2/24/07 REPORTS: KS

[Caleb Kimbrough]

I uploaded the chase report to our website:

Tornadojunkies.com Report

We chased around Hope and Abilene and then back to Topeka.

 

[Mikel Shively]

Initially targeted Marion, KS. On the way to the target, decided to push a little farther south and sit in Emporia. Finally got to Emporia and watched a couple of cells explode just to the SSE of there. Got into a position to chase the storm near the town of Lebo, KS. The storm laid down quite a bit of pea to dime sized hail that covered the ground in Lebo. Although I didn't see any funnel clouds or tornadoes, I was glad that I at least had the opportunity to chase in February as it did provide some relief for my SDS.

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

Here is the link to my chase log from Saturday: http://www.supercellcrazy.com/SupercellCrazy/Feb24.html

 

[Mikey Gribble]

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted on ST. I started off North of Butler county on highway 77. My plan was to work my way up the dryline as storms formed closer to the occlusion with the hopes that as they moved towards the occlusion or into the more backed surface winds they might tornado. Long story short I got a funnel in Dickinson county approximately 5 miles West of Woodbine. It was off the very back end of the updraft. I was driving towards it when some lady who must of been a chaser got out on the side of the road and started frantically waving her arms at me to stop. I guess she had good intentions, but I felt like yelling "yeah woman, I see it, it's OK". It looks like the same funnel Brian had a pic of on page 1. It obviously wasn't anything to write home about, but not bad for February. It was nice to dust off the equipment and get back out there.

 

[Sean McMullen]

My wife Katie and I along with Dustin Wilcox reached our target area around 11 am just in time to intercept the storm in Marion Co. We were pleasently surprised that the storms were only moving 25 to 35 mph and some actually had some good structure. The real fun began when we met up with Brian Stertz and Rich Theiss. Shortly after hooking up with them we intercepted a rapidly rotating funnel that lasted a couple of minutes making our trip totally worth while seems how its Februrary! Anyways I posted the footage on youtube for all to see. Its just a funnel but its also the beginning of spring. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRXsGCmV0xk

Sean

 

[Skip Talbot]

Full log and pictures:

Scott Olson and I chased near Hope and Abilene and sat through what appeared to have been a brief dry microburst just after seeing some unfortunate chasers from Illinois having a brief discussion with law enforcement

That was us. A certain chase partner of mine was speeding in my van, and I didn't realize it, buried in the radar/maps.

The ticket didn't slow us down, we intercepted the Marion County storm just as it went tornado warned. We set up for stills and video, observing a nice broad RFB but no rotation or loweringts. We moved to keep up with it, following it north until we realized the storm track had a western component. A certain chase partner then routed me onto a county road to get back to 15. When the gravel turned to dirt a certain driver (me) did not stop and turn around but waited until it turned into mud, and realized we couldn't go back. I crept the van forward until we got hopelessly stuck. After digging a big trench and flinging mud everywhere we were able to gun ourselves out. We drove on the side of a grassy field hoping the grass would solidify the ground a bit more. As a result we got hopelessly stuck in a field 50 feet from the road. We were out of cell signal range and the only ham I could raise with my 5 watt transceiver was at a loss for what to do.

We left a note in the windshield saying we were walking to Tampa, KS (6 miles) with our names on it in case they found the car but no bodies. A half mile down the road we came upon a farm house, the couple inside drove us to another farm where a woman owned a huge tractor. The tractor pulled us out of the mud and back to dry ground. I can't thank the warm hearted people of Kansas enough for their generosity in helping a couple of fools from Illinois out of trouble.

While we were stuck and walking along the road, we watched the storms wave goodbye to us. I spotted something hanging under a base in the distance and snapped some photos of it. It looks like its the funnel that Michael O'Keeffe has on his chase log, although we didn't know what it was at the time.

Needless to say, the mud incident ended our chase. We spotted some nice mammatus and what appeared to be an avil and overshooting top (on a low topped supercell day in February?) as we drove through Kansas City on our way home.

Look out plains chasers. The Illinois chasers are coming, and they are running amuck!

Tornado warned RFB in Marion Co.

Storms moving away while we are stranded

Zoomed into the base a couple minutes later. Our location is north/northwest of Tampa, KS, looking north.

Contrast enhanced

Our local hero coming to save the day.

Kansas City looking south at about 6pm.

 

[scott r currens]

It was fun day of chasing but I have to admit I was expecting a lot more than a few funnels. I am not sure why this ended up being a cold core nonevent.

Full chase report:
http://www.violentplains.com/2007.htm

 

[Bob Hartig]

Four of us (Kurt Hulst, Dave Diehl, Daryl Winger, and I) began the day by positioning near Marion, KS, where we watched the first cell develop and start putting down funnels. We also watched the cell to the west of Marion explode. It looked pretty promising, so we decided to go after it and shortly afterwards got stuck on one of those notorious county roads. The first hundred yards of the road was deceptively good, furnishing just enough decent surface for us to gather speed and launch our vehicle into something about the consistency of pudding, which quickly slurped us into a ditch. Big thanks to the friendly and helpful locals, who graciously yanked us out. We saw two other vehicles laboring through a quarter of a mile ahead of us, who fortunately made it through okay. I see that a few others also got nailed by those county roads.

Once back on the road, we headed back after the Marion storm, but it soon lost its teeth and we eventually decided to head east to intercept other cells, which one by one fired up and died out without much ceremony.

Things got better east of Kansas City. We viewed the Holden tornado from a distance--too far to make out details but close enough to enjoy our first tornado of the year and a bit of structure. It was cold where we were--temps couldn't have reached fifty degrees. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't been there.

Re the storm with the overshooting top mentioned in the discussion thread: I saw what was probably the same storm once we were back on the highway and the Holden storm had mushed out. It was well off to our southwest, with a nice anvil and obvious overshoot; I agree that it had to have been back in Kansas.

 

[Kurt Hulst]

Holden MO Tornado Video

The Best Bachelor Party Ever

February 24, 2007 Johnson CO. Missouri near the town of Holden. The guys (Daryl Winger, David Diehl, Bob Hartig) and I witnessed a brief tornado North of Holden MO. I thought the had day had gone to crap after getting stuck in the mud. But I think it was best we were stuck in the mud in Ramona KS. Thank you to the firefighters who pulled us out. It looked like a tractor pull from my view point. We tried to catch up to the Marion Co. Storm but we decided to head east and see what we could get. After every thing turned to junk we stopped in KC for a brief regrouping and decided to head east back toward home as we saw a small cell south of KC and if it held together we might intercept what was left. As we approached Blue Springs, MO. The last radar scan looked very weak. So I personally was getting bummed and thought that the effort was useless. About 5 minutes later a tornado warning was issued for the cell just south of us. So we darted south and intercepted a nice lowering and finally tornado, In Johnson Co. MO.

Click Here to See the Videohttp://www.midwestchasers.com

After we returned to the Interstate we fueled up and witnessed a beautiful sunset and rainbow.

It was an awesome bachelor party man.

Thank you Dick M. For letting us stay in your basement the night before.

12 days till I get married whoo hoo.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Chase account and images

 

[Craig Maire II]

2/24/07 REPORTS: KS Reply to Thread

Experienced a nice little storm in Lebo Kansas, witnessed lots of pea to dimed size hail, brief heavy rain and thunder/lightning. Not bad for February!

 

[david diehl]

to make the report eaiser here is a link the the page

http://kc9bxx.bravehost.com/feburary24,2007.html

 

[Mike Parker]

Pretty much the same as the others above. I met up with Dick McGowan near Emporia, KS. We sat on a storm moving up from Greenwood Co. It passed us by in Lebo, KS hitting us with pea to dime size hail. If you are interested, here is a clip of the hail....link. Met up with Darrin Brunin and went NE on 35 and took some pictures of some scuds around Ottawa. Overall a decent 3 hour chase. I was glad to see some convection and hear some thunder.

On a side note, I used my Sigma 17-70mm for the first time today. I was pleased by it. I owned a Canon 17-40L before the Sigma and was totally unhappy with the IQ of that lens. Just my little plug for the Sigma.

It was also my step fathers first chase. I had a great time with him!!

Scuds

 

[Justin Walker]

Full chase account here

 

[Joe Stuart]

I also targeted emporia. My wife and I got a late start. We got to Emporia Around 1:30 and snapped the first shot on an overpass on the south side of Emporia. My chase partner who couldn't make the trip finally called my cell just about that time and informed me that I should head back NE on I-35 as it appeared that two cells were merging between Emporia and Ottawa. So I hightailed it back north on I-35 Through an impressive hail core(the hail completly covered the road at one point) Only to see that the storm never officially even reached severe limits. The second pic is of the weakened storm cam pointing north, somewhere near the miami co line. A few pretty pics and some good practice so I have no complaints although I wish I would've camped out along I-70!!