10/26/2006 REPORTS: KS / OK / TX

[Mike Umscheid]

An awesome gentleman's chase south of Dodge City, KS this afternoon... provided me my first tornadoes of 2006, lol. I left DDC around 2pm after waking up at 1pm to a situation with the front being farther north than I had thought it would be. I noticed an east to west oriented cloud roll on the 1km VIS in northern Meade to Clark County early in the afternoon and I set my sights on that area. After favoring south...then east aways, I backtracked to Minneola and had my eyes on a very well developed updraft base to my west.. which was rather elongated. The first tornado I saw was a brief translucent "landspout" type tornado on the flanking line near the Meade-Gray county line southeast of Montezuma looking to my southwest. I was still watching the area to my northwest with more interest, however cloud bases were much lower thanks to being north of the boundary. About 10 mins later, another larger dusty tornado was visible to my south-southeast along the flank.

The flanking area seemed to be where the action was, so I headed back south. As I went south, now an even larger dusty tornado was occuring (I think #4 at this point, I don't really remember). and moving towards me. This big dusty column reminded me a bit of Roger Hill's awesome dusty tornado from the Brown County, SD supercell in 2002. It was really churning at ground level. It eventually dissipated only to be followed by another in the distance to my southeast. At this point, I had lost track, to be honest with you.. oh yeah, I almost drove underneath one circulation that was only visible by the floating tumbleweeds rotating cyclonically like right in front of me in a field. At this point, I'm on the county line of Ford and and Clark, about 4 miles northwest of Minneola. I honestly didn't know which direction to focus on because there was vorticity in just about all quads... which also meant something could spin up right in front of me. i then look back to the northwest again towards the parent storm and notice a wonderful occluded tornado cyclone/tornado. I saw at least 3 of these severely occluded tornado cyclone/tornado hybrids... likely F0 cyclonic circulations underneath them, so then I guess you could call them tornadoes... they were certainly cone-shaped large funnels/tornado cyclones.

I get to US 283 at the county line of Ford-Clark about 3 N Minneola and yet another bonafide tornadic circulation is kicking up very dark dust... very tight circulation...with a condensation funnel above it about 1/4 of the way to the surface. The condensation funnel never reached the surface, but it didn't matter to me... it was a beautiful sight with the dark debris cloud beneath it. This tornado was to my southwest moving towards me and US283. I did shoot some telephoto shots of the debris cloud, and they turned out pretty good with some careful processing... there was harsh backlight. The tornado crossed 283 right in front of me to the south about 1/3 mile away, but it was fairly weak at this point...however enough to loft tumbleweeds several hundred feet into the air. I photographed this ground action right as it crossed the highway...with a sherrif on the opposite side of the tornado watching the same thing. This tornado was meeting its demise after passing the highway. To my north, however, at this same time, one of those large tornado cyclones was crossing 283. I could never confirm condensation to the surface, but it was darn close... more than likely damaging circulation beneath it... probably 3 miles to my north.

I then take a breath, head into Minneola and drive east-northeast on US-54 to stay with the storm. As I do this, I could see yet another big dusty tornado in the distance...cloud bases were so low that it was tough to discern much structure to these dusty tornadoes when they are more than 4 miles away. After about 1 mile drive east of Minneola, I see another tornado to my north while driving...this one is a full condensation funnel trunk, but somewhat low contrast and being 4 miles away at least with the cloud bases so low... I could not see a whole lot of the tornado. The last tornado cyclone occlusion I photographed (of the ~3 of these types that I saw) was about 3 miles northwest of Bloom looking to the west-northwest. So, all in all, I don't know how many tornadoes I saw, but I photographed probably 7 or so unique tornadic circulations for the whole chase... with at least 3 that went un-photographed... so 10? A cold-core setup gone mad!

Mike U...whew

 

[Simon Brewer]

Mark McGowen and I were near Bloom, KS and documented many tornadoes in that area, then proceeded east and documented another 3 low-topped supercell tornadoes off of 3 separate mesocyclones. At one point there were two distinct landspouts on the ground, and both dissipated directly before another supercelluar tornado touched down. All the tornadoes were fairly dusty, but some had a strong appearance. We ended up documenting 7-8 tornadoes today in Kansas.

We were not able to get incredibly close to any of the tornadoes, but we did get within a mile of the last tornado we saw north Protection, KS. The last tornado was the most picturesque for us, with a nice white cone sheathed in a thin layer of brown dirt with a tubular middle section, a tight, dark, debris cloud at the surface, and a white collar cloud wrapping around the whole tornado with the entire updraft in view! Incredible day!

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Gabe Garfield, Dan Dawson, Rebekah Labar, Heather ?, and I headed to play the warm front near the OK/KS border this afternoon. By mid-afternoon, a nice wall of TCU was bubbling just north of the border along a front that was one of the most visibly evident that I've ever seen (marked change in visibility, solid line of soft, low Cu, etC). We watched Tcu bubble up and down, with marginal CAPE likely the inhibiting 'ingredient'. By later afternoon, however, a more substantial updraft developed right on the front. The base was smooth, and the rotation at cloud-base, while organized only for short intervals, was relatively impressive (very turbulent). A glance at radar indicate substantial development of this cell, as well as one to our north. We followed this cell northeastward for a little bit, before it went linear. A supercell with nice hook and mesocyclone developed north of the cell we were on, but waning daylight led us to call off the chase. We headed back through Arkansas City, at which time a "just-in-case" look at ICT 88D indicated classic supercell near Wellington. Ah ha! Nice hook, good reflectivity structure (e.g. strong reflectivity gradient along updraft-downdraft interface, etc), and a moderate mesocyclone -- all what we were hoping for earlier in the day. We followed this storm through Oxford, where we gave up as it was apparent the storm wouldn't become surface-based with temperatures in the low-mid 60s.

Overall, another marginal chase. Though my expectations were relatively low given the marginal dewpoints that resulted from a dry intrusion in the morning), I would consider this chase largely a bust. At least there was convection, and the motion at cloud base and nearby was pretty spectacular. The low-level clouds streaming into the updrafts were moving at a speed that I don't see very often, which made things interesting at least.

 

[Darin Brunin]

Dick McGowan and I chased the same storms pretty much that Jeff and others did in SC KS. It was pretty interesting trying to see the base on a storm while looking through dense fog. Here is a picture of the Oxford storm as it started to line out. Not exactly what were hoping for but it was good to get out and chase.

Darin

 

[Rocky Rascovich]

should of, could of, would of... but..

So close, but yet not close enough on some storms with after much patience saw form along with David Ewoldt on this day that I did'nt have much hope was going to give us but just a few picturesque storms against the fall foliage of the prairie landscapes.

We left out of OKC at around 12:30p and headed directly toward Ponca City where we stropped at a library for some data... Dave and I both agreed that as the vortmax would approach from the west later in the day... it would react with that fine ribbon of moisture approaching from the south, barely giving us enough cape and but more than adequate shear... especially low level shear.

We sat a few miles west of Ark. City, KS. for at least an hour and a half maybe longer... and throughly enjoyed the company of Hank Baker and his chase partner Andy, J.R Henley and fellow chasers watching the flat cu gradually bubble into congestus.. finally by about 4pm or so... we all headed east back thru Ark City... as the frontal boundary backed south accompanied by some billowing thick congestus and low topped cb's and low flying misty scud which seemed literally only a few hundred feet above ground level. At this time, low level shear was incredible with clouds moving at almost every direction. Hank and Andrew followed Dave and I as we once again sat for almost 45min. about 10mi. E of Arkansas City... as a cell became rooted on the frontal boundary which laid just to our south and west...

The towers gradually became solid with a low and for the most part smooth base... but by 5:30p..as this slowly approached, the base became more ragged with inflow notches and dry slots with an overall slight to moderate cyclonic rotation... within this circulation were areas of intense cascading and rising motion along with brief but strong smaller areas of rotation...Dave and Hank were salivating over the scenario before them and I was thinking that tornadogenesis was imminent... it was so close but just did'nt do it... interesingly enough, no TOR warning was issued, infact, not even a T-Storm. The updraft gradually increased in forward speed and moved off to the NE toward Dexter in Cowley County as dusk approached... we headed north on Hwy 15 into a raging torrent of rain but no hail and not much wind. By then darkness had taken over and we decided to terminate the chase... ontil

We saw the storm in eastern Sumner County near Oxford... this one was signifigantly more electrical with numerous IC and CG strokes.. at one time, it had a meso with close to 80kts g/g shear.. we stopped for some lightning op's with Hank and Andy tagging along...this storm looked pretty ferocious with a ragged base and a mean looking updraft...

Then, Dave got a hair brained idea... as we talked to Hank on the side of the road, he screamed "Semper Fi"!! and decided to core punch the beast! I was not overly enthused by his split decision... and moments later, looking at his Barrons radar; we were squarely in the middle of the meso marker east of Oxford in eastern Sumner Co.....no need for a cup of coffee at that moment... thankfully, we only encountered brief heavy rain and occasional pea sized hail... so then I peeled my fingers off from whatever I could hold on to and knew we were in the clear.

In reality, for the most part, Dave Ewoldt is one of the most experienced and cautious chasers I know... and we knew most likely as other meso's detected that night in our part of the country, it too was elevated.

All in all...a very satisfying chase... no we did'nt see tornadoes again.... but as with anyone who truly enjoys storm watching, at least with me, tornadoes aren't essential... but it would be nice that next year, with data on board.... by God.... my luck will improve.

Also... A BIG congrats to Mike Umsheid and Simon Brewer and Mark McGowen for their catches... and I'll say this... Simon had a strong hunch on that area as early as mid morning of the event and stuck to his target...I think Simon's forecasting abilities need to be recognized.

Rocky&family

 

[Simon Brewer]

Yeah, the situation down there was very interesting, because I saw 7-8 tornadoes, heard one rumble of thunder, and didn't get touched by a single drop of rain until after the last tornado lifted north of Protection. I was ENE of the first tornadoes near Blooom and Minneola, but I was west of the tornadoes north and northwest of Protection, so I got a few different views. Most of the tornadoes seemed to be under mesocyclones, but a few were definitely landspouts with no visual indication of a mesocylcone overhead.

I was south of the amazing wall of white convection stretching from the WNW to the ESE when I watched the last two tornadoes and here is what I saw:

A continuous wall of convection, but individual cells could be seen though they were all connected. Mesocyclone and clear slot could be seen developing with each cell prior to each of the last tornadoes, which was awesome, because I could watch it occuring from the back side of each storm. Each cell had it's own impressive overshooting top while each respective tornado was on the ground! From the north it probably would appear as a long base and a ball or tube of dirt underneath.
Though I wasn't 'right next to' the last two tornadoe, I think I was lucky to get a great veiw from the back side of the storms with front lit tornadoes.

I just now noticed where Protection is. Now I'm wondering if I saw the bottom of that one from the ne, or if what I saw was just something different. I'm guessing I didn't see the same thing and maybe what you are talking about came shortly after mine as my view to the east was largely blocked by precip after this. Whatever I was looking at it was se of me looking towards Protection from 34. It had a tight dusty vortex at the ground, that must have lasted over 2 minutes that I saw. The only thing is it seemed to be just behind a looooong linear base, so I can't see any way this would have had any collar cloud with it(but guess it could have behind that line, sort of detaching itself a bit). The base of the line was so low that there wasn't all that much space between the dusty vortext and the base, so I couldn't see much other than the dust whirl and the long base that seemed to be just ahead of it. Shortly after this the storm seemed to strengthen a bit but I was unable to get any good views then. I bet that is when you saw the nice one. Grrrr. I take it you were south of it? Looking at the map now I should have went south further to Lexington and then tried east.

 

[Dean L. Cosgrove]

I was also on the SW KS tornadic event . I went to DDC
and got a room the night before thinking that would be
a good place to start out from Oct 26 .
Little did I know at the time just how good --ha ha-- My early
thought was to play the warm sector to the SE of DDC.

I woke up with the feeling that I would not have to go
very far that day. I did start SE towards my initial
target . I just could not shake the feeling that I
should not be in a hurry to do so. From past
experience if I listen to this instinct or whatever
you want to call that type of feeling , things seem to
go better .

I stopped in Coldwater and had lunch and waited to
see if the sky would become interesting . To make a
long story short, I was not back far enough NW to
see the first tornadoes reported however I did end up
seeing 7 . Not a bad day "at the office" -- ha ha--

The pics are all caps from my video .

http://windsweptchasetours.com/Oct26_04.jpg

http://windsweptchasetours.com/Oct26_05.jpg

http://windsweptchasetours.com/Oct26_07.jpg

http://windsweptchasetours.com/Oct26_08.jpg

http://windsweptchasetours.com/Oct26_09.jpg

Looks like limit is now 4 pics and smilies are counted as pics???
anyway thats why the other pics are shown in this post as links

Dean Cosgrove
http://chasetours.com/

 

[edward oneal]

This is my first attempt at a chase report post, so I hope this goes as well as the chase did. Rick Druse, managing editor of the Dodge City Daily Globe and I left work after the first tornado report in Gray County. This is the first time that Rick has chased storms with me, it is something he usally doesn't do, but after this chase he may be hooked. We left Dodge City in low clouds in poor visibilty knowing if we had any hopes of seeing anything that we had to get south of the low clouds. We headed SW towards Ensign and could see an area of clearing to our SE, so we cut back East and then South towards Fowler, Minneola area driving South in heavy rain, small hail low clouds we could see clearing to the South getting closer as visibility improved we could see our first tonado to the SE on the SW side of the super cell. This torando lasted several minutes and then dissapated it clearly came from a meso. Shortly after this tornado dissapated a second tornado that looked not to be associated with the meso formed a short distance to the SW of the meso. This tornado lasted three or four minutes, had funnel half way to the ground with debris on the ground. At the same time this tornado was occuring the meso to the north was changing rapidly lowering to almost ground level and growing larger. We moved to the south of it a mile and a half West of Hwy 283 and about 3 miles North of Minneola. At this time it just went wild, rapidly forming and dissipating vorticies in contact with the ground under the large swirling mass. At the same time, tornadoes were dropping all around, but did not look like they were associated with the large meso. Also, looking South you could see landspouts forming at the same time on building towers South and East of Minneola. After a few minutes at our location rain and hail were pulled in on the West side of the meso ending our show. At that time, time constraints required us to call off our chase. Total tornades, a dozen or more, we lost count.
Not sure how to post pictures at this time, but you can go to the web site: dodgecity.com click on the spotted link, go to 10/26/06 tornadoes to see the pictures of this chase. Photos taken by chase partner Rick Druse.

Hope this works as a direct link to the pictures


http://spotted.dodgeglobe.com/pages/gallery.php?gallery=308591

 

[edward oneal]

Have lost host to pictures to 10/26/06 report new host here http://www.flickr.com/photos/27494159@N04/