David Schuttler
EF5
Few shots of the "tail end charlie cell" as it moved from the Kansas, Ok. area on into Arkansas. It was the only storm I chased since I stayed home after work to watch the BCS game ......
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01/07/2008 REPORTS: WI, OK, MO, IL
- Thread starter Laura Hedien
- Start date
Bart_Comstock
EF5
Below is the Video shot by Chris Wilburn of the tornado just south of Monett, Mo and the path.
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Chris Wilburn and I, were out chasing on Monday, January 7th. We started our day in Miami, Oklahoma and saw the storm that produced this tornado begin to rapidly intensify just south of Jay, Ok in Delaware County on it's way to Missouri. It didn't take long before our minds were made up and we were blasting up I-44 to rendezvous with this cell, but there was a slight debate over whether we should try to meet the storm near Pineville, Mo, or catch it further east in Monett. Time wasn't on our side, as the sun was setting fast but after a flip of the coin decision we dropped down south to Neosho, Mo on Hwy 71 and then cut over to the east on Hwy 60 till we got to Monett just as the sirens had started to fill the air with their sharp whine to warn of the impending danger. With the sirens still screaming we turned south onto Hwy 37 and moves about 3 miles or so and before long were in position to intercept and began filming the intense amount of CG that had amazed us with how frequent it was and scared us a bit with how close it was kitting as well. Looking to our south west we could see the updraft basin clearly and the large well defined wall cloud that loomed below it, but there was a somewhat more interesting feature just to the left of said wall cloud. A small, cone shaped protrusion poking down from the base of the storm. Chris looked over to me and said, "Hey Bart, could that be a funnel?" and thus I replied, "eh... I don't know, yeah it could be." Just as the word be rolled off my tung the real show started to begin and it was quickly evident that was a funnel, with in about 20 seconds that small little formation had rapidly dropped to the ground and instantly started to spin up derbies. We witnessed small pieces of roofing or a barn or some sort of structure being lofted into the air as well as entire oak trees being uprooted by this tornado. I quickly grabbed Chris's cell phone and called in the tornado to Barry County 911, stating that "This is Bart Comstock, I am a trained Skywarn spotter and I have a large, and destructive tornado on the ground that is dealing damage just south of Monett by about 3 miles, quickly heading NNE towards Monett. I have witnessed some possible structural derbies. This is a dangerous tornado that I believe may be an EF-2." We then repositioned to the south and watched as the tornado passed directly over where we were sitting, destroying the power lines along the highway and moving off to the NE to just barely graze the souther edge of Monett. Several locals were standing outside and approached us, thankful their hose was just spared by a very close call with a tornado. They stood next to us and watched off to the ENE as the bright white tornado was quickly rain wrapped by the hook and then become totally invisible as the sun light faded into darkness. After that we knew that due to the speed of the storm and roads that it had closed due to fallen trees we headed back for my home in Bentonville, Arkansas but not to call it quits. Oh no, once home we had at least another 4 hours straight of training supercells that passed right over my apartment and my family's home.
The rest of that night Chris and I stayed in Benton County for the most part and watched as cell after cell passed us on their way to Missouri and spent most of that time live on the air with my station I chase for.The drive to Bentonville was very wet and the roads were not draining well due to the immense amount of water and we narrowly slipped in front of a cell's core as we headed southward on Hwy 71 in Belle Vista. Once free of the rain we stopped on top of the hill shortly after the beginning of I-540 and tried to spot that storm but it was a lost cause due to the terrain. We then repositioned to the intersection of S Walton Blvd (Hwy 71B) and I-540 and waited for a tornadic supercell to move past us. While talking live on the air Garrett (our chief met at KFSM) informed me that not only was the center of the meso going to move directly over me, but that the velocity was showing 58mph as it passed over the town of Cave Springs thus making me reconsider our spot and so we moved south towards the Pinnacle Hills area of Rogers. Just as we gt off the freeway the wall cloud was just shy of I-540 and passed it 1mile north of where we were standing previously. We saw numerous wall clouds from the cells that produced the tornado that passed near Garfield, Ar as it passed us and went over I-540 (and my apartment building) and across Rogers. The lights in Bentonville, mixed with the large amount of rain and terrain made it very hard to spot this storm we moved a bit north till we were a 1/2 mile from the end of I-540 where we had a State Police officer pull up behind us and watch the cells pass over Belle Vista, Ar and southern MacDonald County, Mo. It is possible, that we were able to spot one or the tornado that occurred at 2157 in MacDonald County from our vantage point on top of the hill as we could clearly see the wall cloud and a funnel that was fairly wide and well shaped dipping down to the top of a hill off in the distance. We were not able to see on the other side of the hill obviously and thus couldn't tell if it was or wasn't said tornado. After that we watched a few more cells pass over the same area and then decided to head south and intercept the last cell that gave Benton County a Tor Warning as it crossed Hwy 412 in Oklahoma and shortly after meeting up with the storm between the gas station/rest stop in the middle of the highway and the toll booth we could see a large wall cloud and tried to keep up with the cell as it raced towards Missouri but lost it due to the speed of the storm and the long line of cars at the toll booth that were trying to figure out what to do about the fact that there wasn't a teller and the coin collecting machines were not working. After loosing that cell, exhausted and satisfied with the night we threw in the towel and headed for Chris's house in Welch, Ok. That night as the coldfront pushed a squall line over Bentonville, a down burst landed in the valley behind my fathers house in extreme NE Bentonville which is in the Hanover subdivision (for those that know the area the valley is named Pumpkin Hollow) and uprooted and snapped a large number of trees, knocking the power out to a few and blocking the roads as well as tearing the roof partially off of a barn in the valley and causing minor roof damage to some homes in Hanover.
Thanks to my awesome luck, my camera decided to stop recording right as the tornado touched down and thus the footage you see here was shot by my chase partner Chris Wilburn. He was holding his small Sony Handycam in one hand while taking still shots with his digital camera in the other, and with our luck becoming even better, the best shots that Chris had of the tornado were accidentally recorded over thus you see this short video that was made.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Chris Wilburn and I, were out chasing on Monday, January 7th. We started our day in Miami, Oklahoma and saw the storm that produced this tornado begin to rapidly intensify just south of Jay, Ok in Delaware County on it's way to Missouri. It didn't take long before our minds were made up and we were blasting up I-44 to rendezvous with this cell, but there was a slight debate over whether we should try to meet the storm near Pineville, Mo, or catch it further east in Monett. Time wasn't on our side, as the sun was setting fast but after a flip of the coin decision we dropped down south to Neosho, Mo on Hwy 71 and then cut over to the east on Hwy 60 till we got to Monett just as the sirens had started to fill the air with their sharp whine to warn of the impending danger. With the sirens still screaming we turned south onto Hwy 37 and moves about 3 miles or so and before long were in position to intercept and began filming the intense amount of CG that had amazed us with how frequent it was and scared us a bit with how close it was kitting as well. Looking to our south west we could see the updraft basin clearly and the large well defined wall cloud that loomed below it, but there was a somewhat more interesting feature just to the left of said wall cloud. A small, cone shaped protrusion poking down from the base of the storm. Chris looked over to me and said, "Hey Bart, could that be a funnel?" and thus I replied, "eh... I don't know, yeah it could be." Just as the word be rolled off my tung the real show started to begin and it was quickly evident that was a funnel, with in about 20 seconds that small little formation had rapidly dropped to the ground and instantly started to spin up derbies. We witnessed small pieces of roofing or a barn or some sort of structure being lofted into the air as well as entire oak trees being uprooted by this tornado. I quickly grabbed Chris's cell phone and called in the tornado to Barry County 911, stating that "This is Bart Comstock, I am a trained Skywarn spotter and I have a large, and destructive tornado on the ground that is dealing damage just south of Monett by about 3 miles, quickly heading NNE towards Monett. I have witnessed some possible structural derbies. This is a dangerous tornado that I believe may be an EF-2." We then repositioned to the south and watched as the tornado passed directly over where we were sitting, destroying the power lines along the highway and moving off to the NE to just barely graze the souther edge of Monett. Several locals were standing outside and approached us, thankful their hose was just spared by a very close call with a tornado. They stood next to us and watched off to the ENE as the bright white tornado was quickly rain wrapped by the hook and then become totally invisible as the sun light faded into darkness. After that we knew that due to the speed of the storm and roads that it had closed due to fallen trees we headed back for my home in Bentonville, Arkansas but not to call it quits. Oh no, once home we had at least another 4 hours straight of training supercells that passed right over my apartment and my family's home.
The rest of that night Chris and I stayed in Benton County for the most part and watched as cell after cell passed us on their way to Missouri and spent most of that time live on the air with my station I chase for.The drive to Bentonville was very wet and the roads were not draining well due to the immense amount of water and we narrowly slipped in front of a cell's core as we headed southward on Hwy 71 in Belle Vista. Once free of the rain we stopped on top of the hill shortly after the beginning of I-540 and tried to spot that storm but it was a lost cause due to the terrain. We then repositioned to the intersection of S Walton Blvd (Hwy 71B) and I-540 and waited for a tornadic supercell to move past us. While talking live on the air Garrett (our chief met at KFSM) informed me that not only was the center of the meso going to move directly over me, but that the velocity was showing 58mph as it passed over the town of Cave Springs thus making me reconsider our spot and so we moved south towards the Pinnacle Hills area of Rogers. Just as we gt off the freeway the wall cloud was just shy of I-540 and passed it 1mile north of where we were standing previously. We saw numerous wall clouds from the cells that produced the tornado that passed near Garfield, Ar as it passed us and went over I-540 (and my apartment building) and across Rogers. The lights in Bentonville, mixed with the large amount of rain and terrain made it very hard to spot this storm we moved a bit north till we were a 1/2 mile from the end of I-540 where we had a State Police officer pull up behind us and watch the cells pass over Belle Vista, Ar and southern MacDonald County, Mo. It is possible, that we were able to spot one or the tornado that occurred at 2157 in MacDonald County from our vantage point on top of the hill as we could clearly see the wall cloud and a funnel that was fairly wide and well shaped dipping down to the top of a hill off in the distance. We were not able to see on the other side of the hill obviously and thus couldn't tell if it was or wasn't said tornado. After that we watched a few more cells pass over the same area and then decided to head south and intercept the last cell that gave Benton County a Tor Warning as it crossed Hwy 412 in Oklahoma and shortly after meeting up with the storm between the gas station/rest stop in the middle of the highway and the toll booth we could see a large wall cloud and tried to keep up with the cell as it raced towards Missouri but lost it due to the speed of the storm and the long line of cars at the toll booth that were trying to figure out what to do about the fact that there wasn't a teller and the coin collecting machines were not working. After loosing that cell, exhausted and satisfied with the night we threw in the towel and headed for Chris's house in Welch, Ok. That night as the coldfront pushed a squall line over Bentonville, a down burst landed in the valley behind my fathers house in extreme NE Bentonville which is in the Hanover subdivision (for those that know the area the valley is named Pumpkin Hollow) and uprooted and snapped a large number of trees, knocking the power out to a few and blocking the roads as well as tearing the roof partially off of a barn in the valley and causing minor roof damage to some homes in Hanover.
Thanks to my awesome luck, my camera decided to stop recording right as the tornado touched down and thus the footage you see here was shot by my chase partner Chris Wilburn. He was holding his small Sony Handycam in one hand while taking still shots with his digital camera in the other, and with our luck becoming even better, the best shots that Chris had of the tornado were accidentally recorded over thus you see this short video that was made.
Brandon Lawson
EF2
I have a quick update on the area south of Monett that was hit by the tornado. My mom and I went back out there this afternoon to take a look at the damage and were able to talk with some people about it.
The first thing that had been really nagging me was whether or not the people in the car that was blown off the road were okay. It turns out, the car behind me did not get blown off the road. There was a separate "for sale" car that someone had placed out by the road. It still got blown around, but no one was in it.
Second, it turns out that one person was, indeed, living in the trailer home park that was hit. He was actually out at the scene today assessing the damage. He talked with me and my mom for a few minutes and said that he lost his home and the home that he was renting (or going to be renting?)to the tornado. He also said that he had no home insurance. It was really sad. I don't know what he is going to do, but he said we needed to leave after that because the police were coming to do some stuff there.
I was just happy to hear that there were no serious injuries in that area.
The first thing that had been really nagging me was whether or not the people in the car that was blown off the road were okay. It turns out, the car behind me did not get blown off the road. There was a separate "for sale" car that someone had placed out by the road. It still got blown around, but no one was in it.
Second, it turns out that one person was, indeed, living in the trailer home park that was hit. He was actually out at the scene today assessing the damage. He talked with me and my mom for a few minutes and said that he lost his home and the home that he was renting (or going to be renting?)to the tornado. He also said that he had no home insurance. It was really sad. I don't know what he is going to do, but he said we needed to leave after that because the police were coming to do some stuff there.
I was just happy to hear that there were no serious injuries in that area.
Bart_Comstock
EF5
Here is a quick video of some of the lightning Chris and I saw that I tossed together just now. This doesn't include any of the storms we witnessed in Arkansas and Oklahoma, just Missouri.
