I was treated to a wonderful surprise in SC KS! After having chased 12 out of the last 17 days, I was totally dragging at work. Not really expecting any severe weather in the local area, I had not paid any attention to the outlook or current conditions for the day. I walked out of the office a little after 7pm and noticed a tower starting to go up to the south. I watched it closely on the drive home and couldn’t believe how fast this thing exploded. By the time I finished the 20-minute drive home, it developed into what you see in the picture below. In spite of being dog-tired, I threw my chase gear into the car and hit the road.
Ten minutes after leaving my house, it went tornado warned. My biggest challenge was overcoming the fact that I was on the N side of the storm. Based on its direction and speed, I planned to skirt around the backside of the RFD and come around to the S side of the storm. But when I got to the storm, it stalled out leaving me on the other side of the core. Normally, I’m not one to core-punch, but data coverage and road options were excellent, storm speed (or lack thereof) made positioning easy, and there weren’t any immediate signs of severe hail, so I decided to take a calculated risk and proceed forward with caution. As I worked my way through the core, I did not encounter any hail, just torrential rain. Once I got within two miles of the rotation, I waited for a fresh radar scan before moving any closer. I knew that I would come out right in front of the rotation and I did not want to run right into a tornado. At one point, I could partially see through the sheets of rain and was able to identify a very well defined wall cloud just past the heavy rain. Not seeing any lowerings, I decided to get out of the core and get to the other side. I knew that I was going to be very close once I punched through the core, but since the storm was stalled out, the timing felt right to me.
When I came out of the core, I was provided with a scene that nearly took my breath away...and it is one that I will never forget. One second, I’m in torrential rain. A split second later I’m thrust into a clearing with a fast-rotating, low-hanging wall cloud in the field right next to me. After having spent so much time in the rain, the clarity was simply amazing. I had also never seen a wall cloud rotate as fast as this one did. My location was approx 4 miles SE of Oxford. I continued to the south for one mile to put some separation between me and the wall cloud. I also called in a report to the ICT NWS office. The wall cloud lasted approx 10 minutes before pulling back up. It had plenty of rotation, but it did not produce a funnel.
I was really surprised by how slow this storm was moving to the SE, but even more surprised when it literally put itself in reverse and started moving back to the NW. I have never seen anything like this! After awhile, the storm resumed its south-easterly movement. As it started to get dark, several other chasers started showing up and the storm dropped another wall cloud that eventually produced a well-defined funnel. The funnel clouds would come and go, but the lowest I ever saw it get was about 75% of the way to the ground. I thought for sure this beast was going to produce a tornado, but I can’t say that it ever did. However, when the storm was very close to Wellington, I did see a scene similar to what Hank showed in his report. But in spite of excellent lighting conditions from all of the lightening, I could not confirm if it reached all the way to the ground. At the time, I would have said no. But after seeing Hank’s picture, it may have produced a very brief tornado. Soon thereafter, the approaching cell from the SW ruined the show.
This supercell produced a tornado warning that lasted approx 2 hours and the storm barely moved the entire time. Amazing! I was also happy with the fact that I had a totally impromptu chase that lasted almost 4 hours, and I only drove a total of 76 miles. It doesn’t get any better than that!
Bryan
