05/23/07 REPORTS: MN/WI/NE/IA/KS/MO/CO/OK/NM/TX

[Brian Emfinger]

Video is HERE.

My wife joined me for this chase. No confirmed tornadoes today but had lots of fun nonetheless. We were on the first tornado warned (i think) storm between Canadian and Perryton and observed a nicely rotating wall cloud.



We then decided to let that storm continue without us as we waited in the same spot for the next storm. As the next storm got up to us I noticed my freaking gas light on. I meant to fill up at Canadian but completely forgot...so we abandoned the storm to head back to Canadien to fill up. It only cost us about 30 minutes but it was a very painful drive away from perfect positioning. We got back to the storm pretty quickly and after the gps got us to a decent dirt road we started to see great structure.


When we got back to highway the DOW convoy passed


I also got some more nice daytime lightning


We then left the dying storm and headed back toward Canadian and got some pictures of the incredible lightning and mammatus coming from the strong storm nw of Canadian and then we made the long treck home.

A few more pictures - HERE

[Shane Adams]

Chad Lawson, Mickey Ptak, and I observed a pair of supercells this afternoon. We saw a few possible tornadoes, both of which showed up on the SPC reports. The first one we feel confident about, the second we'll wait and see what Amarillo says. Overall a disappointment considering expectations, but another day another tornado so it's all good.t

Currently typing by flashlight as we head south from Pampa to I-40 for the journey back to Norman. I haven't slept since Monday, and will be leaving for Dallas as soon as wqe return to OUN for work. I'm ready for a few days off.

Beth and myself got a late start (personal business in kc mo). Chased around Greensburg, KS area cause couldn't get farther SW. Were 6 mi from TOR touchdown but didn't know at the time and there was zip visibility. Didn't even such much in the way of interesting clouds. Just gunge. Oh well.

compared wxworx vs GR2 on the road. GR2 rocks, wxworx is pathetic (and I've been singing its praises for 3 years). It was wrong on some warnings (left em up too long, late getting them out, missed some TOR warnings altogether). It didn't have SCITs on storms where GR2 saw mesos galore. It also forced me to reboot computer.

Verizon internet has been almost everywhere (spotty on KS 160).

John and Beth

[Angie Norris]

Just back in from the TX Panhandle...no tornadoes to report, but many wall clouds and funnels, the best one of the afternoon was forming probably less than 1/4mi from my location...incredible rising motion and rotation. Awesome and fun day even without tornadoes.
Big thanks to Bob Schafer for his nowcasting/navigation assistance!!!

[Mike Hollingshead]

Quick report. I hate having no data, but made the most of it. Wound up seeing the initiation of the first main tornado warned storm in far ne TX, that moved into nw OK. I was amazed I was only seeing 2 chasers, for the longest time. Then as it really got cranking and the wall cloud looked like it was about to put one down, the flood gates opened. From there on out that storm/situation just got highly annoying, north of May. I let it go half way up that highway because it just looked too cold, and there were simply too many chasers all in the same area. I'd say each thing was 50% of the reason to leave it and drop south. I don't think I'll be taking the "get closer" approach anytime soon, south of I-80(though yeah, it gets just as bad sometimes to the north). Lots of chasers don't really even bother me that much, it's just the times the action is moving so close to your highway as it tries to cut you off, and everyone is changing their minds left and right, including myself. Just really annoying chasing, imo.

Thanks to some radar updates via cell phone by Randy Chamberlain and Steve Peterson(Big Thanks!) I slowly wound my way sw. The first beast sw of Lipscomb looked nasty as I got to it, but it was very outflow dominant. That scene with the chopper flying right infront of it was pretty cool, too bad I wasn't stopped and able to get any worthwhile shots. I need to hurry this report....

Gas was becoming a concern and it finally annoyed me enough I just blasted south to Canadian. I needed to anyway as I was less and less thrilled with the storm I was now on. I got gas and was soon "on" the biggest beast of the day, to the sw, from a view nw of Canadian. I just enjoyed the mammatus and complete lack of any other chaser in sight, letting it come to me way out on some gravel road, with wandering cattle on this road. By dark it arrived and had some pretty sweet structure and lots of lightning. Should have some decent stills of this

I then went to Canadian again to get a room, or so I thought. No rooms there. No way was I going north to Perryton after all that rain and frequent talk about that highway being closed. I was too tired to drive all the way to Woodward, and plus having to mess with those training cells in no data land. One crappy choice left(driving away from home).....Shamrock, which is where I am now. I get here and motel after motel is full. I finally find some POS on the west side of town that had openings, but it looked bad. I didn't care, any bed would work at this point. The guy doesn't seem all there, the office was hot and stunk like hell, but I get the room anyway. I go to the room, open the door and quickly said, oh hell no. I'll sleep in some crappers, but this one was too much. I'll have to take some pics when I return the key tomorrow. The whole thing scared me, but mostly the bed. It was just a very depressing room I guess. I thought, I have to try the east side of town, even if I have to have a room in two differnt motels for the night. Well I'm at a much nicer econolodge now lol. I didn't bother to ask for my money back, as I'm sure it'd be a lost cause. Now to remember to return that key tomorrow.

Pics, etc later whenever I get back home.

[Billy Griffin]

Quick report: 4 tornadoes today. Got some video back to KWTV News 9 again, but very tired. Will post photos/video links later. Not a bad day. Had an amazing experience of being inside the circulation of a very small tornado. Wall cloud rotation was very weak, so I punched in close - maybe a little too close! The circulation took a hard right turn when ground debris began and crossed directly over my truck - that was about it for the excitement today.
It sucked my dang tripod out of the back of the truck! Anyone find a tripod near Lipscomb? :-)

EDIT: Well, finally getting around to posting photos to this board and my web page. Nothing spectacular by any means, but here are a few of the funnels/tornadoes in the NE Texas panhandle. Overall, kinda disappointing for a PDS, but seems that's an ongoing curse.
Viewing the photos on here, some of you do just an outstanding job. It's much different when trying to adjust exposures, focus, horizon, etc. when trying to stay safe and keep up with a storm, versus setting up a tripod and snapping landscape stuff of moutains, etc. I applaud those who do this well - I suck at it!



More coming soon - and more at www.billygriffin.com

[Patrick Kerrin]

Yes, IIRC the 'second' updraft down the line evolved into the first TOR of the day:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l1...CountyMeso.jpg

Yes it didn't meet the hype progged but I really enjoyed being on this early, almost by myself. Also very nice meeting Shane and Mickey for the first time as well!

Originally Posted by Brian Emfinger

My wife joined me for this chase. No confirmed tornadoes today but had lots of fun nonetheless. We were on the first tornado warned (i think) storm between Canadian and Perryton and observed a nicely rotating wall cloud.

[John Wetter]

Not what I expected, but still a good day. I can't confirm any tornadoes, though I am probably a tough critic on what a 'tornado' is in pictures. I started on the storm up near Buffalo, OK, and after that tried a couple times, it fell apart and we headed south to the Lipscomb county storm. Nice HP beast. I saw many of the same lowerings as many of you, I didn't see any of them actually touch down, though they tried a few times. I'm sure some of the reports were bogus that I saw plot... There was a lot of crazy low-to-the-ground motion out there. A fun storm still out of kind of a downer day after yesterday. It should make for some good spotter teaching video. It was 'fun' sitting there watching the meso on both storms with two helicopters overhead...

Pictures Here.

-John

[Martin Kucera]

I flew in from Miami, FL and drove down from Wichita today, pretty much without sleep since yesterday. Got on the torn warned cell up near Buffalo, OK with not a soul around. I was coming from north and unfortunately the rental car gut all busted from the initial volley of golfball sized hail. Left this cell shortly after to head south. The next, larger cell was ok but outflowish. It dropped a couple of brief tornadoes on it's forward flank. Just before dark the structure on this cell was incredible from up close. So were the insane anvil bolts in the vault region. Abandoned the chase shortly after dark due to flood concerns. While going on south after dark there was a huge black cow standing in the other lane down on US60 that I never saw the nice animal till the faint image of it in the corner of my eye went past my driver's side window .

http://floridalightning.com/Supercell_May23_2007.jpg

http://floridalightning.com/Supercell_May23_07.jpg

http://floridalightning.com/Tornado_May23_2007.jpg (Poor video grab of a distant tornado)

[Tony Laubach]

What a wonderful surprise we had in store for us! We originally went into the HP to get some hail; we came out paired up with tornadoes! A definite surprise considering the show we were treated to, most of it on video which I will post in the coming days! In the meantime, a couple stills from our tornadoes near Lake Fryer off County Road U several miles west of TX-70...





Two days, three tornadoes! Can't complain! I'm 9 of 16 for tornado days with 20 tornadoes scattered in those 9 days, so certainly having a year! Full log to come... in Garden City overnight and will return to Denver tomorrow... very tired and am going to crash now!