05/22/07 REPORTS: KS

[Genaro Estrada]

Hill City Tornado

This was my first chase and first, actually 2nd, Tornado from the same storm! The first touched down in an adjacent county off in the distance, south of Hill City I believe. This beast was amazing, with a rapidly rotating meso at the core and great outflow/inflow balance for the entire life cycle of the storm. I was able to capture only the funnel stage of the tornado that was dropped in Hill City, because I ran out of battery power! We also heard a hail roar that was very eery but awesome at the same time. Here are are a few shots. Thanks to Tyler Constantini, Jay Cazel, Chris Wilburn, Bart Comstock, and the Alabama stormtrackers for helping me catch my first tornado and HP supercell. Also thanks to everyone at work, especially Dan Grams, for directing me to a LP cell in SW Texas.

 

[Mike Kovalchick]

Not too much to add that hasn't already been said about this storm. The storm split nicely with the Southern one explosively developing. (WxWorx pic shows the Northern split quickly fading away.)

I did note that shortly before the storm produced a tornado, there was a sudden increase in the inflow that created (briefly) a huge rotating column of dust/rain in the core of the storm which I thought at the time might be hiding a wedge.

The road that I was on (see pic) to view the tornado made me grateful that I had 4-wheel drive...

Video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyZqk4ixf2s

 

[Amos Magliocco]

One advantage to waiting so long to process my imagery for this chase is that I got to experience the thrill of this fantastic storm a second time. This was the sort of storm where it's hard to believe you were there. I haven't seen many more impressive. Ironic because I was worried about anvil winds, like others had noted in the forecast posts, and hoped we didn't see storms collapse right away.

Here's my report page with stills, video grabs, and a YouTube window.

Here's the text therein:

In Garden City I noticed the dryline bulge had pushed into southwest Kansas and a field of low cumulus formed in the confluence zone ahead of the boundary. Scott Eubanks and I moved northeast and observed enhanced cumulus in southern Scott County. Scott remarked that the rapidly exploding tower would probably wind up in Nebraska before the day was finished. He was right. We moved east on SR 4 and north on CR 1452 to maintain position on the impressively striated supercell.

We continued up to Interstate 70 and moved north out of Collyer on St. Peter Road. The storm nearly produced a tornado west of St. Peter while I had a great shot composed with an oil derrick in the foreground. The detailed vault emerged from the rain with a textured surface like an ice sculpture, deep grooves along the crown and a circular updraft base. It was one of those rare storms where you could discern the rotation of the entire cell with the naked eye. A breathtaking sight.

Yet it seemed high-based and after the show near St. Peter, our tornado prospects dimmed. I wasn’t sure where we were relative to the front or any boundaries and didn’t expect much more than we’d seen: brilliant structure and a well behaved supercell. We traveled dirt roads between St. Peter Road and SR 283.

From approximately ten miles south of Hill City on 283, near Togo, more great structure emerged from behind a rain shaft and rapid cyclonic shear at cloud base gave us hope. We didn't wait long. About 0005z, a tornado touched down five to seven miles east of St. Peter.

This storm was one of the finest I’ve seen in years. It developed the air-brushed appearance of the plains' most beautiful convection. The tornado was a bonus. I headed back for Texas soon after the long rope-out stage, chatting with Scott Blair on the radio as he drove home for a midnight shift at TOP NWS.

 

[Genaro Estrada]

Hill City tornado

Here is one more pic of the classic supercell near Hill City, Kansas on 5/22/07.

 

[Mike Kruze]

Watched from the Hays Comfort Inn

Finally getting a chance to post this now that my 2 week chase vacation is over. I chased Tuesday with Joe Nield and Geoff Fink in north central Kansas. We followed the Gove/Trego/Graham county cell. Not much more to add that hasn't already been said, but we were awed by the incredible storm structure and did see the brief tornado.

The day got even more interesting after the chase ended. We checked into our room on the third floor of the infamous Hays Comfort Inn about 2 minutes before the initial wind/rain/hail hit. The lobby was crowded with 30-40 hotel guests who were being encouraged to stay there by the hotel staff until the storm passed. The three of us went upstairs to the room to drop off our bags. Geoff and Joe went back down to the lobby, but I remained in the room to watch the storm move through from there. The room had a south-facing window (the lee side) looking toward I-70 and the Valero station just across the street.

For several minutes the wind was strong out of the NW but not severe (maybe 30 MPH), and there was marginally severe ~3/4" hail falling. I figured it would be a great opportunity to get some video of the wind-blown rain and hail lit up by the Valero station lights, so I stood at the window taking video of that. For several minutes, the wind and rain continued at a steady pace. But then, as Mike H and others have described, the wind very quickly increased speed. This took me by surprise and I backed away from the window (stupidly turning off the video camera in the process). This first period of very intense winds only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough to remove several construction cones from the Valero station, and deposit some construction fencing from US-183 onto the street in front of the Comfort Inn.

I returned to the window to film for several more minutes after the wind had subsided back to 30-40 MPH. However after about 2 more minutes, a second wave of very intense winds hit. For several seconds before the wind increased, there was a notable howling/roaring noise that I won't soon forget. It's an identical sound to what is on the video that Mike H posted to youtube. This basically scared the crap out of me and I booked it downstairs to the lobby. Going down the third floor hallway, the roof was making very noticeable creaking noises.

After everything had passed, we went outside to assess what had happened. The corner of the Comfort Inn roof that had peeled off was lying in the driveway on the southeast side of the building. On its way over there, it had clipped the back of a pickup truck and left a large dent. Nails from the roof were scattered all over the parking lot. Joe called up DDC to report the roof damage. The owners of the hotel arrived about 15 minutes after the storm had passed, and they no doubt had a long night ahead.

Some brief video from the first strong wind event is linked below... apologies for it chopping off but I wasn't about to stand in front of a window with that going on outside. At some point I'll post a longer video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfBC4Yxj6Q4

View from the Comfort Inn window just before the strongest winds:

 

[Michael Thompson]

More pictures from the 22nd. It seems I was not the only person on the outskirts of Hays, taking in the scene of the storm rolling into town, with tornado sirens screaming.

All pictures are clickable







After the tornado I had decided on a North - East - South dogleg from Hill City in order to get in front of the storm to where I thought a new meso would be located, instead I lost daylight fairly rapidly and had to punch though the structure below.

Finally a couple of structure pictures just north of Hill City ( closer to St Peter )

 

[Robert Edmonds]

Might as well also throw my comment in. I'm only now able to post because I went camping right after my storm chasing trip. Anyhow this day made my 5 day storm chasing trip worth it. I'd been going SE from MT and this was the 4th day doing this. Ended up meeting another friend out there. Saw the tornado along with the many other chasers out there. Here are my pics from that day...

and yes I did play with the contrast a little, and the larger versions are on my website...

It was a great day and very fun for me.

 

[Bill Doms]

This will help the SDS...lol. A photomerge I have been working on. Taken about 6 miles north of Utica KS.