dal archer
Sorry for the delay in posting, but I didn't get home until around 2:00 AM. Yesterday was a day of incredible ups and downs. Started out a little late from Tulsa area around 11:30 (equipment problems) and targeted an area in North Central Kansas.
Arrived in Salina around 3:00 or so and made a data stop at a BP station on the outskirts of Salina. We noticed that storms were already firing and upon heading further north we noticed a tower off to the west. This turned out to be the Concordia storm. By the time we started converging on it, the storm was already well to our north and the television station covering the event stated that the storm was moving to the northeast at 45 MPH! My chase partner and I then made a critical mistake. We chose to turn off of this storm and head back south in order to target anticipated development further along the dryline. (Totally stupid, huh?)
After heading further south, we found out that the storm was moving nowhere near 45 MPH and that it had also back built more to the south. After digesting this news (and pounding my head on the concrete) we realized that we were now committed to storms further south along the dryline.
We drove for quite some time in a southwesterly direction headed back to storms that were developing much further south and west around the Pratt, KS area. After watching some of these storms fizzle, I was thoroughly disgusted at turning off of the Concordia storm. There was one more cell that honestly to me looked rather weak at the time on radar that was closing in on the Harper, KS area. As we traveled toward Harper, I was quite surprised when they issued a tornado warning on the storm. We continued east and then south and spotted a developing funnel. We began to film and caught a beautiful slender tornado that stayed on the ground for 20 minutes. (We timed it while watching the film later). Just as quickly as it dissipated, we had another funnel drop and quickly touch down and it quickly became a beast. As it moved east of our position, I filmed until it became obscured in rain and as it moved off we had another very small tube that developed immediately to our east. It quickly dissipated and then we filmed two more funnels almost directly overhead (one vertical and one horizontal). I couldn't believe the action that we were getting, but I had a feeling that the tornado that we had lost sight of was the real show and as soon as we got back in the truck one of the Wichita TV stations was reporting that a large wedge was on the ground to our east.
This is where it gets frustrating. The tornado was tracking almost due east along Hwy 160. We wanted to track east along 160 and then hook back to the south and go around it, but the highway was blocked off for obvious reasons. We tried to take some back roads using the GPS (unfortunately in Kansas they don't believe in putting gravel on the roads, they leave them as dirt and this made for some nasty driving). Anyway, we finally found another east road (using the GPS) that would get us back in position and as we traveled east we found that a train had stopped and blocked off the road. As a result, we never could get back in position before dark.
Overall, this was an incredible storm. We got outstanding footage and most of the chasers in the area seemed to be rather sane when filming. I would like to thank Tim Vasquez for his nowcasting (he set us right up for the Concordia storm, which we foolishly turned away from - thankfully, we managed to make up for it later).
Arrived in Salina around 3:00 or so and made a data stop at a BP station on the outskirts of Salina. We noticed that storms were already firing and upon heading further north we noticed a tower off to the west. This turned out to be the Concordia storm. By the time we started converging on it, the storm was already well to our north and the television station covering the event stated that the storm was moving to the northeast at 45 MPH! My chase partner and I then made a critical mistake. We chose to turn off of this storm and head back south in order to target anticipated development further along the dryline. (Totally stupid, huh?)
After heading further south, we found out that the storm was moving nowhere near 45 MPH and that it had also back built more to the south. After digesting this news (and pounding my head on the concrete) we realized that we were now committed to storms further south along the dryline.
We drove for quite some time in a southwesterly direction headed back to storms that were developing much further south and west around the Pratt, KS area. After watching some of these storms fizzle, I was thoroughly disgusted at turning off of the Concordia storm. There was one more cell that honestly to me looked rather weak at the time on radar that was closing in on the Harper, KS area. As we traveled toward Harper, I was quite surprised when they issued a tornado warning on the storm. We continued east and then south and spotted a developing funnel. We began to film and caught a beautiful slender tornado that stayed on the ground for 20 minutes. (We timed it while watching the film later). Just as quickly as it dissipated, we had another funnel drop and quickly touch down and it quickly became a beast. As it moved east of our position, I filmed until it became obscured in rain and as it moved off we had another very small tube that developed immediately to our east. It quickly dissipated and then we filmed two more funnels almost directly overhead (one vertical and one horizontal). I couldn't believe the action that we were getting, but I had a feeling that the tornado that we had lost sight of was the real show and as soon as we got back in the truck one of the Wichita TV stations was reporting that a large wedge was on the ground to our east.
This is where it gets frustrating. The tornado was tracking almost due east along Hwy 160. We wanted to track east along 160 and then hook back to the south and go around it, but the highway was blocked off for obvious reasons. We tried to take some back roads using the GPS (unfortunately in Kansas they don't believe in putting gravel on the roads, they leave them as dirt and this made for some nasty driving). Anyway, we finally found another east road (using the GPS) that would get us back in position and as we traveled east we found that a train had stopped and blocked off the road. As a result, we never could get back in position before dark.
Overall, this was an incredible storm. We got outstanding footage and most of the chasers in the area seemed to be rather sane when filming. I would like to thank Tim Vasquez for his nowcasting (he set us right up for the Concordia storm, which we foolishly turned away from - thankfully, we managed to make up for it later).
