4/25/09 REPORTS: OK/KS

[Cris Schroeder]

Well, I threw in the towel a little while ago so I might as well start a REPORTS thread for the day.

I intended to work the cold front somewhere between Alva and Enid, OK this afternoon. I got a late start and headed SW from the Wichita area before checking data, and realized the front was farther SE than I expected. I had to double back in Harper and managed to head south from Wellington, KS to catch a nice cell moving NE from Caldwell. The storm didn't look overly impressive on radar but it had a lot of motion on the updraft base and occasionally showed a ragged wall cloud.

I kept changing my mind between staying on this storm or heading farther south into Oklahoma. I drove through South Haven, KS at least a dozen times trying to decide what to do. Anyway, I finally watched the wall cloud move across US81 and east towards the Winfield, KS area. I jumped on US166 to Ark City and blew north to intercept the storm again on US160 just west of Winfield.

The storm had developed a beautiful wall cloud between US81 and Winfield. I was too far south to see any rotation but it looked like a big bell hanging from the updraft base. It went TOR-warned around this time.

In the end, I managed to photograph the same cell over the course of three hours or so, but never saw anything that could potentially lead to a tornado. I had fun but it was a little frustrating given the environment. I expected better rotation this afternoon. I'll have to check the pics and video tomorrow, and add them to the post.

[Glenn Dixon]

Today was a long day. Caught the first cell NW of Shamrock, but eventually had to decide whether or not to stay on it or go east for the cell approaching Elk City, OK. The TX cell was very high-based, we went east. Once we got on I-40 we never left. The best action occurred just east of Clinton when one cell developed massive scud which turned into an odd wall cloud, then eventually tightened up into a meso with broad rotation. Lots of attempts at developing a lowering, none succeeded.

And was anyone else tired of hearing about the potential tennis-ball sized hail while experiencing nothing larger than pea-sized? And is Canute still there? I swear I hear them mentioned in at least ten warnings.

Pics tomorrow before I check out of Motel 6, but none will be anything exciting.

[Mike Peregrine]

Scott Currens, Amos Magliocco and I chased together today in western Oklahoma/eastern TX panhandle. Can't say that it feels too fun to have driven 750 miles only to have the tornado of the day occur 20 minutes from your house back in Kansas ... but it's not the first time this has happened and it won't be the last. In the meantime, we did see a couple of decent funnels today. Certainly nothing to get excited about. To see the best tornado footage so far this year, take a look at KMBC (http://www.kmbc.com/news/19291264/detail.html) in KC.

This was a funnel on the back side of a dying meso near Hammon, OK ... Scott just happened to look above the car in time to see it ...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/mikeperegrine/_MG_5709.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/mikeperegrine/_MG_5719.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/mikeperegrine/_MG_5733.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/mikeperegrine/_MG_5741.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/mikeperegrine/_MG_5724.jpg

[markstauss]

This had to be the shortest chase of my life. Storm Number 1 snuck up on me while we were looking for Morel mushrooms near Smithville Lake. I got home just in time to hear about the tor warned cells in far western KC. Shortly after I pulled in the garage I noticed a lowering just south of my house. It did not appear to be rotating at the lower levels. Everything a couple thousand -10K feet up was moving in different directions, but nothing was near the ground. Some interesting scud but that's about it, no pics as I didn't feel like running from the garage to my office to grab my camera for scud. A beautiful rainbow followed that I also didn't get a picture of.

Storm #2 I was watching on grlevel3, it was just north of the cell that produced in Leavenworth county, KS. It showed decent size hail and slight rotation every now and then. I wanted to go out to get some pics but there was some pretty decent rain falling and the lightning was actually too close to go outside.

Storm #3 had to be the most interesting one. First, Trimble, MO the town I live about 1/2 mile west of is not exactly a Storm Ready community. When the tor warning was issued the volunteer fire dept. came through our neighborhood a few times with sirens and lights blazing. I appreciate that since there are no sirens in Trimble, MO. Sometimes when I'm out watching storms I can hear the sirens from Smithville, about 5 miles south but I never hear sirens sound in Trimble. This was the only photogenic storm of the evening as it was tor warned and passed just two miles north of my house. I got this picture that I can't honestly tell if it's a wall cloud or just the base of the storm. I can't tell if it is rotating because I could only see it during lightning strikes.

http://www.houseofstauss.com/images/storm/_MG_8405.jpg

OK, so it wasn't a great chase and I did miss the tornado in the KC area but the chase was only a couple hundred feet. Back of the house, front of the house, repeat several times.

[Skip Talbot]

Just a quick post for now and will follow up with pics and video.

Intercepted severe warned cell near Elk City, OK. Saw what at first appeared to be a scud finger, but I noted rotation and it persisted for several minutes so I believe was in fact a funnel. I had photogenic Foss Lake as a back drop for it too, so I hope the photos turn out. I met up with Brandon Sullivan, Mike Brady, Adam Lucio, and Matt Fischer where we then got slammed with the biggest hail I have ever been in. I can't believe I didn't lose any glass. It sounded like someone took a sledgehammer to my car. There are huge dents all over it. Stones were at least two inches, but haven't measured the photos we took yet. After that encounter we ran north to a tor warned cell near Leedey. Saw some rising scud condensing under the base but that was about it. Then finally dropped south of Weatherford after dark to watch some nice lightning backlit supercell structure. No tornadoes, but a fun day with some excitement.

http://www.skip.cc/chase/090425/09042501st.jpg
http://www.skip.cc/chase/090425/09042502st.jpg

[Brandon Sullivan]

Couldn't find the naders today. But we sure found the hail.

Got the hail below from northeast of Elk City. There was some lake or state park in the area, it was crazy to watch the hail fall in the lake. Overall, was happy with the day, ya gotta do what ya can with what ya got.. Data coverage is slow and sucky with Verizon for us... ugh!!!

[Jay Cazel]

I got a late start today and headed south in OK and stopped in Tonkawa to get gas. Then I noticed the storms going up by Pond Creek and Medford so I headed back north. Followed that cell back into KS and started to see some broad rotion southeast of Wellington Ks.
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa149/jaycazel/04-25-2009-1.jpg

So I headed back to the north and east towards Oxford just missing the hail and saw this lowered wall cloud just southwest of Oxford.
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa149/jaycazel/04-25-2009-2.jpg

After getting thru all the rain, hail and locals out in Oxford checking out the storm this was a pretty large lowering right over Oxford.

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa149/jaycazel/04-25-2009-3.jpg

By the time I got into Winfeild the storm had moved northeast and never got to see any of the funnel clouds, but lots of rotaion and hail. So all in all not too bad of a day.

[Dick McGowan]

Darin Brunin and I intercepted 4 supercells this evening in a triangle from Sayre, OK to Butler to Hobart, OK. Incredible structure was seen on 3 of the supercells including some large hail up to tennis balls. Like Skip said earlier, I'm not sure how we didn't lose our windshield with the HUGE hail we encountered in each one. And....as Mike P stated, it's always fun to drive 500 miles for structure, when I could have just driven a few miles from home to see a significant tornado.

Below is a picture of a supercell near Hobart, OK. It was funny to listen to some "professional chasers" on the radio near this storm who overhyped the situation! http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3318/3475499534_c060284f35_o.jpg

[brandongreen]

i started chasing the cell near wheeler and ended up just south of arnett.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v153/brandon14295/04-25-09052.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v153/brandon14295/04-25-09048.jpg

these next 3 pics are shot straight up into a huge rotation.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v153/brandon14295/04-25-09021.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v153/brandon14295/04-25-09017.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v153/brandon14295/04-25-09061.jpg

[Michael O'Keeffe]

Got on the cell near Wheeler and watched the base lower for a couple hours before it really got cranking in Roger Mills county, OK and produced a nice rapidly rotating funnel/wall cloud that came very close to producing but just couldn't get the job done. Watched another nice white funnel from an occluding meso, same as Mike P., before ditching that storm for the cell near Cordell. That's where we took the lightning pics just east of town. Not exactly the big day we were expecting but we saw some pretty storms.

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k3/wolverines028/Apr25005.jpg
Rapidly rotating funnel/wall cloud in Roger Mills county, OK.

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k3/wolverines028/Apr25009.jpghttp://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k3/wolverines028/Apr25011.jpg
Some lightning pics taken near Corn, OK.

[Jacob Ferden]

Bagged a tornado today, more from luck than anything else. Initially went west to Elk City and then Sayre...eventually went north to intercept the cell coming out of the Texas panhandle but reconsidered after about 25 miles and blasted east and north towards the front in northern Oklahoma. Finally took a position just east of Enid about 8:15. Sat through an incredible rainstorm for several minutes. Then, just before 10:00, I saw what I momentarily thought was strange lightning. I then realized that they were power flashes (I counted two flashes) a ways north of highway 412...shortly thereafter, a mass of emergency vehicles went screaming towards the north part of Enid...didnt want to take a chance on the next storm up the line after dark, so returned to Norman. Will review shots later this week to see if I might (by some miracle) have gotten one of the flashes. Hoping to possibly get some good daytime action tomorrow! :)

[Chris Nuttall]

MOD NOTE: Several people appear to be unaware of the rules regarding embedded images in REPORTS threads. Please review this rule before posting. (http://stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=16435)

[Wesley Luginbyhl]

Followed the Wheeler Co cell from Mobeetie into Roger Mills until the Canadian River got in the way. Saw a nice assortment of wall clouds from near and far. Roads options turned into a real problem late in the day for me. It was a real nice chase. It had everything but a tornado. I finally saw the TIV though for the first time. Managed to grab a pic of the TIV as it drove by with the wall cloud from the Roger Mills storm over the Canadian in the background. It ended up being one of the very few photos that turned out ok. Hopefully the video is a little better.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/not_a_leader_of_men/DSC_0166.jpg

[Brian Emfinger]

Video is Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgmZ9JEPM6w)

Much of the same here. I was on the initial cell all the way. As already mentioned it was quite high based and ragged for quite a while. This is from early on NW of Wheeler, TX.

http://www.realclearwx.com/images/2009/042509st01.jpg


The storm really intensified as it got into Oklahoma. This was from somewhere in Roger Mills County (ill look it up in GPS sometime). This was rotating pretty crazily. Click HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgmZ9JEPM6w) for video for video of that.
http://www.realclearwx.com/images/2009/042509st02.jpg

Here is some hail from south of Arnett. Road options due to the Canadian River really got annoying but at least it didnt cost. I was able to dodge any hail larger than nickel size...but saw golf ball and larger on the ground.
http://www.realclearwx.com/images/2009/042509st03.jpg

This is one of the many tight "whirls" that I observed today from south of Arnett (I think).

http://www.realclearwx.com/images/2009/042509st04.jpg

and shots of the storm as I decided to let it go since it didnt look like it was going to do anything and roads were limited.

http://www.realclearwx.com/images/2009/042509st06.jpg

Sleeping at the Car Hotel in Clinton for todays chase.

[Rob Satkus]

Just a quick report. Witnessed a large tornado around 1:30am near Kremlin Ok...very dynamic, multiple power flashes, RFD winds at least 70mph. I need a little sleep now.

Rob

[Amy Sand]

Some pics of the development around Lawrence, Kansas.

http://media7.dropshots.com/photos/16209/20090425/060304.jpg

http://media8.dropshots.com/photos/16209/20090425/060359.jpg

http://media7.dropshots.com/photos/16209/20090425/074356.jpg

[Glenn Dixon]

This is what we watched for a long time east of Clinton, OK, looking back to the west. I just kept thinnking how cool it would be to see a tornado on the ground with the wind farm in front.

This is a low-quality vid cap, the video is a bit better. That's about the best it got for us all day. Oh wellz. :rolleyes:

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs031.snc1/3206_187465425436_648515436_6691932_2897720_n.jpg

[Tim Marshall]

Like many of you, I targeted the eastern TX panhandle. Carson and I got an early start and spent the afternoon watching struggling high-based towers near McLean, TX. Finally, a storm got going and moved slowly northeastward. It was nice not having to race chase for once. The storm became a classic supercell near Briscoe, TX and we followed it to Roll, OK. We saw some nice cloud-base rotation but the supercell remained high-based thanks in part to only 60 degree dewpoints. Ended the day on the tail-end charlie storm south of Sayre, OK with great structure in the setting sun. No T's but still a nice chase day. We'll try again today. tm

[Verne Carlson]

http://www.stormchaserco.com/20090425_ElkCityOK_Meso_3_sm.JPG

http://www.stormchaserco.com/20090425_ElkCityOK_Meso_29_sm.JPG

Short: Also chased the Wheeler, TX to Strong City, OK cell and then dropped down to the tail-end cell south of Elk City, OK at dark. That was the treat of the day for us!

>> Full report here << (http://stormchaserco.blogspot.com/2009/04/wheeler-county-texas-storm.html)

[Adam Lucio]

Quick summary as were about to head out for todays target which we wont have to move too far for.

Had a fun a dynamic chase day in westnern Oklahoma. Storms were high based and most of them were splitting so we tried to stay with right splits in hopes one would root itself. Got into the same large hail with Skip as we watched a high based shear funnel move over the lake. Got some dents in the truck and I too am amazed I didnt lose ay glass. Chased the next round of sups heading towards Cordell which developed some odd wall clouds but never could produce.

Caught some nice sacked plates meso structure just south of town before night time fell and we settled in Clinton. Fun day and got some intense hail video along with beautifull structure. A good start to the 2 day chase trip.

Full account wont be up for a couple days. Chasing today and driving home tomorrow.

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/4263/42509001.jpg

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/5682/42509002.jpg

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/9435/42509003.jpg

[Chris Harrell]

I shot this photo of a tornado just NW of Leedey, OK yesterday, around 7:30 pm.

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n79/magnav0x_1981/Storm%20Chasing/leedey_tornado_42509_c.jpg

[Chris McBee]

Spent most of the day in Hemphill County, TX and Roger Mills County, OK. I have posted a video (link below) of the rapid rotation on Highway 130 between Reydon and Durham.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfoCJH3F6C8&fmt=6

[Matt Gingery]

Brian Hurst, Myself, and Charlie met up near Elk City and hung out at the Super 8 grabbing time lapse shots. Shortly after arriving a discrete cell popped near Pampa, Tx. We intercepted this cell in Roger Mills County and chased in and around Crawford:

Video 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_P0OAVGTy8

Video 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXH2-PWRTtk

Video 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31cq0FgDS_Q

Video 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISWb4PE_G2I


We ended the day by dropping off of the first play, and jumping on two massive supercells near Elk City to close out the day. The cell we ended the day with near and just south of Elk City had an amazing Meso, pancake stack with beautiful straiations. We were getting pelted by rogue hail being ejected to the south flank of the cell in the precip free base. Truly an amazing storm. Verne Carlson has some nice pics of this cell in an earlier post.

[Darrin Rasberry]

Got some video of the Sentinel storm that doesn't do justice to its beauty, and adding on the 2-2.5 inch hail we found on the road a few minutes earlier, this somewhat leisurely stair-stepping day almost singlehandedly justified the 1500-mile round trip were it not for the next day's horrific teasing and disappointment. I think Oklahoma has been by far my favorite state for structure and hail, and Saturday reminded me why.

[Buddy Bradley]

Well the day started about 10am as we departed Springfield MO for w. Ok. We decided to head toward Enid and arrived there about 4pm after the pit stops and stuff. Things hadnt started popping up in that area and we knew the real play was gonna be farther southwest. So we headed south to Kingfisher and then west to set up near Watonga. Things were very windy and muggy but not much in the way of convection all around. After about 6pm we found a local radio station with great weather coverage and wall to wall updates from Weatherford area. Before storms could really get into the Watonga area darkness was setting in so we decided to head back toward home. As we were coming up us 81 by Vance AFB they put out a Tor Warn for Enid. Strong rotation was detected 4 miles west of Vance AFB. We proceded up us 81 to 412 east. As we were traveling along 412 east the radio report said there was a lowering in n. Enid. So we pulled over and got out the video camera. UNBELIEVABLY.... I got 6-8 minutes video of the Tornado with power flashes that hit northern Enid and did the damage at the fairgrounds and the Expo center as well as other areas. The tornado was a perfect funnel shaped cloud at first and it lifted. Then it dropped down as a Tube or rope-like tornado. It is unbelievable how well the video camera was able to capture the tornado and power flashes. If it wasnt for the intense lightning... we would have never known it was there. What an incredible chase for us. Logged 850 miles, bagged 1 damaging tornado!! I just dont know how to get the video from my camera to computer since the camera is 8mm and about 15 years old.

[Chris C Sanner]

Was targeting the area 60 miles south of the triple point Saturday. Ended up catching a very photogenic LPish Supercell which had one of the longest hail cores I've ever driven through..got hit by a ping pong ball or two as we drove through it. Here are a couple of pics:

http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs022.snc1/3075_687166510737_9618123_39679143_1357720_n.jpg

http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs022.snc1/3075_687166505747_9618123_39679142_5743181_n.jpg

http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs022.snc1/3075_687166455847_9618123_39679135_1593522_n.jpg

[Dustin Wilcox]

Should have chased all night and then slept in on Sunday, would have boosted my success on both days. As it was, chased several supercells on Saturday, though none were any to exciting...

http://severechase.com/4-25-09.html

[Brian Thalken]

Chased Saturday in western OK, started in Sayre and worked my way east to Weatherford. Chase account will be posted on in a day or so with video clips.
http://www.nebraskastorms.com

http://www.nebraskastorms.com/images/2009/4-25-2009/CRW_6429_600x400.jpg
Initial convection south of Sayre, OK.

http://www.nebraskastorms.com/images/2009/4-25-2009/CRW_6462_600x400.jpg
Cell over Weatheford, OK showing some action on the right edge.

http://www.nebraskastorms.com/images/2009/4-25-2009/IMG_8864_600x400.JPG
Zoomed in on some of the action. That was about as exciting as it got.

http://www.nebraskastorms.com/images/2009/4-25-2009/CRW_6483_600x400.jpg
Nice structure near Weatherford, OK.

[Danny Neal]

Just going to throw up a few photos from this day, I have a lot more video than stills from getting owned by a golf ball to tennis ball sized hail storm near Foss Lake, OK. After that we dropped south to a pair of supercells near Clinton and Cordell and saw some beautiful stacked plates. Finally sampled a couple more hail cores before staying in Clinton. Will post more on my web page in the coming days when I get everything figured out.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/ILSvrWxTorChsr/DSC00253.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/ILSvrWxTorChsr/DSC00252.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/ILSvrWxTorChsr/DSC00264.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/ILSvrWxTorChsr/DSC00290-1.jpg

[Jason A.C. Brock]

CHASED 4/25 & 4/26 AROUND THE RETROP SENTINEL & MOUNTAIN PARK OK AREAS. Two of the best pics from the two days. Photos by Jason A.C. Brock. Chased both days with Jeremy Wilson of holytornado.com & The tricountyweather.com guys.
More pics and video at our website http://www.holytornado.com
Also at http://www.youtube.com/shadowchaser777

Why does the weather never do what we want it to? Maybe cuz its the weather. :-p

[Connor McCrorey]

Like everyone else, I chased the supercell that formed up near Wheeler as it moved into OK. It looked great, but never could produce. My video from this weekend all sucks, but I might as well put it up anyway.

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

[afischer]

Sat in a parking lot in Elk City looking at data for a couple hours (tied to WIFI data), unsure of which storms to commit to. Finally I actually committed, and headed south and east a bit to observe the two tail-end-charlie supercells after sunset... more or less sitting at a point south of Cordell OK between 830 and 930 PM. This was only the 7th time I've chased in Oklahoma since 2002, and it still feels like strange and unfamiliar territory to me. A couple photos and brief discussion of the Cordell OK supercells are on my blog at the following link, along with some meteorological discussion/data from the Kansas Turnpike tornado near Linwood. http://tornadoheadblog.blogspot.com/

[Cris Schroeder]

Finally posting some pics from Saturday. The first shot was taken west of South Haven, KS looking northwest as the wall cloud attempted to develop.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3643/3481036565_6af69beda6.jpg

Another shot from the same location maybe 20 minutes later, looking north, as it moved to the north of my location:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3397/3481849780_d3fbc4fc04.jpg

The storm started getting its act together after crossing US 81 north of South Haven. This shot, looking east from US 81, was taken around the time it became TOR-warned, as it moved off towards Oxford, KS.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3620/3481851732_71c0740a54.jpg

Here is a telephoto shot of the nicely developed wall cloud approaching Oxford. This was looking north from US 166, between South Haven and Ark City.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3361/3481040401_909a403c77.jpg

This shot was taken just west of Winfield, KS of the same cell as it moved NE from Oxford. The wall cloud to the left is the original circulation I had been following all afternoon, while another lowering formed to the SE of the original (on the right in the photo).

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3333/3481855006_8947555bc1.jpg

A tornado was reported from this storm shortly thereafter, near Douglass, KS, as I headed home. Go figure.

[Daniel Christianson]

2nd part of chase ( Ok im 98% sure i caught brief glimpses of the Kremlin OK tornado. At the time there were reports of a tornado near Kremlin OK to being a mile wide, and damage being reported. First view is from Hwy 412 that runs into Enid OK, im looking to the Northeast. Im then on Hwy 60 Northbound from Enid and looking directly north. At this time there were vehicles pulled off to the side of the road with law enforcement/spotters ahead of them. It was raining hard but there was a sudden change in the direction it was coming from, i didn't move any further as to my fear of maybe being a little to close for comfort. Esp at night when your relying on lightning. Ill post pics of the supercell i was on and then the Kremlin Ok one, sorry im just reviewing all the video and getting around to doing a chase summary, long drive from Omaha NE to OK!.. so more specifics to come!

http://i586.photobucket.com/albums/ss301/NPRC09dcmw09/4-25-09/St01.jpg

http://i586.photobucket.com/albums/ss301/NPRC09dcmw09/4-25-09/St02.jpg

http://i586.photobucket.com/albums/ss301/NPRC09dcmw09/4-25-09/St03.jpg

http://i586.photobucket.com/albums/ss301/NPRC09dcmw09/4-25-09/St04.jpg

[Brendon Lindsey]

Well, I hadn't planned on chasing until I realized I could get two chases in for the price of one. So I set out Saturday morning from Tahlequah,OK. Ended up in Fairview,OK took the cell that fired NW of there. Followed it a while, as it produced nothing. Got to my parents house in Enid. Ate 2 awesome cheeseburgers, and around 10:30 or after dark sometime, Tornado warned cell came over our town, I headed out. I saw all three of the tornadoes, I have never had so much trouble with the police. Also there was the least amount of lightning for a tor warned storm I have ever seen making this night chase near impossible. Realized night chasing is not worth it, I picked up some random chaser from out on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, and we both got back into town at 3AM =/. I went to N Enid the next day where the First Tor hit. Wasn't able to get into Kremlin, actually I didn't try, my dad just said US 81 N of town was flooded.

http://stormaddiction.com/images/116.jpg

http://stormaddiction.com/images/410.jpg

http://stormaddiction.com/images/124.jpg

http://stormaddiction.com/images/213.jpg

DAMAGE...

http://stormaddiction.com/images/162.jpg

http://stormaddiction.com/images/142.jpg

http://stormaddiction.com/images/152.jpg

[Adam Lucio]

My full account for this day is up. Has video of us getting munched by some tennis ball size hail. I wish I could get these full accounts up sooner, but I have to spend a day driving home and my way of documenting is a long one.

Awesome shots Brendon.

www.aerostorms.com

[Ben Holcomb]

Finally got my recap posted at http://www.benholcomb.com/20090425.html

[Paul Stofer]

Well, I'm late on getting my summary up, but here goes.. My chase partner and I left for our target around Shamrock, TX from our hotel in Woodward, OK around 11am. We arrived in Shamrock off I40 and ran into chaser convergence. We wanted to distance ourselves a little further from the approaching / stalled cold front so we went East on I40 and arrived in Erik, Oklahoma along with Michael Seger, his friend, the TIV crew, Reed and some others. Michael, his friend, my chase partner and myself decided that we needed to relocate a little further North so we went North on SR30. Along 30 we observed penny sized hail. We then went East and then South on Custer City Rd just East of Clinton OK to intercept a cell that was dropping reported baseball hail and had signs of rotation. We sat at a Loves truck stop and observed quarter sized hail. We watched a rotating supercell approach our location from the West. The storm produced a very large, rapidly rotating wall cloud. The rotation associated with this wall cloud was very impressive. The base began to drop funnel after funnel, so we reported this to 911 and the local NWS. The storm never did produce a tornado, but had beautiful structure. We called it the end of the chase and returned to Norman to stay the night. Nothing else significant was observed. Here are a couple of photos from the day.

http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs004.snc1/2793_519264285011_196003355_30850337_4724632_n.jpg

http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs004.snc1/2793_519264294991_196003355_30850339_244954_n.jpg

[Rocky Rascovich]

Finally getting around with this summary, albeit brief.. while the facts and figures are still remotely fresh. Charles Edwards, Mark McGowen, Dustin Aldridge.. my son Leif and yours truly embarked on what turned out to be a tornadoless adventure. We hung around the Foss Lake area, watched several cells with feeble attempts at producing wall clouds. (Did see one real nice mid level funnel coming out of the side of one cell a little south of Foss Lake at around 1815cdt) We were really torn over what storms to target. We ended up on the storm that went a little north of Hammon, OK. where there was a chaser convergence and accompanying film crews. That storm tried hard to produce but no cigar. We ended up at dusk going back south to Clinton where we experienced a barrage of 1 to 2" diameter hail just after dusk.
Leif really enjoyed himself despite not seeing any tornadoes.. I think he's starting to get a real interest in weather.. especially wanting to photograph lightning:D. Overall, a rewarding day and as always, it's great to chase with Charles.

[Bill Tabor]

Guess I better get a placeholder in here before I forget everything. This will be short for now. Third chase of the season for me. First was to south of Lone Grove, OK and second was out toward Llano, Tx. No tube on either.

Left Austin about 12 due to chase setup and configuration issues. Shot north and right into the action of the developing / training supercells emmanating from around Childress. Got on a supercell that eventually was near Lone Wolf, OK. This cell had a nice clear flank with a wallcloud at times and the precip core off to the right. After a while it had a funnel extending from the middle of the wallcloud. Later a tail cloud formed off the wallcloud extending in the direction (right) toward the rain foot as I looked on toward the north. This tail cloud became very laminar and lowered almost if not on the ground and was in some of the mist of the rain foot. I know what a tail cloud is and looks like, but for some reason I thought it was a funnel cloud and logged it that way on Spotternet. At the time, I thought it was still part of the earlier funnel. Looking at video later I think it is obvious it was a tail cloud but a very active one. Can a tail cloud (an inflow feature extending from a wallcloud be tornadic? Personally I am not sure. Others can enlighten me. Anyway, it was cool to watch and I got to mess with Spotternetwork and found I had issues with it. It took me at least 10 minutes to sub my report due to slow bandwidth / Google Map zooming issues. Between that and trying to get my dashcam to stream live video I had very little time to actually observe the storm or what was going on. I blame part of my poor report on that. Perhaps a lesson learned. All the multi-tasking while chasing alone can be quite taxing and distracting and really takes away from just the fun of the chase and watching the storm.

After that I continued ENE a bit I believe on hwy 9 toward Hobart. Looking out the left side of the window the supercell continued and from the inflow / wallcloud region it appeared a very slim laminar funnel extended all the way to ground from a high base. My dashcam was pointed forward so I didn't get the shot. I decided to quickly U turn and go back to hwy 44 which I had just passed and went N in the direction of Cambridge/Sentinel. Immediately the funnel feature was wrapped in thin precip at first, and then the whole thing began to widen and became very bulbous and wrapped in rain. This was a very odd looking feature. I was thinking I had a potential rain wrapped tornado but I was having trouble seeing through to verify. This feature was very active and appeared quite strong/intense. At times I believe I could see a darker funnel feature inside extending to ground. Because of this and believing most chasers were further north due to the earlier storm I decided to report it as a tornado. I don't guarantee it was for sure, but it looked potentially dangerous and it also looked like it could indeed be a tornado. Because Spotternetwork had been so unruly previously I decided to use my Street Atlas to call the NWS. Turns out that number is now bad and I got a non-working number message. So, I decided to use 911. They seemed somewhat clueless about what I was talking about. After awhile he just said ok, and then gave me a non-emergency number to call in other weather reports. Hah- whatever that means. 20 minutes after the fact I did sub it to sub it to Spotternetwork. They never did tornado warn the cell. In retrospect I have reviewed the video and showed it to Gene. Gene thought it looked a bit to him as a wet microburst. However, he only saw that portion of the video and didn't see it's location in the storm. This was not part of the precip core at all. It descended straight from the center of the inflow region that contained the wall cloud as I had previously been tracking. This was a previously rain free base. Now, perhaps the updraft was collapsing some and rain was pouring through. I kind of doubt it. Gene also didn't watch a lot of it closely. As I reviewed it on the little camcorder 2" screen there is a part where I can distinctly see a pseudo clear laminar tube on the front side of the feature all the way to ground. It quickly gets wrapped again. Anyway, after my review I still believe it is a tornado. I have some pics, and I may do a short Youtube clip just so some of you can analyze. It is very interesting IMO and a good learning clip I believe.

After that it got dark and not much else happened except met up with Gene, and David Douglas / Randy Denzer. Randy is now with TVN and we holed up in a motel. I chatted with Reed a bit when his new TIV type red armoured vehicle showed up. Quite the interesting ride. Next morning had a bit of a chat with Tim Samaras at breakfast.

It was a fun chase, and I'm surprised I was able to get into the thick of it. I almost turned around and went home after a 2 hour delay trying to leave in the morning. I was thinking I had very little chance and would most likely miss everything. I did miss the earlier storm up on the boundary further north. That likely would have been where I would have ended had I left earlier - along with pretty much everybody else. However my target area forecast was really closer to CDS and just east of there which is what I ended up playing and turns out I think that worked well. I almost had the storms down there to myself.

I'll post a pic when I get the chance.

[Buddy Bradley]

Here are a few pics from the chase of 4-25-09 in western OK including the nighttime tornado which struck Enid OK about 10:10pm on Saturday Evening.

Hope you enjoy looking at these and if you have comments or want to reach me you can @ bbradley1965@ymail.com or (cell)417-299-1154.

Thanks!
Buddy

[Bill Tabor]

Finally getting around to posting some pictures:

http://www.tornadoxtreme.com/Chases_By_Year/2009_Chases/April_25_09/IMG_2375.jpg

The image above shows just after I made my U turn and after what I believe was a skinny tornado from a high base was wrapping with rain. The rain wrap happened only seconds after the tornado began. It was after this the whole feature got much wider. The tornado is the darker tube almost in the middle of the precip - perhaps slightly left of center. These images are shrunk down and compressed showing less detail than my originals.

http://www.tornadoxtreme.com/Chases_By_Year/2009_Chases/April_25_09/IMG_2378.jpg

In the image above you can barely see the small hollow looking laminar funnel extending from cloud base to ground along the leading edge (right) of the precipitation under the wallcloud. The top appears to be dark / conical as well. There may be something on the back side (left) too - I can't make it out really. In the video I reviewed there is a brief instant where it is out of the precip and it is clear that the hollow tube appears to be a legit tornado.

[Dann Cianca]

Woo! Finally got my report done!

Brief synopsis: Left Colorado with Jason Burns on Saturday at 5AM and got to our target of Shamrock, TX on right on schedule just before initiation. Followed our first storm all afternoon/evening and got 2" hail, plenty of structure, and a wall that almost produced. We had position on this storm for most of its life and until dark but unfortunately/fortunately it didn't produce a tornado. Did see a few gustnadoes early on, however. Tons of pics and video here:

http://blog.bigskyconvection.com/2009/05/2009-storm-chase-vi-brief-day-one-april.html

[Doug Mitchell]

Stayed home because I felt sick and wanted to watch the NFL draft...ended up chasing the tornado warned storm that passed right over Lawrence...will eventually upload the video of the rotating wallcloud passing right over KU.

[nmjameswilson]

Here's video of the start and run of the tornado North of Eudora Kansas. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LAd_JUVcpU&feature=channel_page)

[Eric Flescher]

I am so peeved. I figured I was just due east and north and missed it .
I will post my video of hail etc soon
congrats!
::
Here's video of the start and run of the tornado North of Eudora Kansas. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LAd_JUVcpU&feature=channel_page)

[Dan Robinson]

Here is a completed log of the chase on the 25th. Includes a brief 6x speed HD clip of the wall cloud/funnel near Roll.

http://stormhighway.com/chasing/2009a.shtml

[Skip Talbot]

Completed log with pics of funnel over Foss Lake:
http://www.skip.cc/chase/090425/

[Chris Nuttall]

I finally completed my write-up of the event. Links to photos and videos can be found in the article.
http://www.stormkiller.com/chase_logs/2009_chases/chase_day_april_25_2009.html

[Danny Neal]

http://northernilstormchaser.com/April-25th----West-Central-Oklahoma.php

FINALLY! Finished my log on this event. It's not that it took long to do, but I finally got enough free time to do it. Hope you all enjoy....

April 26th will be the next one so look for that in the coming days.

[Daniel Christianson]

I know it's way past the (Kremlin OK Tornado ) event but i wanted to add one more picture and enhanced, this is a vid cap of what i didnt catch before reviewing video , now reports were coming in over the radio of a large tornado appearing to be a half mile wide or more. If you look at this vid cap you can see there that big blocky area and a tornado to the left of it. Then looking to the obvious tornado occurring the right, there also appears to be one more off to the right a a bit. Im posting this because i havent seen any other photos of this event from what's already been posted on ST.


http://i586.photobucket.com/albums/ss301/NPRC09dcmw09/enhanced2.jpg