06/05/08 REPORTS: TX/OK/KS/NE/IA/MN/MO/SD

[Doug_Kiesling]

Well that was fun... Another high risk day, another turbo charged day full of fun chasing.

This morning we stopped off in Hays Kansas to pick up some JATO (Jet-Assisted Take Off) units for the truck. They were not even enough to help out to keep up with the storms.

Pretty much just played the line today in Kansas and got on several tornadic warned storms. Not a bad day, just not something I think should have be high risk. But it was fun to get back to Hays Kansas.

I did stop and grab a screen cap of the radar while we were waiting around for the storms to fire. I think the storms were moving a little fast today.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

Jay Antle and I chased together today, targeting the dryline south of Salina. We arrived after initiation had already begun, as storms were becoming SVR-warned. The first supercell approaching our location was the one that went on to produce tornadoes in Clay Center. We moved south of I-70 on a gravel road west of Salina and north of Ellsworth. As the storm breezed past our location, we did get to see a wall cloud on the northern side of the storm base. The base transitioned into an impressive, stacked gust front as the wall cloud became obscurred by rain/downdraft. We repositioned east to stay ahead of the gust front, moving south on 135 out of Salina to briefly intercept a supercell moving up quickly from the southwest. Mike Akulow and company also pulled up to watch for a bit before that storm, which also appeared outflow-dominant and high-based, passed by.

The next storm was generating tornado warnings north of Pratt, so we continued south to intercept as it came near McPherson. We could not beat the core, so we decided to flank the storm and headed off on a highway to our east toward Marion. There was quite an interesting - and very high shelf feature, northeast of McPherson. The inflow passed back to our west and we continued to follow this storm, as it actually did have chaseable storm speed for a while between Marion and Junction City. We played leap frog with Bob Schafer several times through this area, as the storm went tornado-warned again as it came up to the south of Junction City. There were some intriguing inflow bands associated with this storm just before the tornado warning was issued, but we could only get glimpses of the meso at times due to the conditions. At one point we sort of, kind of thought we could make out a funnel-looking thingy, but cannot be sure - so we will chalk that up as a 'kindanado' or something, I guess.

Coming through Junction City and out of downdraft from new convection, we could get a view of the base of this storm as it approached Manhattan. Cannot for the life of us figure where the tornadoes were sighted through there. The storm was just really cold looking and wet, with scud everywhere. We managed to stay ahead of it until we got up to highway 24, where we gave up to head back to Lawrence before the storms went linear. I believe (but haven't gone back to look through the radar loops yet) that this may have been the storm that later bowed out and went through Falls City and into Holt County, Missouri, where reports of embedded tornadoes along the line are being recieved tonight, along with the closure of I-29.

All in all a very interesting and pretty satisfying day, despite the storm motions. Storms were quite elongated today, which is always interesting to me. We made a total of three supercell intercepts. We really didn't have high expectations moving into it, which was good. Thanks to Jay for coming along today and contributing his terrific experience - had a great time. I got some great photos (some really sweet mammatus, etc.) that I'll be posting when I have some time to sort through things.

Ooh - only real negative was I broke my data card today ... nice.

 

[Shane Adams]

We got exactly what I expected today. Got on the early stuff and intercepted two different tor-warned cells, but it was pretty much useless with 60mph storm speeds and, once again in 2008, rainy wrapped up mesos. We'd get in position for a "fly by" storm and each time it neared us, the bases would wrap in precip. It was glaringly-obvious this morning that today was a total loss tornado-wise, but you gotta chase it anyway "just in case".

 

[Jeff Snyder]

We "intercepted" severe embedded HP supercells and assorted thunderstorms from NE of Great Bend to S of Wichita between 1 pm and 7:30 pm, hoping southward for the next storm as we watched the nearest one fly by at speeds that would be fast for March and April.

The first storm we intercepted was between Ellsworth and Great Bend, KS, not too long after 12:30 pm. This supercell had some decent structure, with striations evident and even a wall cloud for a brief period. From our first view of it, it looked a HP (lots of precip wrapping behind the updraft). This storm flew by us, and we waited for the next one to come up from the GBD area. This 2nd storm was outflow-dominant trash. Oy. So, we dropped south towards Bushton (NE of GBD) to watch the 3rd storm come by. This one had a nice shelf cloud and outflow, but never looked close to being tornadic.

On to the 4th storm... We dropped S towards Lyons and watched a big, wet RFD pass just to our west as a meso wrapped up. There was a weak vortex signature in the W-band data we collected, but it was not terribly impressive (visually or in data). In keeping with the plan of the day, we then dropped south to the next cell that was intensifying near Pratt. We didn't see much in the cloud-base motion, but we did drive through a very serious "appendage" that jutted E from the primary core (IIRC -- only glanced at DDC data at this time). We experienced very strong southerly winds in visibility that couldn't have been more than 10-20 feet in very dark lighting. After we drove through this, it was on to the 6th storm that was approaching Hutchinson. We tried to deploy NW of HUT, but it was approaching too quickly and looked, again, very HP (although the cloud base was very low). We ended up driving E through HUT on the north side of the updraft, where we experienced many golfballs and a few hailstones as large as tennis ball. I submitted this via SN to ICT, though the submission had to wait ~5-10 minutes and about 3-5 miles until we cleared the hail zone (I may send this update to ICT, but it appears that they did an LSR for Blair's report of tennis ball to baseball sized hail just S of HUT). At any rate, we gave a brief thought to try to keep up with it, but quickly realized such an effort would be fruitless.

We drove towards ICT and noticed a very impressive LEWP developing near the OK/KS border, with a velocity couplet evident shortly thereafter. A lowering passed by just to our W while we were just N of Wellington on I35, but it too quickly passed by. We ended up driving through very strong winds and heavy rain for the next ~20 miles until we got into OK. We still held out a bit of hope that cells near I40 would break away from the line, but that was not to be. Had dinner in Guthrie, then headed home.

This day went somewhat as planned, but I was surprised to see that so few storms were ever able to break away from the NE-SW or NNE-SSW line. Some of the storms we saw were outflow dominant, and the others looked to be big, wet HPs. It is certainly very, very rare to see such an intense trough come so far south this late in the season (80kts near 500mb in OK in JUNE?!).

 

[Darrin Rasberry]

Whiffed Nebraska and turned around. Joked a bunch for a few hours while driving and sitting in Seward like comedians. Headed back to Iowa hoping that stout CAP would break; it didn't.

Our chase is pretty much summed up in an intercept of a "tornado" near Cumberland, IA. Law enforcement reported it. We saw these officers on the side of the road in the exact position where the storm report came over. Nothing. Heck, there might have been something somewhere in that mess, but we didn't see it.

Nothing much else to report. It was a fun, lighthearted, joking day once we realized and got it out of our systems early in the afternoon that nothing really interesting was going to happen. Yesterday was much better storm-wise, but even though all three of us sank lots of money into this chase, today was excellent for meeting people, unwinding and learning to accept a crappy situation, and finding a way to get our butts kicked by a sheriffnado despite all of it.

 

[Dick McGowan]

Hardly any data all day (not that it mattered), but several of us intercepted a pair of tornado-warned storms in NC/NE KS...this one in Pottawatomie county, KS:

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

Man what a day. We thought today could be an awesome setup minus the storm motions. It wasn't by far. We got on the first Tor-warned cell of the day near Chase, KS which had incredible structure before blasting away. We also had a close encounter with a snake, but that's a different story. Then we dropped south and intercepted a Tor-warned cell near Nickerson, KS that had great structure as well and rapid rotation. The final Tor-warned cell we intercepted south of Hutchinson, KS and it was a BEAST as it plowed towards us. It seemed outflow as it was producing numerous gustnadoes a few of which we filmed. We later intercepted the Tor-warnd part of the bow echo near Haysville, KS, but didn't see anything decided then to wait it out in a car port as the bow echo produced extreme straight line winds, heavy rain, and some hail. We later came across fairly significant damage to a gas station in Rose Hill, KS. Pics a bit later as well as a video.

 

[Tim Marshall]

SHORT: Sampled four supercells today between SLN and HUT. Got what was expected: racing HP storms.

LONG: Target was SLN. Around noon, a line of storms began to develop to our southwest near GBD so we headed there and sampled the first supercell north of town. The storm was HP type and raced off toward I-70 at about 70 MPH. The second storm sampled was just southeast of GBD. It had a little better structure with striated updraft, but also was HP type and raced off to the northeast at 70 MPH. The third supercell was better yet. The storm was more isolated and came out of the Pratt area. We intercepted the HP storm south of Sylvia and watched a nice wall cloud race by. The fourth supercell was the best of the lot at HUT. It had a sharp anvil jutting through the blue sky, inflow bands, and nasty looking core. As this storm approached HUT, we headed east on Rt. 50 only to find road construction, heavy traffic, and poorly timed stop lights. The core, with baseball hail, nearly caught us. We dove south to Rt. 96 just in the nick of time and ended up the day at ICT watching the squall line pass. Now its back to Dallas for a few days before heading out one last time before my vacation ends. Heard about those elephants that were on the loose at the WaKeeney circus. I'm afraid those were the only slow moving elephant trunks today. TM

 

[Bob Schafer]

Yesterday was both a fun and frustrating day. I left Larned KS (W of GBD) in the morning and headed for Hays. With storm motions of 70mph, I thought I'd just cruise I-70 eastward all day and watch the storms as they raced by me. The DL crossed 183 as I drove N, and I passed several bicyclists out in the middle of nowhere on 183 with no apparent support vehicle. I slowed and asked one of them if they knew there was a severe wx outbreak forecast, and he replied "yes", so... ok.

100 miles after leaving Larned, driving along 70, I saw that the day's first storms were about to pass over... Larned.

I never tried to pursue any embedded cells once they passed me, but got a good look at three different mesos throughout the day as I continued to drop south and east. These vidcaps are from W of Lindsborg at 2019Z:

 

[Jason Branz]

Started in GLD with Manross, caravaned east with Pietrycha, watched the first stuff of the day fire to the south. The southern end of the line had a fantastic backshear look to it, and there were new towers apparent north of I-70. These towers didn't do much initially, so we focused our attention south. Thought about dropping south in Wilson, but headed east to 81 and went north to wait. Near Bennington we watched the updraft race by. It exhibited pretty nice structure, with the meso spinning north of KS18. We followed it east, then broke off of it and went south for the next one. We shoulda stayed with the first one as it went up to Clay Center. Oops. Decided in SLN to break off the chase and start back west to CA.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I couldn't decide on NE or sc KS. I leave McCook and opt for sc KS. I made it to Osborne KS when those storms fired early on the dl. Knowing the mid-levels weren't supposed to veer much till later on, and seeing the boundary sort of nne-ssw, I said screw that and flew back north. One early cell fired in n KS or sw of Hastings on the border, as I get to about Hastings. I stayed way north of that thing all the way into northern NE near Bartlett, waiting and waiting for it to root better and turn right. I was just barely in its sprinkles the whole time, with no view of it. I thought I was doing well, but the thing never rooted. I was near the ones that did in n NE near O'Neill, but just had no chance to beat them west of O'Neill, so I didn't try. Almost did. Went back east on highway 70, staying well east of things, waiting for at least a severe line. I knew that was a lost cause with the big storms now in ne KS, turning over the air these storms would have to use. 1000 miles the last two days for some night time hail, and that's it. It's getting really old anymore.

Oh yea, I was coming south towards Albion, into some small town, I forget the name. This ahead of the weak line late evening. I see a bunch of people in town, as I'm still half mile out or so. I say outloud to myself, "What, are they having a circus?" I meant parade. I get into town and see what all the fuss is. The DOW/Discovery/Tiv crew was there with all their vehicles in the middle of town. I thought it was funny, since I just misused the word circus. They almost have enough vehicles in their convoy(now two tivs).

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

Finally got the pictures uploaded from yesterday's chase.

The first pic is of the first Tor-warned supercell of the day about a mile east of Chase, KS looking west along US56.

The second pic is of the third Tor-warned supercell of the day SW of Hutchinson, KS.

The final pic is of the snake that almost took me out. Thank god it didn't bite when I walked by it. That surely pissed it off though. I didn't even realize it was there until it started hissing. I am usually aware of snakes when I'm out there, but the one time I don't look there is one sitting there. Luckily it wasn't deadly was just a rat snake.

 

[Tony Laubach]

This was the highlight of my day... oughta tell the tale in itself.. LOL

We positioned in northern Nebraska and pretty much watched the Kansas storms cirrus overhead and kill the temperature. Nothing every got going up there, and we turned in for the night in York before the sunset. We knew we had no chance to catch the southeastern Nebraska/southwestern Iowa storm, so we decided an early night was best.

 

[Jeff Bartlett]

Identical Storms

Michael,

That is beyond eerie. I took a photo from east of Medford on highway 11 looking to my south trying to outrun a large bowing line of ugliness. Our photos are nearly identical. One was in Kansas and one was in Oklahoma, yet one was tornado warned and the other wasn't. Strange day all around. You obviously have good taste in photo op's!!!!

 

[Jeff Bartlett]

6-5-08 Report

I decided to play the OK option but stay in extreme northern OK on Hwy 11 so I could shoot up into KS into the High Risk zone if necessary. On my way up I-35, at the junction of highway 15, I noticed the first of about six horseshoe vortices that I would witness throughout the day.

It became obvious as storms fired along the line and then moved at light speed to the north-northeast, that trying to catch up with anything north of the border was nearly impossible. I would have ended up in South Dakota by the time I would be able to get under any of those. Therefore I decided to stick around OK and get in the way of something as it blazed past. I stuck around the Great Salt Plains and Jet, OK area while storms erupted to my west and tried to isolate themselves.

This is what I call a serious wall of rain. There is actually precip behind this rain shaft, but this area seemed particularly intense.
As the storms developed and pushed NNE, it soon became very apparent that they were not going to isolate and were forming a line. At that point I went into artsy mode and tried to find some nice shots.

The above shot was looking to the WNW towards the town of Cherokee (which is on the OTHER side of the lake from this picture) either during or just before the Mesonet reported straight line winds of 98 mph. I noticed some strange things going on in the sky in that direction just prior to the shot, and I am going to assume that their extreme wind gust could have been generated by a downburst/microburst of some kind.

I didn't dare venture onto the Salt Plains with sustained non-storm-related winds of 35 to 45+ mph. But I think this was a good decision since my face may have been ripped from my skull out there.

I tried to stay east of the now bowing line segment, but I did get munched a few times. Apparently, crops were harvested recently, as the amount of blowing dirt and dust in this part of the state was truly insane.

Pretty much looked like this all the way from Medford to I-35, just ahead of the bow. I now know what a tumbleweed sounds like when it hits the side of your car after being driven by winds like these. Sounds like a steer or small rhino charging your vehicle, but does zero damage. Strange.

I wrapped it up around Hunter, OK and took a few more pics that I can always look at in the winter just to remember what living on the Plains in storm season is all about.

(Wheat on the left of me, corn on the right...here I am, stuck in the middle with you....) Geez. Couldn't resist.