting in Iola, watching we were, when the first hard, back-sheared tower went up to anvil level near Melvern (west of Ottawa) about 22Z. It was just too good to resist and we headed north to intercept. We burned up an hour and a half with the northward wild goose chase before we did what we should have done in the first place -- followed the plan.

We made several westerly close approaches to the tail-end near Altoona, Fredonia, and then Buxton just after dark. The last approach was a little too close IMHO, as what seemed to be a rather placid storm on radar moving well north of east redeveloped suddenly almost on top of us a few miles west of Buxton. Golf ball hail started falling where it was not supposed to be driven by strong RFD-like winds and a lowered probable wall-cloud or ??? revealed proximately in the very frequent lightning. A (very!!!) quick 180 was accomplished and we watched and then followed from a safe distance for awhile as that storm revealed by lightning became the one that drilled Chanute with flooding and a possible tornado.

Old lessons re-learned: 1) follow the Plan as long as it continues to make sense; and 2) don't chase after dark. If these sound familiar, they are.... :rolleyes:

[Brandon Goforth]

Got home from work around 3pm. Loaded radar/satellite loops, OK mesonet, and took a shower. Got my vidcam out and charged the batteries. Sat there thinking we might have something, then when the initial cu field disappeared thought "screw it." Put vidcam up. A while later noticed the retreating dryline had seemingly settled into a spot just west of I-35. Then noticed a brand new cu field pop up instantly. That was all I needed. Grabbed my gear and headed west to OK9, where I sat across from the Riverwind watching this storm blow-up over a matter of a few minutes. Met up with Chad and his woman in Moore, and started north and east, stopping every so often to get a look at this incredible striated supercell.

Got separated from Chad northbound on Anderson road, north of I-40. I don;t know what roads I took, as today I wasn't even using a map, just picking roads that went the direction I wanted. There were repeated cycles, with many attempts at TG. However one in particular wrapped up extremely tight, and was the most pronounced and violent rotation of the evening. I was going up and down hills with trees lining each side, watching this lowered area spinning rapidly. A funnel formed, and TG looked imminent, and I commented on my video "damn, this looks like we're getting ready to have a tornado here." Time was around 7:23-7:24pmCDT by my timestamp. Not long after this area of concentrated, violent rotation ended, a white cone funnel developed, rotating around the southern periphery of the wall cloud. As I pulled over after this funnel, Mickey appeared behind me.

Chad called a bit later asking me if I'd seen the tornado, to which I replied "what tornado?" He explained he'd been sitting at NE23rd and Henney road, and saw a tree rip up out of the ground below the violently-rotating lowered area I'd seen earlier. So I guess I didn't and did see the tornado LOL.

I was getting very low on gas, and we were in BFE nearing dark northeast of Harrah. I caught up to Chad, and then Mick caught up to us. We wanted to keep going after the sup, so we ditched my car on a backroad at a gate entrance and took off in Chad's car. Mick had to turn back because of family commitments, so Chad, his woman, and I trudged on a bit longer. We gave up north of Agra, after the lightning ceased and the base raised. It took us 30 minutes to find my car, then Chad let me out, I put some gas in at I-44/US66, and headed home.

A great backyard chase, and a great example of how not to let your guard down on iffy days. An awesome supercell, brief tornado, and home before midnight. Not a bad way to start the month of May.

Your story seems similar to mine. I started off in south-central OK where the initial Cu field had developed, but didn't last too long. Saw the new Cu developing rapidly to my WNW, so I hauled north on I-35 and intercepted the storm in Moore. Drove into the southern edge of the hail core near Crossroads Mall (I-35 and 240), there were a few that were near golf ball size, and from there I went east to get a better look at the meso. Fast forward to NE of Midwest City, I was listening to the radio whenever a few storm spotters were reporting a tornado on the ground, I had a pretty good view at this time, but I never saw a condensation funnel that extended all the way to the ground. The best I saw was maybe half way, but the rotation at times was VERY intense, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if there were several spin-ups under those funnels. Anyway, I was on this thing until sunset, and I'd say it was a pretty good day. Very nice structure with this storm and some very intense motion at times.

[Jeff Piotrowski]

Kathryn & I filmed over five different tornados in Pawnee & Osage counties in Oklahoma Video and Pics ASAP. Here is a teaser from one of the tornados closing in on my location after sun down it decides to stove pipe in front of me about 100 yards away with clear skies behind it.
It moves NNE about 10 MPH unbelievable. Twice i filmed twin tornado's on the ground about two mile apart at the same time.

[Darrin Rasberry]

Setup: Craig and I went to chase the northwestern portion of Iowa today. Our expectation was severe hail and structure. We drove all the way to Storm Lake, where we arrived at 5:30 and watched stuff go up and track north.

Description: Storm Lake's area itself could not break the cap, although north was looking promising. In a perfect world, we'd have continued north to intercept some of the eventually warned storms in time, but this isn't a perfect world.

At 6 PM in Storm Lake, I got ill, and we drove back with our hands empty. We had an opportunity to intercept some cells south of Des Moines that were SVR warned, but I opted for home.

Conclusion: Unfortunately, this is the second straight Iowa chase I've had to call because of an ongoing illness, with the first being last week at this illness' onset. Unfortunately I had a chase partner with me this time (who wasn't my roommate) and I hated to have to put him through not being able to see our goals, and eventually see some twisters in NW Iowa, because I was ill and pressured to turn back toward home. Even if the cap broke further south, I would have had to abandon the chase anyway - this week's unfortunate health-strike was worse than last week's one. With a good night's sleep, tomorrow in Eastern Iowa should be a better day both for chasing and for my health.

"I get knocked down, but I get up again ... " ;)

[BrandonWhittington]

Chased an awsome supercell that started off around Stillwater and moved north to around pawnee. Witnessed 6 different tornado touchdowns which one of them was an photogenic cone that was less than 300 yards away. 3 different tornadoes after sunset, working on the videos and photos right now...Should have them up shortly..

[Jeff Snyder]

Howie B., Dan D., Robin T., Mike F. and I sat in Guthrie most of the afternoon as a hedge between an KS/OK border target and a central/southcentral OK play. By the time we saw convection go up SE of ICT, we determined that it was probably too late to try to catch up with it (figuring that the storms would be near Coffeyville by the time we got w/in view of it). So, we waited in hopes of initiation as much better low-level moisture (Tds 64-67F) worked northwestward across southern OK towards the OKC metro area. Convective initiation attempts first occurred right on the back side of the cirrus that moved through, and we jetted eastward from Guthrie to play the middle ground between the OKC supercell and the Stillwater supercell. Since the phased array truck takes a little while to setup during deployment, we knew we had to get as far ahead of the storms as possible. There seemed to be some left-splits, however, that played a little havoc on the Stillwater cell and the cell "middle" cell between OKC and SWO. At any rate, we jogged northward a tad since the Stillwater cell was looking very good on radar (larger than the OKC cell), and we quickly came into view of a rotating wall-cloud (this would be ENE of Stillwater). A few small needle funnels developed, and at least one of them touched down.... The condensation made it nearly half way to the ground, connected to a visible tube of dust rising from the surface. The low-level cloud structure was quite impressive at this time, but convection to the SW was creating problems. Shortly after the tornado and funnels, the low-level storm structure fell apart a bit as we found a spot to deploy S of 412 on Hwy 18 (S of Pawnee and E of Glencoe). A rather large wall-cloud spun away to our NNW, and at least one other somewhat organized lowering develop to its WSW (this W lowering had a funnel w/ it at one point). Darkness was setting in, and we let the storm slide away from us.

Overall, it was a pretty good day. I'll take any tornado in Oklahoma these days, so I can't complain too much. Congrats to those who played and won in KS.

For what it's worth, I think everyone should gaze at the 00z OUN sounding (http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/soundings/08050200_OBS/OUN.gif) ( http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/soundings/08050200_OBS/OUN.gif ), which is quite impressive: 4200 j/kg MLCAPE, 55kts 0-6km shear, an impressively deep moist layer (considering the W winds at 500m AGL earlier today), and a "sickle"-shaped hodograph. Quite impressive!

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

I targeted the southern portion and did catch a tornado off the storm in Wilson county, Kansas.

http://www.sky-chaser.com/image/mwcl2008/m9ktor1.jpg

Above: Slender tornado in HP "bear's cage" (intersection of highway 75 and highway 39 NE of Chenute, KS).

http://www.sky-chaser.com/image/mwcl2008/m9not1.jpg

Above: Overall view of the HP storm's "notch" before the above tornado was intercepted.

http://www.sky-chaser.com/image/mwcl2008/m9kfun1.jpg

Above: Other possible funnels on the same storm earlier.

http://www.sky-chaser.com/image/mwcl2008/m9barb1.jpg

Above: Barber pole striated updraft!

Full chase log coming soon...

[Matt Chatelain]

We, Matt Van Every, Curtis McDonald, Daniel Betten, and I, were very fortunate to dive south from the KS storm when the flank kept developing new cells. We intercepted the cyclic tornadic cell as it crossed the Osage/Pawnee county line! Check out our video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv8PciVvYEo&eurl=http://tornadovideos.net/

Here is an unedited still!

[Van DeWald]

OK, here are a couple of screen video caps of the Rock Valley, IA Tornado.

http://vansvault.org/stormtrack/5_1_2008%207_02%20PM_0001.jpg

http://vansvault.org/stormtrack/5_1_2008%207_10%20PM_0001.jpg

Full 4+ minute video can be seen on YouTube here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gbIcMwbX2k):

$350 for car repairs which didn't put me on the road until 4pm. 425 miles driving round trip. $50 in gas. 152 megs of data downloaded on my cell phone. Losing my favorite hat in the inflow. Catching this hybrid landspout/tornado with a lot of daylight left, unbelievable.

*** Edit website will full account: (http://vansvault.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=359)
Van

[Kevin Ash]

Headed out with Glenn Rasmussen and Michelle Myers from Weathernews and intercepted the central OK LP supercell as it exited Midwest City.

Here are some of the highlights:

Looking west from McLoud:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2310/2458095533_d645b25bee.jpg?v=0

WNW from Luther Rd just north of NE 23rd at about 730pm near the time when brief tornado occurred near NE 36th and Henney Rd.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2280/2458095829_3b3cb451f6.jpg?v=0

We could see another tornadic supercell to the north of our storm, in the distance behind the striated updraft:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2112/2458096113_0ae9e2b429.jpg?v=0

There was a rapid succession of funnels, intense upward motion and cloud base rotation as the storm made several attempts to tornado over about a five to ten minute span:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2328/2458927308_18b52a8515.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3021/2458096725_befcc0a1b4.jpg?v=0

Fun chase with great structure. Saw baseball to softball size hailstones along Highway 102 south of Wellston and then dropped off the storm north of Chandler after sunset.

[David Schuttler]

Starting May off right!!!

Couple of pics from Pawnee/Osage County in Oklahoma.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3087/2458296285_8dd28bffa9.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3087/2458296285_8dd28bffa9.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2132/2458296215_5e3e790172.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2132/2458296215_5e3e790172.jpg

Hopefully the video turned out better

[Michael O'Keeffe]

WOW jealous of the people in Oklahoma!!! Anyway had a pretty good chase in SE Kansas and saw our first tornado! Got on the supercell near Sedan and got in the hailcore which was alright. Then saw INCREDIBLE structure near Elk Falls. Watched as the first TOR warned storm moved right at us with very intense rotation. Moved east and watched as extreme rotation occured in the field next to us as rain curtains wrapped in front of us, a quick debris cloud spun up under the extreme rotation/funnel just 200 yards away!! Sort of got caught behind the storm and watched it go HP and sort of outflow. As night fell got on two different Tor-warned cells that looked nice, but didn't produce tornadoes at least from a visual standpoint I need to look over the video again, but I doubt it. All in all not bad but seeing those Oklahoma tornadoes makes me sick with disgust. Congrats to all of you chasers that were smart to go to Oklahoma!!

EDIT:Pics and Video this afternoon

[Shane Adams]

Congrats to all of you chasers that were smart to go to Oklahoma!!

Smart had nothing to do with it, at least in my case (and several others' I'd imagine). Unfortunately I have to pay rent so taking a day off this week was not an option, so my plan all week was to work, and hope like crazy something popped the cap near home. My "plan" worked perfectly, but I'd be lying to say I'd have done the same thing had I been able to take the day off. I probably would've been further north into Kansas.

[Brian Stertz]

Back in time for a little sleep and then time for work. Chased the supercells across Chautauqua/Elk/Wilson KS Counties. Saw some brief suggestions of good supercell structures before realizing that was we were watching a pair of cold front supercells. The OK supercell could be seen exploding way to the southwest, and by time we could reposition, this very strong cyclic tornadic supercell did it's final bow as it moved towards us in Pawhuska OK area (Osage Co. OK). We busted pretty majorly in regards to missing the earlier very good show in Pawnee & SW Osage OK Counties... but did have some good shows of structure from the supercells we were on plus the added treat of finding a nice swath of 2-2.5" hail in the Moline/Elk Falls aea in S. Elk Co. KS. Saw quite a few chasers in Wilson Co. We probably should have stayed with the storm as it became tornado warned across Allen, Neosho, and Bourbon Counties, and saw some reports of funnels and tornadoes in these counties later in the evening.
Hindsight always 20/20 it seems.....

[BrandonWhittington]

Finnally Got the You Tube video of the tornado that was North of Stillwater. Here is the link...View all of my Videos to see the Tornadoes at Night. Video is real jumpy and stuff, I was in a new vehicle and did not have time to get real oraganized..

Large Torado, less than a half a mile away.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSVVZrFSykE

Night Time Tornadoes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObhL7abEWEk

[Kathryn Piotrowski]

Jeff and I were chasing independently of one another, he went out earlier in the day to check out storms near Sedan, KS then decided to head back to Oklahoma. I left the house around 6:00pm when I could see that the line was going to fire in OK. I headed west on Hwy 20 and intercepted the northern storm near Ralston, Ok. I was having TONS of technical difficulties! No data...no cell phone coverage...and my Ham radio was fritzing out....and it was getting black as hell all around me. I decided to head back east...something told me that I was probably in the direct path of the tornado...there were lots of hills with trees around and it was difficult to see to my south, so back into the Osage Indian Reservation I found a hill, no trees, and had a clear and distinct view of the wall cloud. I have posted both of our video clips on my web site http://www.twisterchasers.com/2008_may_storm_chasing.htm#Ralston%20Tornado All in all it was a great beginning for May...just wish I had a better vantage point to view the tornado.

[Corey Sloan]

Stayed close to home today and chased with Mark Hill...we felt the parameters would come together in NW MO and NE KS, not quite like SE KS but worthwhile to stay home with gas prices the way they are. Watched the storms fire in NE KS and they initially appeared discrete in front of the dryline but began to become more linear as they crossed the Missouri River. One storm that was in Platte County, MO began to show a right turn and developed a pronounced inflow notch on GRLevel 3. We positioned our selves to the southeast of this storm and saw a well defined wall cloud with signigicant rotation....WFO in Pleasant Hill Tornado warned the cell about the same time as we found a better vantage point....the vortex quickly became rain wrapped and difficult to discern...got some video but have not had a good chance to review it yet.....no initial reports of damage...but a lot of reports of funnels / tornadoes with this storm as it moved NE...it remained tornado warned for two counties to our east....chased the squall line that moved through early Friday morning with Chris Rice, Steve Polley and Stoney Bowers....an impressive squall line with tornado/hurricane forced winds....a lot of damage in and around the KC Metro Area......wind gusts up to 82 mph were reported as the line passed through Independence, MO on the east side of KCMO....

[George Grant]

I took off up I29 and made it to Sioux City for a quick bite and gas. Thought I'd stay on I29 north to catch the show to the west. Saw the towers to my NE as I got to Elk Point. Took that exit and zig-zagged through Richland to Westfield and up IA12. Made a critical mistake in Hawarden as I chose to go north instead of east on IA10 to K30. Finally ended up at K30 miles east of Hudson, SD. Made it to Rock Valley as the show had already ended. I believe everyone in Rock Valley that owned a car was driving said car. I blew by Waldo somewhere in that congestion. Someone called my cell as I was in Rock Valley and then said he had the wrong number. Hey, I'm a nice guy. I'll chat with anyone as long as I'm not "white-knuckling" through big hail! :) Drove to my Sister-in-law's place in Sioux Falls for the night.

And, some valuable lessons from this trip to NW Iowa.

--Darrin, it really does suck to chase while sick (flu). I stopped in Sioux City for a hotdog, and threw it out the window after two bites. Ugh.
--One cannot drive fast enough to a storm. I swear I got to a point where I was maybe ten minutes behind DeWald and I didn't see a thing even through binoculars. I could see the towers and murky lowerings as I passed through Lebanon, but no soup for me.
--Don't get off the boat in the Westfield-Akron-Chatsworth corridor. The handoffs between Sprint, USCellular, and Verizon signals wasn't pretty. My Sprint phone didn't get anything--as is customary for this carrier in this region. My Alltel data card was doing a jig between one bar and five every half mile or so--even with Gordon's amp.
--This should be one of the twelve steps: Do not doubt your initial target (if you've learned anything about weather). I would have been much better off had I wandered up US59 like I had originally planned. It would have been a much better trip driving up US59 and west on US18 when it hit the fan.

Geo

[Randy Denzer]

Sam Furman and I left Austin at 1 in a race to catch up with the Austin chasers who had already left to get to the Red River. We arrived in Ardmore at around 5 to meet up with Aaron Dooley, Tony Cook, and a couple of chasers out of Lewisville (Send me your names). We watched patiently as the Q would go up and then get ripped apart. Aaron suggested we shoot up north to the only tower (if you want to call it that at the time) within 70 miles of us. As we approached Norman we watched Aaron Dooley wildly waiving his arm out the window pointing his finger at a cell exploding to the southwest of Norman. This cell was showing no reflectivity on any of our systems and we initially thought we had radar troubles in the area. As the cell went storm warned it was little more than a blip on our screens. Aaron was able to change radar sites and see a little better imagery but not anything close to what we were seeing (first photo). The LP cell was quite impressive as we got under it moving through Norman. We shot east on 240 and was able to see an incredible amount of rotation and a couple of attempted funnel clouds. We then got caught up in the rat race chase through OKC at 45 miles per hour. We stayed on the cell and saw some minor storm damage on the east side of OKC and saw quite a bit of hail slightly smaller than baseballs. As we went through the Arcadia area we had one last funnel form directly over us. We had quite a bit of chase convergence and we had a tough time finding safe areas to pull completely off the roadway to shot. We continued east and followed the cell up through Agra and then pealed off to drive all night to get home. Made it back to Austin around 4 after an 850 mile chase! Hats off to Aaron Dooley and Shane Motley for seeing the potential in the area. It was a good chase!

[Amos Magliocco]

A few minutes after I shot the funnel posted below, one of the Skywarn net controllers talked about the image he was watching on a live television feed from a chase-copter hovering nearby. He said the rotation on the ground was from an "invisible rope." I thought, yep, that's 2008 for me so far: incredible structure with invisible tornadoes. Or "explain-adoes" as Scott Currens calls them. The ones where you have to direct the viewer to stand on his or her head, listen to Coleman Hawkins records and drink three gallons of water to see the tornado embedded somewhere in the image. There, see, right there! Don't look straight at it.

The shot below was taken looking north from the intersection of S Choctaw Road and E Reno Avenue at approximately 0030z. That's the Choctaw Church of Christ in the foreground, I believe, as best I can confirm from Google Earth and glean from the sign. A few minutes after the photo, damage reports came in. I don't know if this is a tornado or not. It looks like an elevated funnel to me.

http://www.cycloneroad.com/images/chase2008/080501/CRW_1702.jpg
0030z in Choctaw

http://www.cycloneroad.com/images/chase2008/080501/CRW_1702crop.jpg
over-processed crop of the same image, (spire up/funnel down)

I didn't intend to chase today at all, but I put in a fair day's work and left Denton for Ardmore, then left Ardmore when a new field of cu formed west of Norman. I came into the metro area in time to see a 6-7-05 style LP-ish updraft which appeared more than willing to produce a tornado. By the time I made the corner onto 240 eastbound, I thought a tornado was imminent, from a vigorously rotating wall cloud. I raced east to get the structure and tube both in the shot. Alas, it wasn't to be. Bob Fritchie, Rachael Sigler, and their co-worker Chip joined me later as we zig-zagged through mountain and meadow into the forest. Big dinner at Chilli's back in Norman followed.

In hindsight, I had last Thursday too much in mind when choosing to sit the day out (which I didn't do anyway), but it was clearly a stronger system without the specific jet quad deficiencies that may or may not have plagued us last week, and with much colder air aloft and stronger 'kinematics.' When the surface low formed out west and the cu fields appeared in south central OK, it was obvious this wasn't an identical scenario. I'm glad I left Denton when I finally did.

[James Langford]

A friend and I took off from the Dallas area around 3. Our initial target was Ardmore, as there was a nice cu field developing there when we left. When we got to Ardmore, there was nothing but clear skies. We didn't have any data, so decided to just keep heading north in the hopes of catching something up along the dryling. When we got to Paul's Valley, we saw the explosive updraft starting to form, and started to trail the storm. Pretty much followed it all the way from I35, through south OKC, along I40, north on 102, and finally up NE along I44. Beautiful LP elevated supercell with amazing structure. It was moving nice and slow too, so was pretty easy to follow through the OKC area. I was surprised to see the tornado warning, as we never saw any funnels touch down. We had a pretty good view of the base the whole time, and did see several funnels form and then dissappate. Also ran into golfball and baseball sized hail along highway 102. We were hoping to shoot some lightning pics, but the storm died rapidly just after dark.

I'm working on my video, but here are a few stills:

Just north of I40 on highway 102:

http://www.langfordphotography.com/photos/288448360_LHkDW-M.jpg

Further north on 102, along with everyone else and their brother from the OKC area :)

http://www.langfordphotography.com/photos/288469728_ByuiK-M.jpg

This was my first time chasing in central OK. I've heard folks on here talk about the chasing circus that follows storms, but I had never experienced it. I'm not sure I ever want to again. Several times on highway 102 we would come up over hills only to have folks all over the place, including standing in the middle of the road. Coming from North Texas, I don't normally see that. Maybe that's because we usually have HP type storms and also lots of rain. Anyway, I was glad my friend was long to do all the video and pics so I could focus on the road. Stay safe out there folks.

James

[sdienst]

Well we spent too much time on the southeast Kansas storms so we were late to the show in Osage county. I got to near Wynona around 9pm and viewed the tornado off to the west soon thereafter. Very hard to see but I managed to get one shot (handheld 8sec shutter) of the storm structure when a powerflash occured and lit up the tornado.

EDIT... a better pic here: http://learn.ou.edu/pages/personal/72118/5108_osage1_large.JPG

[Cris Schroeder]

I decided to chase the SE Kansas setup after work. I left Clearwater (SW of Wichita) around 4pm and headed E towards the building Cu. I worked my way down to US 166, trying to get around the cells popping near Burden. I blew east on 166 to Sedan where I ran into a couple of the College of DuPage Met vans. The road network in this area wasn’t cooperating as I wanted to head NE to get ahead of the southern cell. So, I headed N on K99 to US 160 and started east again, with some beautiful structure to the N and E of me.

There were a number of chasers watching some lowerings along US160 in the Longton/Oak Valley area, but I wanted to get east of the line so I worked my way to Independence and back north. I managed to get some potential wall cloud photos but by this time it was getting too dark to really note any rotation.

I made it to Fredonia, KS for gas but lost my data while tanking up. I started heading home on US400 while GRLevel3 updated, and sure enough a beautiful hook and tornado warning appeared. Unfortunately I was right in the middle of the hook.

Overall it was a good shakedown chase. I saw a number of lowerings/wall clouds but never saw anything touch down. Then again, I spent most of my time trying to get into better position, watching the action in my rear-view mirror.

Here's a shot looking west from Sedan, KS at the flanking line, while parked next to the COD vans:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2307/2459145141_aab261b87e.jpg

An example of the types of lowerings I saw off and on, most of the evening:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3187/2459148781_9f3b323e39.jpg

Another wall cloud with some rotation on the left side of the image:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3049/2459985136_71e782b446.jpg

A wall cloud drifting across US 75, north of Independence:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2320/2459150699_8584584bc7.jpg

A couple of images of the same meso, a little farther north:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3101/2459152475_469daf1d33.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2301/2459151445_f3d5e33655.jpg

[Earl Faubion]

Wayne Hlinicky, my sons and I first got on the unremarkable looking tail end storms west of Cedar Vale, KS. Then we headed south on Hwy 18, pausing just north of Cimarron turnpike to watch that storm drop three brief weak tornadoes before crossing Pawnee at sunset and cycling up to produce a long track tornado that we watched recede into the darkness to the northeast. We briefly considered pursuing but our lack of night chase experience won out so we called it a day.
http://members.cox.net/efaubion/st/pawnee1.jpg

[Gabe Garfield]

My target for Thursday was southeastern Kansas due to capping concerns. We left Norman at 2:30 p.m. and arrived in Bartlesville around 5 p.m. We targeted the developing storms near Sedan, KS. Though photogenic, the storms looked fairly strung out, and it looked like a squall line was beginning to develop. After running into several OU School of Meteorology seniors (Matt Chatelain and company) who had internet access, we made a quick decision to abort our original target area and go for the more isolated storms in Oklahoma.

We busted tail southward on Highway 99 and intercepted the Pawnee Co. supercell on Highway 20. A truncated cone/stovepipe tornado was already in progress when we stopped for photography. For the next 45 minutes, we watched tornadoes more-or-less continuously. The first tornado to our southwest widened significantly, perhaps up to 1/4 mile wide. This tornado had a spectacular rope-out. The next circulation formed ENE of the original, and it didn't waste any time producing a tornado. A very energetic tornado developed about 5 miles to our southwest. After this tornado dissipated, a new tornado formed from the same low-level mesocyclone to our west and northwest. This tornado was spectacular; initially a truncated cone with multiple vortices, it soon developed into an incredible elephant trunk that put on a "Wizard of Oz" show. We moved east on HW 20 after this, and were afforded an absolutely incredible view of the entire storm. From our perspective on the top of a hill, we could see the entire updraft, wall cloud, and tornado in the same view. It reminded me a lot of the Red Cloud, NE tornado of 10 June 2004, only better.

I have been chasing for a while and have seen some good stuff, but this day ranks up there with the best of my chasing career.

[Dick McGowan]

Darin Brunin, Eric B' Hymer and I stayed in nearly the same spot much of the evening near LaFontaine and Fredonia, relaxing, watching the great structure in front of us from two tail-end supercells, until sundown where we followed a couple of tornado-warned supercells after dark. We followed one from Fredonia, KS to north of Moran where it looked the best with a big, beefy wall cloud, before the storm completely evaporated.

We headed back north home, where a squall line was developing to our west and were pulled over and our car searched in Garnett, before he let us go on a warning for doing 40 in a 30 (which I was only doing 33 ;) ). Evidently cookie crumbs that were on my shirt, the syran wrap from it, both resembled marijuana and paraphenalia, and the "aroma" was sensed in there too! We had a pretty good laugh and continued north into Ottawa just in time to watch stuff fly in the Wal-Mart parking lot from strong outflow winds! We navigated back into Lawrence from Ottawa around 2 a.m. and noticed several large tree limbs snapped in the road along US 59 and into Lawrence. Not a bad chase, I'm glad storms fired before dark and we were lucky enough to see some good structure.

Congrats to those who saw a hose!

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y230/DickTwister/New/web_elkco06.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y230/DickTwister/New/web_elkco04.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y230/DickTwister/New/web_elkco03.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y230/DickTwister/New/web_elkco01.jpg

[CHris Whitehead]

Well this day was a complete surprise at least for me.
On Monday I looked at 24 hr NAM and saw it had 50dews 50-100miles off Texas coast with mod northerly winds. I saw that and immediately made was turned off to anything that was being discussed for Thursday so I didnt look at anything (forecasts, models, ST) throughout the week. I will admit to seeing the Day2 on Wednesday from the projection of it on the NWC atrium 'globe' and noticed it was for eastern OK. So that made me feel even more better that I didnt have anything to worry about, being dead week and studying being a premium.
Fast forward to Thursday evening......
...I caught the SPC MD for central OK around 5:15 before heading out the door for the law library to study. Well I hadnt passed the adjacent apartment building next to mine when I stopped dead in my tracks. I couldnt help but notice the towering Cu's just on west side of Norman. Towers were enough that it def got my attention. I did a U-turn and headed back to my apt, grabbed my laptop and went upstairs to 3rd floor balcony looking west..(see pics for view-below)..and well as they say, the rest is history...it was an explosion once it ripped the cap.


My pics detail my chase.
Below are some samples....
For full album, go to http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2212394&l=8c0b2&id=9610241

EDIT: want to thank my chase partner Chris Sanner for the photo editing.

[PeteMcConnell]

Met Scott Olson in Laurel, Ne. Checked radar and immediately went to Yankton. From that point on we were off to the races trying to dodge hail and stay in the best position as the supercell cycled numerous times. Inflow was intense and it seemed certain that a tornado would form. We must not have been very far from Mike Hollingshead judging by his pictures. A humorous moment to mention. I blew a fuse, so no xm and no gps. I followed Scott as his equipment was functioning. He raced up a hill and his car went out of view. As I neared the top of the hill he went racing past me in the opposite direction laying on his horn. Not good. Before I could start to turn the car around hail began to plaster my van. The makings of a cartoon (no pun intended). Summary: we did the best we could with what we had. A good chase!
http://www.severewxchaser.com/images/stories/may1.jpg
http://www.severewxchaser.com/images/stories/may2.jpg
http://www.severewxchaser.com/images/stories/may2a.jpg
http://www.severewxchaser.com/images/stories/may2b.jpg
http://www.severewxchaser.com/images/stories/may2c.jpg
http://www.severewxchaser.com/images/stories/may2d.jpg

[Paul Stofer]

I started today sitting in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. I noticed storms firing to my North in SE Kansas so I immediately shot North and sat in Independence, Kansas. I observed several intense storms with solid updrafts to my NW, but it appeared they were in a "grunge-like" cluster with no real means of getting good solid inflow except for the tail end. I didn't lose hope on the storms, but did re-adjust south when I notice storms firing along I35. I traveled South on 75 and then West on US60 out of Bartlesville. I then traveled South on highway 99 through Pawhuska and observed a very intense storm to my SW, which was the Osage storm. The storm had a healthy updraft with a very well defined inflow tail. I continued south on 99 through Wynona and into Hominy. At this time there was a large tornado being reported in the Vicinity of Pawnee, Skedee, and Blackburn. I waited in Hominy for the cell to get a little closer to I20, then immediately shot West on I20 out of Hominy. I stopped at the intersection of County Road 541 and I20 and observed a large wall cloud with intense rotation to my SW. At 0150 I observed a tornado on the ground just to my SW. This tornado lifted shortly after my arrival but once again dropped and continued moving to the NNE. I observed this cyclical activity for about 15 minutes as the tornado would drop then lift. I counted this at least 4 times. The updraft continued to still appear strong; however, as the storm disappeared into the distance a condensed funnel was no longer present. I did observe a couple of powerflashes, and then it was over. I went back East on 20 then North on 99 to catch back up with the storm, but it had decayed very rapidly and lost the majority of its intensity. I will upload storm video and captures later, but for now the news station has posted my video on the website at: http://www.fox23.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=27657@video.fox23.com&navCatId=5 (http://www.fox23.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=27657@video.fox23.com&navCatId=5.) Also, congratulations to everyone who had success today. I've seen some incredible photos and video today. Structure today was phenomenal as well.

[Michael O'Keeffe]

Here are some video stills our chase in SE Kansas on Thursday. We also have a link to a Youtube video that basically sums up the chase.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-4T3_B95rU


1130

1131

1132

[Tony Cook]

Played the Central OK dryline out of necessity (had to be back in Austin by 10 a.m. Friday). Myself, Aaron Dooley, Randy Denzer and Sam Furman, and Eric Burns and his partner waited in Ardmore for initiation. Took off north at about the same time the cells popped, and had a nice view of tail end Charlie as it entered Southern OK City. Saw a couple of funnel clouds, and incredible LP structure. All in all, would have rather been watching the tube fest on the next cell to the north though.

Looking North from I-35 approaching OK City:
http://home.austin.rr.com/chasing/1May2008/Sup1.jpg

Funnel cloud, just north of 240 in Southern OK City:
http://home.austin.rr.com/chasing/1May2008/Funnel0.jpg

17.5 hours
950 miles

TonyC

[David Poch]

This was a nice backyard chase. Around 4 PM a cirrus deck drifted overhead and killed off the developing CU so I figured this day was a bust. I drove home without setting up my truck since it looked like nothing was going to happen. On the way home I noticed the cirrus deck was moving out and some more CU were developing. Thinking that the dryline was retreating I gave it little thought (found out later that the dryline actually stalled just in time for development). 30 Minutes after I got home I went out to get the mail and noticed towers going up pretty much above my house. I watched for a while and when I noticed the towers start to explode at an insane rate I finally got the gear in the truck and headed off, of course with little gas but I had enough to get me to the action area.



I pulled off of I-240 in Midwest City and was right under the meso. It had some crazy motion and good rotation from time to time. I really thought it was going to drop a tube on Midwest City but thank goodness that it didn't. I followed it up Anderson Road and stopped to watch some more intense rotation right around the area that damage would be reported later. I fell behind on the storm when I finally had to stop for gas in Jones. When I got back on the road I ended up catching up a bit, good enough to see the base. It started to look elevated and not as good so I called off the chase due to the way it looked and it was getting dark. That point I found myself all the way in Wellston and realized I had over an hour drive back home, the funny thing about that was when I was watching the storm I really had no idea I ended up that far.



Here is a link to the video. http://www.oklahomawx.com/video.php?Id=5

[Marko Korosec]

As many others, we were chasing in SE KS and got several nice looking supercells. We also chased tornado warned storms in early evening NE of Fredonia until they dissipated and then we waited for the massive squall-line along the CF. Very good chasing day, even we did not bag a tube, but taking a risk down in OK was just too big.

Here is a complete account I put on my blog:

http://www.inflowjet.net/blog/2008/05/03/chase-account-may-1st-se-kansas/

And some pics...

http://www.weather-photos.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/01_05_2008mk3.jpg

http://www.weather-photos.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/01_05_2008mk7.jpg

http://www.weather-photos.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/01_05_2008mk14.jpg

Marko

[Anthony Silver]

I chose to stick with the Eastern KS/Western MO target. Here's a link to the video: http://www.stormtube.org/play.php?vid=147. Most of that was recorded in Johnson, Leavenworth, and Wyandotte counties.

Below are video stills of lightning that was associated with the intense bow echo:

[mike scantlin]

What a day. Started off at work in Jenks forecasting throughout the morning. My savior showed up to work for me, to whom I owe this entire chase, Joshua Giddens. So I left at 1pm to get the car ready and head N to Coffeyville, KS. I stopped in Caney to eat some Sonic. Met up with Michael Ratliff, and we watched the cap break. We intercepted the first cells just S of Sedan, KS. The northern one looked better, so Michael went after it, and I stayed to watch the southern cell struggle, and to watch the northern cells line together. So I dropped S into Oklahoma where the cap was breaking with a storm in Oklahoma Co, and a storm just firing right over Stillwater. I went south despite the terrible terrain, so that even if I did bust, I would be in the KTUL viewing area and get paid for any video. So I drop down to Fairfax, where I meet a left-moving LP supercell that was splitting off of the now Tornado Warned cell. She was a beauty.
(pics up later)
I kept punching S through Osage Co and eventually crossed the Arkansas River on the worst bridge I had ever seen. I mean, had there not been a tornado reported on the ground, I wouldn't
have crossed this bridge. The whole way across I was white-knuckling the steering wheel. So I get across the bridge, and turn W to intercept the wall cloud. It was very nice. I get to within about 2 miles and stop in a good clearing. It displayed very good motion and finally debris becomes visible. Tornado #1
(pics up later)
So I call 911 and report it, and take off to the West to get closer to it. It picks up for a minute, then puts down another tornado, that went from just debris to wedge in a matter of seconds. Tornado #2
(pics up later)
I blast through some stop signs to get even closer, hoping it will cross the road within 1/2 of a mile of me. It picks up again and I set up about a mile E of the wall cloud. It cycles for a few minutes, then spins up a skinny little rope for about 10 seconds, then its gone. Tornado #3
(pics up later)
About a minute later, a rather large cone funnel appears but isn't on the ground. It had the "Im gonna be a multiple-vortex monster" look to it, but only spun up one quick debris swirl before dying out. Tornado #4
(pics up later)
after another 2 minutes of good motion, a nice stovepipe hits the ground within 2 seconds of appearing. #5
(pics up later)
It quickly grows into a fat cone with multiple-vortices screaming around it.
(pics up later)
This was a strong tornado, luckily it was in a rural area. I keep filming while repositioning, following it N up muddy-ass county roads. The Meso becomes smaller and smaller and eventually wraps itself around the top of the now truncated-cone-stinger. At this point, the tornado was coming sideways out of the updraft, and then dropping straight down to the ground.
(pics up later)
With a new meso to the E, I watch this bad boy rope out, and reposition to the E. Theres already a tornado on the ground with this new meso when I find a clearing. #6
(pics up later)
So I set the camera up and let it capture the next few tornadoes. Tornado 7 happens and dissipates while #6 rages on
(pics up later)
Tornado #7
(pics up later)
cycling
(pics up later)
#8
(pics up later)
cycling
(pics up later)
#9
(pics up later)
cycling again
(pics up later)
and the last tornado as the storm is drying up and fizzling out.
#10
(pics up later)


342 miles. What a day. 6800 miles without a good tornado will make you feel like its a bad year, then with one slow-moving cyclic-supercell, the season is salvaged. My first double-digit tornado day, hell, my first double-digit month.

[Alan Broerse]

Started the day out as usual....up at 3:30 am, Arrived at the NEWS 9 station to produce the morning wx for Jed Castles by 4 am. Studied the models and current conditions for a few hours and concluded that I wanted to be in Bartlesville by 3pm. Gary England..(my boss) concluded that a retreating dryline would allow storms to fire close to home...so my initial target and location that I would get my sun-tan. from 1pm til 6..was Guthrie. I watched the birth of the Stillwater/ Pawnee storm overhead in Guthrie and the one 10 miles southwest of it. Gary put me on the south storm at the time l the OKC metro was being pounded with large hail. I took my assigned storm into Langston...where it dropped quarters before dying. As it died..the Stillwater storm superscharged....and started to drop the first of several tornadoes. A friend and fellow chaser Johnny Hall from Cordell served as navigator. We busted north thru grunge until we passed Glencoe ...as we closed in on Pawnee, As we topped the hill at junction 18....my jaw dropped after seeing a large mature cone on the ground doing damage about 2 miles away. We filmed the dusk tornado as it morphed into a tube....then an elephant trunk. As it got dark we continued to film as lightning illuminated the tube 4 or 5 times for some great still photos.(Those were aired all day on our friday news broadcast) The video is pretty good as well. We headed north out of Pawnee...to Raulston...and To Hominy...crossing the damage path on the way with trees down on the road. In that last leg of the hilly ride we observed twin tubes on the ground heading towards Pawhuska. We were well out of News 9's viewing area so we were turned ...and headed to Enid to cover the advancing cold front and the line of severe T-stms in Enid.....got hailed on...but saw some incredible CG's...about 1 per second for 10 minutes. As we were about to be over taken....we jetted back towards Stillwater to do live cut-ins for the 10pm news as the line went thru Stillwater.....When the line passed...it was time to go back to News 9, drop of the edited film of our tornado....and go home...That was 3:30am. Sound familiar anyone.???.....Total time awake 24 hours....total time on chase 1pm til 3:30 am= 14.5 hrs....total miles 476 and never left the state. Bartlesville would have been great....(3 tornadoes with in 60 miles) but the boss and his truly infinite wisdom in forecasting placed me in an area to cover the central Oklahoma viewing area (News 9 stormtrackers first responsibility) and allowed me to catch tornadoes too. (I have a great boss). All turned out great for the first day of May...and congrats to all who played and those who got lucky. I hope that the rest of May is good to chasers and yet good to the public's welfare.......we will see...................Alan

[Alan Broerse]

Started the day out as usual....up at 3:30 am, Arrived at the NEWS 9 station to produce the morning wx for Jed Castles by 4 am. Studied the models and current conditions for a few hours and concluded that I wanted to be in Bartlesville by 3pm. Gary England..(my boss) concluded that a retreating dryline would allow storms to fire close to home...so my initial target and location that I would get my sun-tan. from 1pm til 6..was Guthrie. I watched the birth of the Stillwater/ Pawnee storm overhead in Guthrie and the one 10 miles southwest of it. Gary put me on the south storm at the time l the OKC metro was being pounded with large hail. I took my assigned storm into Langston...where it dropped quarters before dying. As it died..the Stillwater storm superscharged....and started to drop the first of several tornadoes. A friend and fellow chaser Johnny Hall from Cordell served as navigator. We busted north thru grunge until we passed Glencoe ...as we closed in on Pawnee, As we topped the hill at junction 18....my jaw dropped after seeing a large mature cone on the ground doing damage about 2 miles away. We filmed the dusk tornado as it morphed into a tube....then an elephant trunk. As it got dark we continued to film as lightning illuminated the tube 4 or 5 times for some great still photos.(Those were aired all day on our friday news broadcast) The video is pretty good as well. We headed north out of Pawnee...to Raulston...and To Hominy...crossing the damage path on the way with trees down on the road. In that last leg of the hilly ride we observed twin tubes on the ground heading towards Pawhuska. We were well out of News 9's viewing area so we were turned ...and headed to Enid to cover the advancing cold front and the line of severe T-stms in Enid.....got hailed on...but saw some incredible CG's...about 1 per second for 10 minutes. As we were about to be over taken....we jetted back towards Stillwater to do live cut-ins for the 10pm news as the line went thru Stillwater.....When the line passed...it was time to go back to News 9, drop of the edited film of our tornado....and go home...That was 3:30am. Sound familiar anyone.???.....Total time awake 24 hours....total time on chase 1pm til 3:30 am= 14.5 hrs....total miles 476 and never left the state. Bartlesville would have been great....(3 tornadoes with in 60 miles) but the boss and his truly infinite wisdom in forecasting placed me in an area to cover the central Oklahoma viewing area (News 9 stormtrackers first responsibility) and allowed me to catch tornadoes too. (I have a great boss). All turned out great for the first day of May...and congrats to all who played and those who got lucky. I hope that the rest of May is good to chasers and yet good to the public's welfare.......we will see...................Alan

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

Full chase report details can be seen at the link below...

http://www.sky-chaser.com/mwcl2008.htm#MAY1

Summary is below...

This was both a chase trip and vacation combined, with the chasing focused on a significant severe weather setup from Kansas and eastward, with May 1-2 being the best chase prospects, according to computer forecasting models 4-5 days prior. The decision to tackle this setup was made about 3 days before the actual departure on April 29, and utilized some "reward points" for my frequent-flyer program, so not much was at stake. I was most interested in May 1, where a classic dryline setup, and lee cyclogenesis would set the state for a severe event in Kansas. I was able to get tickets to fly from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Kansas City, Missouri (with a stop in Tampa, Florida) and car rental from the same destination. The original plan was to fly out on April 29, head west to NW Kansas / SW Nebraska (for a slight and very conditional probability of storms there) on April 30, then chase the "big setup" in Kansas on May 1. May 2 was also to be a chase day farther east, but was not pin-pointable at the time. From May 3-5, the plan was to head to Chicago after chasing as no storms were expected those days, and spending vacation Tim there, then returning to Kansas City early on May 5, and returning to Florida that same day from Kansas City (airport).

After arriving in Kansas City on April 29 and getting the car rental, I headed west on I-70 to spend the night in Abilene, Kansas. On April 30, I headed west to Hays, KS anticipating that the intense 500 MB trough, over N California the day before, would begin affecting the high plains after clearing the Rocky Mountains (via a lee trough and subsequent lee cyclogenesis). Moisture return was the big problem with this prospect, so the target (SW Nebraska) was abandoned and some sight-seeing near highways 183 and 136 (Harlen County Lake in Nebraska) was done instead. The forecast for the following day was still promising, so a track back along 136 east to highway 75, then south through Holton, NE, and eventually into Lawrence, Kansas via highway 24 to spend the night.

May 1 was to be the main chase day for this trip. The original target area, after much forecasting, was to be near Chanute, Kansas, which was about 80 miles south on highway 59. Two other target areas existed as well, one near Sioux City, Iowa (way to the north) and another in central Oklahoma. All looked good, with a departing low to the north, and more cyclogenesis expected to the southwest. Dewpoints finally began re-bounding, and reached the mid 50's. Meanwhile, a strong south / southeast wind was blowing in response to the developing low and winds aloft began increasing. By mid day, a dryline boundary began establishing itself near Wichita. Another main concern was the cap (inversion) over both the Kansas and Oklahoma targets. This forecast was not an easy one to say the least, but I wanted to stick with my original plan of SE Kansas. I waited in Chanute for a few hours waiting for the signs of the cap breaking, while communicating with fellow chasers Tony Laubach and Tim Samaras in Wichita at the time.

With signs that the cap was about to break, I continued west out of Chanute at about 4 PM on highway 39. Meanwhile, the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) had the area I was in outlooked at a moderate risk of severe storms, with 5% tornado, 45% severe hail, and 30% severe wind probability. The hail outlook was hatched meaning significant (2" or larger) was possible. Another 5% tornado outlook was for the farther north area in SW Iowa. SPC issued Mesoscale Discussion (MD) 758 and then tornado watch box 244 including SE Kansas by 5:30 PM, valid until 1 AM CDT. After heading west on highway 39 / 400, the dryline boundary was encountered. Dewpoint dropped from 57 to 48 and a line of towering cumulus was noted to my west. I dropped south on highway 99 to near Howard. This is where a large towering cumulus field was noted to the south. In mere minutes, the cap breached and this mass of agitated cumulus quickly and explosively developed into a supercell storm near highway 160 SW of Fredonia by 6 PM. This storm began by producing large hail, some as large as tennis balls.

The storm moved northeast, eventually affecting areas in Wilson County near highways 160 and 75 (Fredonia, Benedict, and Altoona). The storm produced several wall clouds, then funnels / possible tornadoes. There were MANY chasers on this storm, including the ROTATE team, Doppler On Wheels (DOW) truck and new Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV II), and many others. A tornado was observed with this storm while it cycled through an intense HP stage near the intersection of highways 39 and 75 at about 8 PM. The storm was continually followed until about 10 PM past Chanute and into Allen county. The storm weakened afterwards. The chase was wrapped up on this supercell and I tracked back north on Highway 59 and 169 to spend the night in Ottawa (where Tony Laubach and Tim Samaras were also to stay after back-tracking to Wichita to pick up a rental vehicle). I was able to shoot some lightning still images from along highway 31 between highways 59 and 169 along the way. I arrived in Ottawa, KS where an intense squall line raced through about midnight, with winds gusting over 70 MPH. Tim and Tony decided to spend the night in Wichita. The plan was to head into SE Missouri (and possibly S Illinois) on May 2 as the intensifying system would make an even higher tornado threat there (SPC was already forecasting a 15% hatched probability).

After spending the night in Ottawa, I got up very early anticipating a long drive east. I was rather disgusted to see that the squall line, which pretty much erases any storm chasing prospects in its wake due to the cool air pool, has pushed all the way across to the MO / IL border (near Saint Louis). Tim Samaras and Tony Laubach, who were going to chase with me, decided to call it off. I decided to continue east, passing through Kansas City by 8:30 AM, and east on I-70 making Saint Louis by 11:30 AM. Saint Louis was "decision time", should I take my chances going south, to E Arkansas, still 4 hours away, or just make my way north to northern Illinois? The target area for May 2 was not only "hosed" by the cool pool in the squall lines wake, but now confined to an area in eastern Arkansas, parts of west Tennessee, and NW Mississippi. It became apparent that with on-going convection and the area now being too far south, it would be both impossible and impractical to continue south (via I-270 then I-55), so that target was abandoned. Attention shifted to the north, to near eastern Iowa, NW Illinois, and SW Wisconsin. A small area of warmer air was in place there, and a strong occluding low (over Iowa) with great upper-air support (strong winds, cold air aloft, 500 MB DVA) above it.

I got east of Saint Louis and headed NORTH on I-55 instead of south, crossing the Mississippi River and into Illinois. The squall line was far enough east of the area to allow clearing and (hopefully) heating of the boundary layer air. Sure enough, the Storm Prediction Center issued a new outlook for the northern (new) target, and had a 10% probability of tornadoes. Subsequently, MCD 778 and tornado watch box 252 was issued at 4:30 PM CDT for the area and points north (valid until 10 PM). Tim and Tony also considered chasing this setup as well, as they needed to go to Minneapolis on May 3 anyway. With this seeming to be a promising cold-core setup, I headed up I-55 to Springfield, IL then took I-74 through Peoria and north to I-88. Much towering cumulus was encountered in this region, with a strangely-oriented cold-front / shear axis extending from NW to SE and a warm front ahead of that extending WNW to ESE. Surface winds ahead of the warm front were SE, but S ahead of the cold front, and SW behind that, so there was little room for "backed" winds. Highway 78 was taken north of I-88. Two things were noted. First, the warm front spawned some small "mini supercell-like" cells that were highly sheared and visible to my north, but did not develop any farther. Second, a cluster of strong storms developed to my west near Stockton, IL at the point where the warm front and cold front intersect.

The developing storm was observed while crossing into Wisconsin from Warren, IL and produced strong winds and small hail near Gratiot, WI. It began acquiring some supercell characteristics, with a small RFD clear area, and wall cloud / small funnels. After that, the storm quickly became linear and weakened as the cold front and warm front, now both oriented NW to SE, occluded near Argyle, WI. The chase was wrapped up with a track east to highway 15, then I-39 to I-90 (toll) to make my way towards my planned stay in the Chicago area. This pretty much wrapped up my chasing, and started my short get-away in the windy city. Meanwhile, the original southern target, that was fouled by the cool pool and abandoned because of lack of interest in chasing in Arkansas (trees, rivers, squall lines with little or no development ahead of them - That's my experience at least), became the prolific tornado producer ;-(

The remaining time was spent in Chicago until my return on May 5. The original plan was to leave on the early morning of May 5 and drive back to Kansas City (about 8 hours) for my trip back to Florida. With gas prices so high and my connection (from Kansas City to Florida) happening to be in Midway (Chicago's smaller airport), I decided to pay a little extra on the rental and return the car in Midway on the evening of May 5 and take the connection (simply not get on the plane in Kansas City). I arrived back in Fort Lauderdale, Florida during the late evening of May 5.

[Scott Olson]

Well a similar story to that of Mike H. Meet up with Pete McConnel with an intial target of Randolph, Nebraska. I was happy from the get go since intiation was within 25 miles of the target area. We raced north through the wonderful one lane pilot car road near the Yankton crossing and shot through town. Intially, I was more interested in the stronger storm to the NW but quickly reliazed it was going to ingest way to much of the outflow from the southern storms and would merge. After heading west a couple miles I saw a developing appendage and strong mid-level increease in inbound velocity and hit the horn and turned around. For the next hour we watched the updraft as it strengthend to a strong intensity, showing certainly a velocity presentation and at least twice showing a well developed wall cloud and at least one funnel. It began to cycle or at least form a new cell in front of it as the low level rotation ceased we decided to go with this storm for the next hour. Despite what appeared to be a moderate mesocyclone and some presence of a low level mesocyclone, it did not appear to show any apparent visible signs of eminent tornadogenesis. With a new tornado warning for the old storm (that still looked pretty awful on radar) we made for Humboldt and were not impressed either. We then saw a revamping of rotation on the eastern cell and yet again jumped ten miles east and intercepted that. Again, despite it's radar appearance showing a tightening rotation it did not show any visible signs of tornadogenesis and looked rather cold.

Seriously, I'm not going to complain, it was a great chase. We nailed the target and spent nearly 3/4 of our chase within visible distance to a mesocyclone. We saw some decent structure, several wall clouds, spiraling clouds rotating in the air and we also saw at least one well developed funnel. I enjoyed every minute.

http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/0/IMG_2400.jpg (http://www.uploadgeek.com)

http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/0/IMG_2422.jpg (http://www.uploadgeek.com)

http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/0/IMG_2435.jpg (http://www.uploadgeek.com)

http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/0/IMG_2448.jpg (http://www.uploadgeek.com)




-Scott.

[Jay Crane]

Well my week started out bad , but ended up better. I live here in KC and cant seem to afford to spend alot on gas to chase ( although I will if local). I just happen to visting Larchwood, IA because one of my inlaws had passed away and I was at the funeral.

I know there was supposed to be some SVR WX in KC that day, but I had not been able to check out the forcast , because I had been in the area since WED and had no computer or cell since Sprint sucks up there.

Well I had been at the funeral all day and was at a family gathering and I got a text from a friend asking if I was chasing. I told them no I was out of town, but asked if they could check out the SPC outlook and radar for me since I had nothing. I just had a gut feeling something was brewing.

Well I just happen to be in the 5% target area. Well it was time to leave and go back over to another in laws house. I was just outside of Hull, IA just to the east of HWY 75. I told my wife what it was and she basiclly thought I was full of it and told me it was just a big fire. Well no sooner did she say the the radio goes off and warns about the storm and so do the sirens in HULL, IA .

I dropped off my family and started to chase. I basiclly paralled it north I then cut over west through Rock Valley right after it hit. I was a bit concerned because there were also reports of tornados over by Boyden, IA which was just off to the south east of my location. I was chasing with nothing at all not even cell service or even a map and to top it off I was still wearing a suit! I did however still have my new 12MP Camera. I ended up chasing until the funnel started to rope out then back into the clouds.

I will be loading pics soon. There is also dashcam footage from Rock Valley PD right when the storm is hitting town. The footage was on KELO TV

Jay

[Jay Crane]

Here is a few pics I took the one to the right was just out side of Hull,IA and the one to the left was a few miles north of Rock Valley

[James Langford]

I've uploaded my video from the May 1st event here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fwhIkfQFCE

Pretty cool time lapse around 3 minutes showing the amazing rotation of the storm, and it's structure.

James

[Michael Stanga]

Ended up Actually Going on this event, although it took some serious last minute string pulling to get it done. Ended up watching a lot of RUC data, forecast soundings, surface observations, satellite data...a lot of everything before I finally decided to leave at 1pm from St. Cloud. I thought initiation would be around 6-7pm timeframe, although my initial target was a bit east, RUC data was shoing that area capped, and some small radar returns were appearing near Yankton which eventually became severe warned then Tornado Warned. Lots of motion in the clouds, tried to stay far enough away although had bad radar data (lack of cell coverage) for a while and went on sight only for about 25-30 minutes. Ran into some nickel sized hail and wasnt feeling like dealing with it so turned eat out of the area. Dirt roads were poorly graded as the car had a few issues scraping bottom twice on bottoms of unlevel roads...will have to check for any damage later, although made it home ok so It should be fine. Shortly thereafter saw a funnel/wall cloud and made a report via Spotternetwork and found out in about 3 minutes that my location wasnt updating right as the spotternetwork program wasnt updating GPS since I was at the MN/SD border on I-90. Resubmitted report with the actual location, took some video, snapped some pictures, saw some chaser from KELO..maybe it was Kory Hartman? Couldnt tell although from what Ive read he and I were in the same area so it would make sense, wasnt watching spotternetwork so I have no idea. Met a local chaser/spotter when we pulled off the road at an auto salvage business when the storm was dying near 7:45-8pm. Nice guy, talked for a bit, he was pretty excited that we had radar data in the car so he hung around for a bit, talked about what we had seen and were seeing, reconfirmed to us that he saw the funnel as well, was actually quite knowledgeable...nothing was getting organized too well at that point. Took some more video and pictures and proceeded home.

Contrast was terrible as both cameras and video camera had issues fighting the lighting in the storms.

Overall not a bad chase for a last minute decision, good to get out for this year.

Pictures

www.thewxpage.com/2008photo.html


Video

www.thewxpage.com/stormchasingvideo2008.html

Video is a compilation of a few video shots, but is in a time sequential order. the second half of the video shows the motion in the clouds around that 7:45-8pm timeframe as storm was crossing 90 and falling apart.

[Eric Flescher]

http://bp2.blogger.com/_I9NNEtZYInE/SEA6hEe4RQI/AAAAAAAAAb8/robm8-Yu-t0/s320/mammatus8689sm.jpg (http://bp2.blogger.com/_I9NNEtZYInE/SEA6hEe4RQI/AAAAAAAAAb8/robm8-Yu-t0/s1600-h/mammatus8689sm.jpg)5/1/08 driveway irony/ mayhem and mini chase: Olathe, KS/Kansas City
4:30- 6:34 pm
self
66 miles
using Canon Rebel XT
While watching the impending stormweather on doppler, on 5/1/08, I saw that pre mammatus clouds were boiling into the skies.

I headed out 4:30, pm 151 Street in Olathe, KS at 4:30 and stopped off to take photos of the imposing looming super
cell and anvil (wide angle) with my canon rebel XT.

Storm warnings indicated possible wallclouds and dangerous storms near Edwardsville, off of I-70 and I-435. Instead of going North on I-435 to be closer to that town I decided to head on to I-35 to get in front of it and anything else that was coming East. Before I got infront it, the network said the storm had subsided. But the sky still had some nice scenes to photograph.
sunrays and the cloud shadows (calledhttp://bp0.blogger.com/_I9NNEtZYInE/SEAyxke4RNI/AAAAAAAAAbk/yvTzX1mtmTg/s320/cell8687.JPG (http://bp0.blogger.com/_I9NNEtZYInE/SEAyxke4RNI/AAAAAAAAAbk/yvTzX1mtmTg/s1600-h/cell8687.JPG) corpuscular rays). These shadows were piercing the clouds and the sun going down in the West. But another dangerous storm was moving into Olathe, so I headed back up south on I-35.

There was blinding rain all over. I was amazed to see the sun in the West still showing through the clouds and the blinding rain. I wanted to take a good picture of but I could not drive and take a pic at the same time. I should have instead had the camcorder ready and at least manuver it to get some video to at least take some screen snaps. It seemed an eternity as the traffic was going really slow in this heavy rain. I got off at College Blvd on the west side of I-35 (Olathe) to try to get a good photo of this nice sight. But trying to worhttp://bp2.blogger.com/_I9NNEtZYInE/SEBEhEe4RUI/AAAAAAAAAcc/cxQ0ooGdTvU/s320/sunset8698.JPG (http://bp2.blogger.com/_I9NNEtZYInE/SEBEhEe4RUI/AAAAAAAAAcc/cxQ0ooGdTvU/s1600-h/sunset8698.JPG)k off the exit first and then battling the rain, I just missed being able to photograph this sight.Instead I had to settlefor corpuscular ray show again (which was not all that bad). I headed back home.

Monitoring the weather, I had an inkling that another round of storms were moving in later in the morning but we went to sleep anyway. At 1:30am we got another surprise as we could hear hurricane force 1 winds blowing through the area. We stopped to now look out the window. Our fragile Bradford pare tree had, for the 3rd time, snapped and blew down in our drivhttp://bp2.blogger.com/_I9NNEtZYInE/SEAyPEe4RMI/AAAAAAAAAbc/1oq5gKVd68w/s320/treedown8701.jpg (http://bp2.blogger.com/_I9NNEtZYInE/SEAyPEe4RMI/AAAAAAAAAbc/1oq5gKVd68w/s1600-h/treedown8701.jpg)eway. I should have had a cut down after the 2nd time a few years ago.

But this time, a small piece of wood from the tree had hit the bottom of my Green Saturn's (now backed out for the insurance guy) windshield and cracked it. If I had parked in the driveway just about 1 inch away the wind shield would not have cracked as the piece of wood would have missed it. Insurance kicked in but still had to pay $200 for deductible. What was nice is that the company brought a van and the windshield was replaced right in the driveway. I did not have to go for bids, take time out by taking it somewhere etc etc.

It's ironic that instead of stormchasing somewhere , my car gets hit right in our driveway! Forces of nature can occur in your driveway too!