05/22/07 REPORTS: KS

[Shane Adams]

Chad Lawson and I were among the few thousand chasers who observed the Graham County, KS tornado....however for us, it wasn't the icing, but the CAKE BABY!!!! So happy the day's incredible shear wasn't wasted with "perty" storms and no twistys. It was in between St. Peter and WaKeeney, but not really near either. I'm choosing to call it the "St. Peter" tornado because it sounds cooler IMO. Also watched the southern portion of the original split wrap up, get t-warned, and nearly do a tornado earlier in the same general area. After the tornado, for whatever reason, we couldn't decide on a storm, and spent the rest of the evening chasing our tails, running from one storm to another. And yet again, we found ourselves right in the middle of a potentially-tornadic storm after dark, just trying to get home. I'm tiring of nocturnal excitement in 2007.

 

[Dan Cook]

COD got the Hill City tornado as well:

 

[Jay McCoy]

Wont rehash everybodys report. kanani and I along with Phil & Kathy Henry also caught the Hill City tornado. We had been on the storm for over 90 minutes before it finally produced after a number of splits (always stay with the right mover)

Congrads to all and see you in Texas today

 

[Paul Knightley]

Well, today was a great chase day! Hung around Garden City until around 3pm, looking at the data, etc Decided to head north-east and then north towards an area of agitated cumulus. This quickly developed into a severe thunderstorm, with rotation evident. A funnel was briefly seen to the north in the older cell, but a newer cell was continuing to look very promising just to our west. This was the one we had been on from its inception. This cell soon developed strong rotation and a heavy hail core. By now we were just north of I-70, to the south-west of Saint Peter, KS. As we continue to zig-zag northwards, a new core was quickly developing to our SW, on the nose of the previous cell’s RFD. This began to drop marble to almost golf-ball sized hail on us, so we quickly dropped back south, and then headed east. This cell soon developed strong rotation, and it was from this area that a brief tornado developed – the video of that is here.

After that, new cells kept firing to the SW along the cold front, and after watching them for a while, including a couple of tornado warned cells, we decided to find an awning to shelter under in Ellis. However, as we were awaiting the storm’s arrival, a tornado warning was issued, and the sirens started blaring. The manager of the garage told us we had to get into the restrooms, but we declined and took off to the south. We passed just east of the rotation, and got south of it and out of harm’s way, although no tornado developed in the end. Plenty of marble sized hail, close lightning, torrential rain, and flooding on the roads made the drive interesting (Rob did all the driving in the storms, and did it very well).

Once the storm passed we headed into Ellis for some gas and a snack.

We then headed back to Garden City for a very late dinner, finishing at around 3am.


Pics here http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~paulkn/usa 2007/may22.htm

 

[Kevin Myatt]

Not much more to add to what has already been posted, so here's our photo (poor contrast) from the south side of the Graham County tornado in its cone stage, a closeup of the funnel by chaser Daniel Burton from our group and my thumbnail of the beautifully sculpted supercell.

More images and video of our Virginia Tech-UNCA group's chase trip at my weather blog at Roanoke.com.

 

[Daniel Christianson]

Add NE to the reports list, i had to work so there was no way into a KS chase, i was one the storms in Valley County and Custer County NE, i have to look back at video but i do believe i have a touchdown or 2 near Arcadia NE, spotters/law enforcement also reported a tornado, interestingly enough i didnt run into the hail but o well, the main thing about these HP's was RAIN RAIN RAIN, i took it slow home on Hwy 30 East, there were numerous towns with urban flooding, in Grand Island there was one spot where there was water up to my tires, if i went any fast the car would start to pull, also along Hwy 92 East there were some small limbs and branches down in places. all in all a long night for me hopefully we can get some action up here tonight again.

This doesnt look impressive, but this was taken in Custer County NE before moving into Valley County NE i have yet to review video of a possible tornado near Arcadia NE 7 miles Southwest, there was in fact some wind with the line so who knows. i know im slow but work keeps me busy and by the time im done im tired and just head to bed .

 

[Stan Rose]

Was on the same storm as everyone else, saw the tor south of hill city. Not much to add, just was glad to see a lot of familiar names and faces, and a couple terrific storms! Put some fresh dents in my jeep from golf-ball sized hail. Unfortunately, had to be back in CO today, so am hoping for a return of moisture to SE CO this afternoon, although it currently looks bleak.

 

[Jay Cazel]

Myself, Tyler Costantini, Chris Wilburn, Bart Comstock and the Alabama Storm Trackers were on that storm just south of Hill City Ks that everyone was on. The storm had great structure and then started to back bulid and had lots of hail with it. Got stuck on 283 hiway with the hail that storm was putting out, finally made it into WaKeeney and the storm was making a sound that I have never heard before, don't know if it was the hail or the winds or what but it had a roar to it. Headed east on I-70 to try to get in front of the cell and we got stuck when there was a tractor trailer filpped over and then that cell was dropping even more hail on us!

These two shots where from WaKeeney looking north at that storm.

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa149/jaycazel/05-22-2007-chase-52.jpg
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa149/jaycazel/05-22-2007-chase-51.jpg

 

[Eric Treece]

Not much else to say here that hasn't already been said.

 

[Ericka B. Gray]

Like everyone else, we were out chasing. Gorgeous day for fantastic structure, a few interesting splits, a beautifully formed tornado viewed by all the millions of chasers out in the roads and fields, meeting up with old and new friends in wifi and biobreak pit stops and fields. The southern portion of the original split wrapped up, got t-warned, and nearly dropped a tornado - I'm checking my photos since I was sure it had touched down as I was zoomed in but will go with the consensus on this one. All of this was capped off by dinner at Whiskey Creek in Hays, KS where we were told by the manager that the sirens were blaring and they did have a shelter (the basement), our waitress said that one of our orders was delayed since the cook had disappeared and another waitress would have to help us since she was heading to the basement (with terror in her eyes). The only people remaining were a few either terrified or fascinated staff and two groups of chasers who were eating dinner and watching the horizontal rain followed by marble sized hail while looking at the radar and listening to the warning being downgraded. Great day.



Ericka

 

[Brian Stertz]

A few pics from yesterday

This was the much chased Trego-Graham Co. supercell event...it is cool to see all the different angles and the great structure shots. Jaw dropping stuff yesterday for sure !! It was nice to follow the cyclical supercell evolutions across these 2 counties. Our chase crew (Scott Currens, Eric Flescher, and I) really had a good time and seemed to avoid the massive chaser convergence zones fortunately.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

I also found myslef on the Trego-Graham Co storm, alongside Sean M. We enjoyed the storms breathtaking structure and even the nice little tornado later in the evening it was peaceful to finally have some slow storm motions.

Pics and Video are up on my site found here.

http://www.severechase.com/5-22-07.htm

 

[John Wetter]

Great storm as everyone has mentioned. Started the day in Garden City and got to follow the cell up the whole way going from LP to classic to HP, cycling a few times and then a great tornado. The structure was the most amazing part.

Pictures Here

-John

 

[George Flickinger]

My photo looks similar to Jay Cazel's pic...you can see the same van in the shot.

But we also caught a bull snake on the trip!

 

[Evan Bookbinder]

What a day (good and bad). Picked our initial chase target of WaKeeney and didn't even have to move! We found a great location on CR253 about between Collyer and St. Peter and watched a multi-cell hail cluster near Park drift toward the NE and consolidate into a nice supercell with great structure. Turns out our location was great as we didn't have to move for over an hour! After a brief wall cloud, this storm became an HP mess, weakened, and a gorgeous bell LP formed immediately to its southwest. Soon our nice quiet spot with us and the birds/crickets had some 20 additional chase vehicles within visual on it.

This storm provided some of the best photographs I've ever taken, as it slowly evolved from LP to HP. Storm movement was OUTSTANDING with speeds less than 10 mph...amazing considering the 25-35 mph winds in the warm sector. We watched three mesocyclone evolutions in this transition, each with a brief wall cloud that was trying to make the best of 20-30 mph inflow and marginal low 60F dewpoints. The third evolution had a GREAT lowering and about 4 minutes of strong/violent rotation, but still no funnel. The hail core to our immediate N/NW was amazing with a solid curtain that was white as snow. After sitting in this location for more than an hour, we decided to head to the N/NE figuring the next mesocyclone evolution might be the one that produced a tornado. Contrast was getting poor with the storm now to our NNE.

Forecast = correct. Road decision = poor. After passing the remnants of 2"+ hail near St. Peter, it didn't dawn on me what that deluge had done to non-county maintained roads. I gave Joe Lauria the "take your next right" instructions, and didn't think twice that "K Rd" was a non-maintained dirt road. We could do nothing more than kick the tires, push, and rock the vehicle in 4WD for an hour in ankle deep mud before we finally had success. Turns out the very next right turn was a county maintained road...grrrrrrr!!!!

The one thing we noticed while uttering a plethora of curse words and fighting the mosquitos was the sudden transition in lightning that coincided with tornadogenesis. There had been quite a bit of IC/CC lightning the entire storm with almost zero CG strokes, but just after 7PM, the anvil/updraft IC/CC lightning went NUTS. We estimated some 3-4 flashes per second off to the NE.

Once unstuck, the drive back east on I-70 was going to be treacherous, knowing the very slow storm movement prevented us from waiting it out. My forest green Jeep Grand Cherokee was a solid dark brown and caked in mud. However, we were greeted with a free car wash near Ellis as a wind blown deluge of 0 vis rain and 3/4-1" hail gave us a good scrub wash. Flooding along the interstate was pretty amazing admist all the lightning with cars piled under every overpass. Most amazing was the temperature which briefly plummeted to 53F near Ellis.

We finally got back out ahead of the southern storm cluster near Hays and stopped to take some lightning pics. We both laughed as the vehicle was SPOTLESS. Unfortunately, the measured 40 mph southerly winds ruined every exposure I tried to take as my tripod could not hold steady.

Congrats to all those who got the couple of brief touchdowns and I'm glad to see everyone was able to photograph the amazing structure and evolution this storm provided.

Evan