08/19/09 REPORTS: IL/MN/OK/KS

[Bryan Stokes]

I sat in Blackwell, OK for a couple of hours waiting patiently for something to break through. Although the RUC didn't show a large amount of CIN, it sure seemed like things were being held back. Several cells fired towards the NE near Ark City and Winfield, but they didn't look strong enough (or isolated enough) to produce, so I decided to hold my ground in case something fired in NC OK in more favorable conditions.

Even though it was a bust, it was a real treat to have these kinds of conditions in the second half of August!

Bryan

 

[John Farley]

Tornado near Roodhouse, IL

I caught a tornado just northwest of Roodhouse, IL, beginning at 2:15 p.m. this afternoon:

Youtube video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5Pm1nhiTMI#

This is the same tornado that about 5-10 minutes later caused significant damage on the north edge of Manchester, IL. After I got these pictures and video, the tornado disappeared in the rain, but it re-appeared briefly as it moved along route 67 on the north side of Manchester - now almost white as it was lit by the sun from behind the storm. But after a minute or so it disappeared in the rain, and I did not see it again. After checking for injuries at a destroyed mobile home, alerting ESDA to power poles down across railroad tracks, and dragging a downed sign off the highway, I was well behind the storm, but doubt there was anything more I could have seen from the back side of the storm, anyway. Looks like around a 6-mile damage path, maybe more.

I will post a full report with additional pictures in a day or two, as time permits.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Nice catch, John! I saw that couplet and knew there was a tornado in there but didn't know if anyone would ever be able to see it.

My girlfriend Tia and I saw the tornado that passed by Rochester -develop-. Emerged to see a blocky wall cloud to our west, turned around and already had a nice triangle funnel dipping out. The thing was a couple miles away and already wrapping in rain so contrast sucked but it was very apparent what was in there. It then wrapped in rain and quickly approached our location. I was quickly over taken by the wet RFD as the tornado caused damage probably a few hundred yards to one mile to my north. I knew it was close as the surface winds quickly shifted to out of the southeast and gusted to near 70 mph. I pulled off Highway 29 to pause for a moment as tree debris began going airborne.

[FONT=lucida sans typewriter, lucida console, courier]6 *TORN 3 E ROCHESTER IL (11 SE SPI) 19/1423
ROOFS AND SIDING DAMAGED ON HOME...TREES ILX/LSR 3975 8949
DOWN...COUPLE TREES LIFTED INTO CORN FIELD
[/FONT]

I should have quit there, as that was as good as it got for the day. I played the drop south game through the rest of the evening ending up along Interstate 70. Every storm looked promising on radar, but looked like absolute crap in person. They were all obviously outflow dominant and stood no chance. Even the storm far south near Vandalia which I thought surely had a shot given it's isolated nature south of the main complex, but it was nothing to write home about at all. The lessening of good directional shear the further south you got was likely part of the culprit. I stopped briefly to let the now linear complex overtake me in Effingham and was hit by a 5 minute window of 60 mph winds and some pea sized hail. Bleh. Hit I-57 and was back in Champaign by 8.

I'll upload a video of the funnel and such later... but the rain wrapped nature and wide angle lens leave much to be desired on this one.

EDIT:



Crappy video capture showing the funnel tucked away back there. Again, nothing impressive, but apparent what was going on.

Funnel / tornado is now wrapped in there in the notch of the HP supercell. Damage reports begin another mile or so down the road, so I'm not sure if it was on the ground at this point or not.

Tia can't believe she's been dragged out on another 2009 chase. "They look HP to me... are you sure you want to keep chasing?"

 

[Jeremy Jones]

I started off in Tonkawa, Oklahoma. After the first Cell fired Near the Enid area, I dropped down on I35 to US 412west, and stepped north on a gravel road to setup and shoot. I quickly realized that just as soon as it went up, it was going to die. I did get a couple of decent updraft shots before it died. So, I grabbed a burger at the Dairy Queen on the Billings Exit and headed for the house!

 

[Adam Lucio]

Caught a nice sheriff-nado!!!

Once storms crossed I-55 there was either

A- a key ingredient missing or

B- A major limiting factor.

Got on multiple tornado warned storms, all of them showed very impressive couplets on radar and Im shocked more of them didn't produce. I under-estimated todays potential so I got a late start. Congrats to all who scored.

Full log is up at my site.

 

[Joel Wright]

Hey congrats to you guys who captured today.

I didn't have to go too far this evening as a storm with weak rotation approached my own area. It wasn't all that impressive, but since it was so close it was definitely worth checking out.

Structure wasn't too bad. It had a bulging RFD core with some ragged looking lowerings just to the north of it. It just couldn't seem to tighten up. Ahhh, wish we had just a bit more surface instability!

 

[Matthew Piechota]

was southwest of the supercell that went through elkhart, IL by about 20 mins, we were on rd 10 going east to it and ran into major damage and could see the tornadoes path by the corn stalks in the field as well as the house and sturctures severely damaged.

after that we continued to the storm and saw two tornadoes. the first looking northwest and the second one was with the same storm about 15 minutes later as it was roping out.

pictures up on my blog

bataviastormchaser.blogspot.com

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Kansas and Oklahoma should be added

Tyler Costantini, Jordan Hamilton and I chased along the KS/OK border. Didn't see much except gusty winds and small hail but the lightning was intense. Here is probably one of the best lightning pictures I've ever gotten of CG lightning in front of Tyler's vehicle.

 

[Jeremy Jones]

EDIT: After getting home and swapping out batteries, and Mem. Cards I ventured out to do some lightning photography....and was blessed with
an incredible CG barrage!!

 

[Brian Emfinger]

There has been a lot of great lightning pics recently!

I got this this morning (from the complex that moved down from KS).

 

[Brad Williams]

Great shots everyone!

I thought I was going to get some great lightening shots last night but by the time I got set up, storms to the south took the energey from the storm I was going to shoot. I ended up with some interesting light in the clouds, but not much else.

 

[Von Castor]

As many of you I started the afternoon just north of Enid and watched the first cell collapse. As it did, and as Jeff Snyder mentioned in his edit from yesterdays NOW, there was a long rope looking funnel that appeared about halfway up (pics in the link). As this one was dying another was forming just to the south of Enid. Enough has been said about this one and I can't add anything to the discussion so I'll move on. After watching this second attempt in OK and following it to I35 I moved on north and made it to Sedan KS just in time for the southern Kansas show. One of my still pics from just east of Sedan appears to at least be a funnel if not a short lived tornado. If anyone has any reports of this I would be interested in knowing more.

http://gallery.me.com/vonandkimberly#100167

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

http://www.extremeinstability.com/09-8-19.htm

A few day'ish bolts from home on there. Extremely pathetic storms with very infrequent bolts, but even so a lot more than I expected from the stuff.

 

[Mark Sefried]

Intercepted a tornado roughly 13 miles East of Bloomington, IL at 4:35 pm. MY video turned out awful as I was trying to navagate, videotape, and report it to ILX via spotter network all at the same time. I should have stopped at one of the beanfields while I had a good clearing, however I wanted to get closer. There was no tornado warning issued for the storm until after local emergency management officials verified my report at 4:39 and then a tornado warning was issued. It appeared to be a mini supercell on radar that formed once the line broke up some. I don't see it in the LSR yet, however I have contacted ILX about it. It looks like it was on the ground for at least 3 minutes. Here are several video grabs. After what happened yesterday, I think it is about time I invested in a camcorder mount for my vehicle.

 

[Matthew Piechota]

here are some damage pictures from elkhart,IL yesterday around 3 30pm. the tornado pictures are about 25 mins after as we caught up to the storm and it produced 2 tornadoes.