05/10/05: TALK: NE/IA/IL

[Dick McGowan]

Mike Johnston and I are heading home from storms in shelby county and audubon county IA. Wall cloud footage, funnel clouds, ground circulation 300 yards away! will post full chase report and pics later. Ahhhhhhh get up at 430 for work, leave early hopefully. then do this all over in west ks somewhere. Heard about kearney, can't wait to see everyone's photos.

 

[ChrisStrunk]

Local TV meteorologist is expecting current tornadic supercell in NE to continue moving east and to continue with a strong possibility of producing tornadoes. In the next hour or two, it will be in the Lincoln, NE area. Anyone heading along/near I-80 towards Lincoln for the next couple hours needs to stay away from this storm...

Also, all along I-80 around Omaha and eastward, storms are rapidly intensifying.

 

[rdale]

"Anyone heading along/near I-80 towards Lincoln for the next couple hours needs to stay away from this storm... "

That might go counter to the purpose of chasing?!?

 

[ChrisStrunk]

Haha, true... OK, if you are trying to make it home safe, stay away from this storm... :wink:

 

[ChrisStrunk]

Outflow is currently killing the storm and it looks like it's tornado threat is diminishing. However, it is still possible that it could somehow manage to hold together through the outflow from the other storms. Things are now just getting messy now....

 

[J.B. Dixon]

Just got back to Seward after meeting up with Randy Chamberlain, Steve Pederson and Mike Hollingshead. Flat-out beauty of a supercell north of GRI. I've only seen pictures of a stom like that from the Texas Panhandle. Plates opon plates opon plates!! It didn't have to TOR, it was incredible as it was. Every chaser and their dog (well, at least mine anyway) were out there on this one, so there will be great video and pics. And I'm sure Hollingshead will rub it in all our faces, as he got some jaw-dropping stills.

Time to get mine downloaded


EDIT--the W. IA sup looked like an absolute beast on radar......how many tor reports on that??? Yeesh.

EDIT 2- This Seward Co. storm petered/outflowed out about a half-hour ago. It looked VERY menacing coming east out of York Co. though.

 

[Tony Laubach]

I just gave Amos a heart attack with my mock SPC outlook...

We're in Salina, Kansas, probably too far south and east for tomorrow as northwest Kansas looks like crazy good... we had a helluva day today in Central Nebraska with the Grand Island storm which was the most beautiful storm I have ever seen! It was incredible! Lots of pictures and stories, including Amos and I's Sonic dinner in York when tornado sirens sent us north and falling hail and a nighttime tornado (which Verne and crew nabbed) sent us running with our tails between our legs... what a day! Six for six for non-bust chases and another promising day tomorrow... will try and update more in the morning.

 

[Nic Wilson]

Bill Taylor and Josh Boustead, a forecaster at NWS OAX nabbed two brief tornadoes on the Audobon Co. IA supercell and numerous RFD surges that picked up a great deal of dust. From all accounts it was a very photogenic storm as well. If only I wouldn't have had a 25 page paper due tonight....doh! Let the wizard of oz jokes begin as we all head to KS tomorrow!!

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

It is late, I need sleep but here are a couple teaser shots from the Grand Island supercell.

[Broken External Image]:http://www.extremeinstability.com/stormpics/temp1.jpg

[Broken External Image]:http://www.extremeinstability.com/stormpics/temp2.jpg

[Broken External Image]:http://www.extremeinstability.com/stormpics/temp3.jpg

Many more to come, as well as a real report. Congrats to those who bagged a nice storm or tornadoes today. I personally didn't see a single tornado out of this.

 

[Scott Taylor]

gorgeous storm Mike, man I wish I could be out there.

Excellent pics, show me more!

Scott

 

[Cstok]

WOW!! Mike those are killer shots.... Now I'm gonna go cry in my beer.... 11 more days until I'm out there... *sniff*

 

[Amos Magliocco]

Mike called me at one point yesterday during this storm and asked, "Is this a good enough Nebraska storm for you?" LOL. The answer is HELL YEAH. I was glad Mike was there because a storm that beautiful needs great documentation. We drove south late into the night, and have now moved east to Colby, so I haven't had time for any pics, but this storm was one of the top three I have ever seen, and it was stacked, striated, and violently rotating for over three hours.

I saw many funnels and RFD plumes that could have been reported as tornadoes, or maybe they were tornadoes, I don't know. I didn't see anything I thought was a tornado, but Verne Carlson and his crew spotted a full nighttime tube on the southernmost meso.

I was thrilled with this storm, particularly since at around 23z, Neal Rasmussen and I were talking on the phone about how much longer we'd wait before heading south. Right after our last call, cu formed all over, and the GRI mothership began. I'll never forget this storm. I'll post a full report in the right place later.