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.

 

[John Moore]

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/l107/pjkerrin/RobertsCountyMeso.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!

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!

 

[Jason A.C. Brock]

I Chased from the Pampa are toward Perryton then back to Borger then back to Perryton. Someone really should build a nice road between 15 and 70 besides FM 281. This area is almost as bad as Throckmorton County as far as bad road networks and lots of hills.
I have a rule for myself....if I cant take a pic of it and later show it to someone and they say OMG look at that tornado then I dont count it. I saw many wall clouds and funnels and tons of rotation but never the good photogenic tornado. The motion in some of these sthing I dont doubt there were tornadoes but not anything jsut jaw droppingly photogenic. The highlight was actually seeing the structure near dark of the same storm TIV was trying to get to but had a ahrd time due to the bad road network on 70 as well. That thing looked like the mothership from independence day! Also tons of hail SE of Perryton actualy made the road slick and look as tho it snowed.
I did have someone pass me while I was going 70 in the rain in a no passing lane.....not only passed me but 2 other cars ahead of me at the same time. They had to be doing 100 to pull that off. Perhaps ill save the storm pics and jsut post their vehicle passing me.
Also dont stand in the road and take pics...if your going to cross the road then get ALL THE WAY ACCROSS IT before you stop.
I was also surprised at the 18 wheelers passing other cars trying to go slow by the chaser hordes rather than slowing down themselves....the truckers had enough and just blew past everyone....I am glad some poor soul with a tripod didnt get sucked uderneath one of them.

 

[Dan Dawson]

Quick summary here before I go to bed. It's been a long day to say the least, but with a great ending! I chased today with Gabe Garfield and his girlfriend Heather, leaving Norman about 1:30 p.m.. We targeted Woodward and points west initially, and got on the promising storm that developed near Arnette. This storm had good structure for a while, with a good beaver tail, and a couple nice wall clouds. However, the rotation in low-levels was weak and the storm quickly got munched by another developing storm to its west. So, we followed that one west of Buffalo for a while, and watched it go through a similar evolution (nice mid-level striations, but junky low-level structure with weak rotation). This storm died as it crossed into Kansas, so we blasted south on 283 and then jogged west into Lipscomb County, TX where we stumbled across a large HP supercell with beautiful structure and very impressive, frequent lightning. We saw a few ambiguous lowerings and possible funnels, but nothing obviously tornadic. As this storm gusted out dramatically, we headed west to Booker to visit Heather's parents and have a bite to eat (they were gracious enough to let us take a pit stop at their house). While there, we noticed on radar that a couple more tornado-warned supercells with strong rotation had developed to our southwest, so we decided to blast south on highway 23 to get ahead of the lead storm. We were able to get south of it and turn back around to look north, in perfect position and timing to view a large multiple vortex tornado backlit by lightning form just to the west of the highway west of Lipscomb around 10:30 p.m. The multiple condensation funnels appearing out of the dark in periodic lightning flashes made for quite an eerie scene. I was taking video at the time, and I'll have to go back through and see if I can capture any decent stills. This tornado crossed the road and lasted about 5-10 minutes before dissipating. At one point I clearly saw several condensation funnels in an "eggbeater" configuration, but my impression was the rotation of the parent tornadic circulation was not particularly vigorous. Nevertheless, it was quite satisfying to witness after such a long day!

 

[Bill Hark]

Today was a very long chase with great storm structure and lightning but no tornadoes. I initially chose a northerly target near Meade, KS and waited for a couple of hours. A PDS (Particularly Dangerous Situation) tornado watch was issued for my area. I waited and watched. There was some cumulus but it wasn’t showing much evidence of development. Storms began to develop in a line across the Texas Panhandle including an isolated storm to my south in Beaver County, Oklahoma. The storm was moving slowly to the northeast. I decided to abandon my target area and blast east on 160 and south on 283. Luckily, I didn’t blast to hard as I saw some chasers had been caught speeding on 283. I could see the developing storm to my south with a crisp updraft. It is no fun to see a storm develop and being too far away. A tornado warning was issued for west of Buffalo, Oklahoma. I continued south and had initially planned to go east to intercept the storm. I reached Laverne at 5:00PM. The line of storms was filling in, and my initial storm was weakening. There was a stronger and isolated storm to the southwest. I continued south on 283, then west on 15 into Texas toward Follett. I was still very out of position. The storms to my southwest were not moving as fast northeastward as I wanted. Instead, they were backbuilding. At 5:30PM, I turned south on 305. I wanted to get east of the main storm before it cut off my northerly approach. The road options in the Panhandle are terrible. I was getting close to the core of my target storm though the best area of rotation was still to the southwest. I drove west on 3260 past the intersection with southroad 1920 to get a better view of the storm. County road 1920 was my escape option. At 5:51, I could see inflow bands going into the storm and at 6:05, I could make out the rotating updraft through the rain. It was getting closer and the meso was clearly visible by 6:15PM. It appeared to be a giant striated cylinder that was slowly rotating. The storm was moving slightly northeasterly into an area with even poorer road options. I was going to go east and then north to follow the storm but it began to weaken. A better storm was forming behind it. Once the core had passed, I turned back west on 3260 to intercept the next storm at 6:28 PM. There was a huge chaser convergence (6:28PM) where west road 3260 intersected with north south State Road 15. The storm was to the west slowly moving northeast. I filmed for a while then headed northward to follow the storm on 23 passing Wolf Creek at 6:44PM. Eventually, the core started to block the route north. I didn’t want to be munched by large hail and turned around. At one point, a low hill blocked my view, and I could see a helicopter by the storm filming something. As I passed the hill, I got a view of the storm at 7:11 PM looking southwest, and there was a wall cloud. It was weakly rotating. I stopped and filmed but no tornado. Here is another view at 7:13PM. There may have been a brief tornado earlier from that wall cloud that I missed. Arrghhhh!!!. When the wall cloud dissipated the storm was approaching my location, I dropped south, then back east on 3260 for a few miles to observe the storm. Dave Lewsion gave some nice radar updates. The storm was pulsing in strength but any tornadoes would be difficult to see through the rain. Meanwhile, there was a very isolated storm northwest of Stinnett. There was nothing competing with its inflow while my current storm had many nearby storms. I decided to bag it and blast back west on 3260, south on 23. I reached 281 at 7:53PM and went west. I turned south on 70. The storm was to west but moving very slowly. There were no west options except a dirt road near the Canadian River. The storm was showing extreme shear and was approaching just north of my location. I was worried it would be too dark. I turned west for about a mile on the dirt road at 8:19PM and waited for the storm. A sheriff parked next to me, and I showed him the radar and storm positions. I didn’t want to go farther west due hearing about flash flooding. I also chatted with Dave Patrick via cell phone who had higher resolution radar. The storm came into view as another violently rotating updraft. A colleague of the sheriff radioed that he briefly saw a rain wrapped tornado. I didn’t see anything though a vague lowering is evident on video stills. I watched the storm until well after dark. The lightning was continuous. I finally left and drove to Amarillo where I am currently staying at the Big Texan.


Briefly isolated storm in Beaver County. 4:24PM.

http://www.harkphoto.com/052307initstorm.jpg

The meso comes into view. 6:12PM

http://www.harkphoto.com/052307initmeso.jpg

Another view of the meso
http://www.harkphoto.com/052307meso2.jpg


Looking back at the supercell as I change positions

http://www.harkphoto.com/052307superback.jpg

There were many chasers on the storms.

http://www.harkphoto.com/052307chasers.jpg

View of the new meso and wide view looking west from 15 at 6:40PM

http://www.harkphoto.com/052307storm.jpg
http://www.harkphoto.com/052307stormwide.jpg

Looking southwest from 70 at 7:11PM.

http://www.harkphoto.com/052307aftertor.jpg

Same area at 7:13 with weakly rotating wall cloud

http://www.harkphoto.com/052307wall.jpg

The new storm north of the Canadian River at 8:51PM

http://www.harkphoto.com/052307beast.jpg

The Tornado Intercept Vehicle actually attempts the dirt road.

http://www.harkphoto.com/052307tiv.jpg

At 8:43, a lowering was visible. No actual rotation seen.

http://www.harkphoto.com/052307lowering.jpg


Today is a down day. I am staying at The Big Texan in Amarillo.

Bill Hark

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

Had a OK chase yesturday. Left KC at noon and targeted west of Woodward. We sampled the TOR-warned storm near Hutchinson around 3:30 or so. It had a very large wall cloud that was low to the ground and rapidly rotating. We dropped back south and headed west. Saw yet another TOR-warn storm almost drop a tornado on us! But we knew we had to continue to our target which had a monster storm developing drove all the way to Protection as the storm dissipated and drove back to Pratt, quite angry and had dinner at the KFC that took 20 minutes! So much for fast food.

 

[Ericka B. Gray]

South from Hays, KS, we passed Greensburg and saw of the amazing devastation there. Trucks were carting debris to from the town to a site to be burned. What a sobering start to a chase.

We were then 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. There were many lowerings as you know but we can't confirm any touchdowns. Lot's of amazing action with a constantly changing beast. As that became outflow dominent, we headed on and played with the next beast. Then on to Canadien for dinner and motel - or not. This was not a hospitable town and the surly reception desk person didn't seem to care to assist at all. After making lots of calls and comparing options for food and motels (very few), we made the trek to Amarillo while watching an amazing light show. We arrived at the motel to find the police Crime Scene Unit taking fingerprints off the door of the office. Surreal. Apparently an attempted robbery (no gun) of about 5 motels in a 1/2 hour period had recently occurred. Dinner at Denny's to cap off the day.