2011-04-09 Reports: NE/IA

[Jeremy Ludin]

Late to report, but figured I would anyway. Full chase report now up here: http://www.furiousskies.com/4_9_11.html

 

[Nick Nolte]

Chalk up another late report. I was also on the Mapleton tornado, and was my first experience being on scene after a town was hit...sobering to say the least. This was also the first chase with my custom built whackermobile mesonet which I collected some non-research grade data on, if anyone is interested in that.

Chase write-up here: http://www.nicknoltewx.com/blog/2011/04/14/april-9-2011-mapleton-iowa/

Mesonet data here: http://www.nicknoltewx.com/blog/2011/04/18/mesonet-data-from-april-9-2011-mapleton-tornado/

 

[Scott Nicholson]

This is long overdue... I've (finally) converted and made available tornado/storm chasing videos from years past and posted them on the Videos page on my website at www.springwx.com. There are several videos available for viewing...and I'm adding more as I find archived storm chase videos in my collection.

There are 3 videos available for this date:

The first video is titled Iowa Nighttime Tornadoes:
April 9, 2011: Even though we missed the Mapleton, IA tornado by only a matter of minutes, our chase did not end. We continued to chase after the supercell that produced the Mapleton tornado...and did that storm put on a show! The supercell gained strength with the onset of the Low Level Jet...and put down massive tornadoes. We caught 4 tornadoes after dark, ranging in size from a stovepipe to a wedge. This video consists of short slow motion clips and video stills when lightning illuminated the silhouette of the tornado.

The second video is titled Northwest Iowa Brush Fire and Gustnadoes:
Prior to the Mapleton, Iowa tornado on April 9, 2011, lightning caused several brush fires in western Iowa, including the one in this video. The smoke was pushed by the RFD (rear-flank downdraft) winds. A few gustnadoes developed along the RFD front, becoming visible as the rotating column picked up dirt and smoke.

The last video for this date is titled Mapleton, IA Tornado Damage:
April 9, 2011: We chased a storm from northeast Nebraska into western Iowa. Unfortunately, the road network in the Loess hills of Iowa is not very cooperative. The Mapleton, IA tornado dropped while we navigated through the hills...and lifted moments before we drove through town. Debris was still falling from the sky while we navigated through the devastated town. I managed to capture the damage caused by the EF3 tornado shown here.