2011-04-09 Reports: NE/IA

[Jesse Risley]

We caught the gustnado/tornado(?) activity prior to Mapleton, where I got ran over by one of the small ground circulations (this was definitely a gustnado at that juncture) when I was trying to film another feature, and then later played the nighttime activity out in Sac and Pocahontas counties. We saw no less than four tornadoes, though getting final counts will be discerned through a more thorough video analysis.

I've written a full chase report, along with a detailed synoptic analysis, HERE.
http://convectiveaddiction.com/2011...ort-sac-and-pocahontas-county-iowa-tornadoes/

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

Watched a couple weaker tornadoes from the SW side of Mapleton (Intersection of 140th and Poplar Ave) before seeing the large RFD forming and recognizing a large tornado was about to form; given the river/creek I noticed on the map, making the N side of Mapleton the only way East out of town without dropping too far South, and not wanting to get behind the storm and in the RFD, I wanted to get East before the storm reached town...seconds before the tornado struck town, I barreled back NE through town (in the process I lost my windshield to Baseball sized hail) as soon as I was exiting town on the NE end, the tornado was rapidly growing behind me (though still rather weak in appearance), though there was already debris being lofted behind me. With the thought that the tornado would continue East, I positioned 3 miles ESE of town and shot the remaining part of the tornadoes life cycle. Had I known the tornado was going to occlude and become nearly stationary and or lift more North so quickly, I'd of had stayed parked ( or perhaps) dropped a 1/4 mile or so South of my original position and had an unobstructed close view of the tornado moving into town...After that tornado dissipated, I continued to follow the storm East, filming at least 3 more tornadoes...Overall an ok chase day, though if one wants to get picky, I could have made a couple better decisions that would have yielded better video, as it is, just thankful no one was critically injured, and too it was my girlfriends first ever chase, so it was good to get her a tornado, even if they weren't all that photogenic and the photogenic part wasn't helped any by letting a rookie run the videocamera!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO2Et5GdTX4&feature=player_embedded

Video of the tornado first forming SW of town, and my last minute journey through town will probably be uploaded tomorrow or sometime Wednesday. Like others, I'd like to praise the efforts of those who stopped to lend a hand in town!

Here's a breif clip of my exit from town...3-6 seconds or so just start to show debris as the tornado is just entering town from the SW...Also when I lost my windshield, there were only a few stones, but the few were huge!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RpicosNMZk

 

[Craig McPeck]

Got some video of the Gustnado/Tornado as well;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3g-ICn0seU

So was this an actual weak tornado?

 

[Chris MacIntosh]

And I am yet another person with gustnado/tornado footage! I swear I saw a funnel (as do many people on here it seems), but I don't think we'll ever know the true answer to the question of what this really was.

Gustnado/tornado: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ8cM2u1MBo
The rest of the chase: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UFKsHHbfYI

Anyways, we counted 8 tornadoes, but most of the footage is from Arthur and Pocahontas. One we actually just stumbled upon today (E of Danbury) after looking at my friend's footage. Everyone else was looking the wrong way, but he had his camera facing front and caught it in a lightning flash. What a crazy night.

 

[Darin Brunin]

Mapleton tornado

and some video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krOP88ZOq-I&feature=player_embedded

 

[Dan Rupnow]

Like most others, was on the storm of the day from Onawa onward. Saw no less than 5 tornadoes, as well as the gustnado/tornado "thing" near Onawa. Great early season chase including the most EPIC sustained inflow winds I have ever experienced!

 

[Danny Neal]

Final chase log is up: http://nrnilstormchaser.blogspot.com/2011/04/april-9th-2011-tornado-outbreak-in-iowa.html

 

[Ben Tillotson]

I had a successful chase on Saturday as well. I wasn't in very good position for the Mapleton tornado. I didn't think it was a very impressive tornado at the time and didn't realize until later just how significant it was. The later tornadoes after dark were incredible though.

We got some excellent video of the tornado at Early, IA

 

[David Hoadley]

Ben Prusia, enjoyed your video on the same road as I was. At your time count 2:02, that's me driving by in the white Nissan Altima. I stopped further up the road, about 2 1/2 miles south of Mapleton. I also don't like chasing at night, mainly because its a lot of work for what is often very poor photography (although some on these pages are very good). As an older chaser, I'm not into pursuing the late-night show just to add to my tornado count. Also, over the years, I've found that after a good daylight encounter, I'm usually anxious to get on the road for the long drive to the next day's show. Its all a matter of choice. - - - David Hoadley

 

[Donovan Gruner]

I was out with Brandon Sullivan, Brett Wright, and Connor McCrorey. Unfortunately due to our drivers side door getting bent from flying open in the inflow winds, we weren't able to continue our chase after the Mapleton tornado. Here's a few shots I got. Also unfortunately, amidst the chaos of the door issue, my pictures didn't turn out as nice as I'd have liked, and my video is non-existent. We did however intercept this beast with the drivers side door tied shut with my shoelaces.

 

[Joshua Nall]

I stayed down in KS. After watching cumulus build along the dryline Sat afternoon, felt something would pop, however the dryline started retreating a bit and cumulus looked less robust. Headed south to near the OK/KS boarder seeing the only really active cumulus was over the OK panhandle. A storm eventually went up and was severe warned. First pic is the setting sun and anvil as I was E of it. Second is from right up under it. It really was a sight, even though it was a baby storm, they are all so unique and beautiful. Not quite as much action as I had originally hoped for, but felt lucky to get that storm... Last pic is of some lighting under the base after it moved on off to the NE.

 

[Joe Pudlik]

The group I chased with followed the main supercell from development back in Nebraska. We caught our first tornado on the day in Mapleton. We were at the BP gas station when it formed in the field across the way. We also eventually saw at least one of the tornadoes north of Odebolt, and the start of the Pocahontas tornado.

 

[Scott Sims]

Well, I don't have much to add that hasn't been covered. Great shots and screen grabs everyone. I followed the same storm of course, but took the southern route through the river valley to avoid crossing the circulation as it crossed the highway into Mapleton(oops). So my video of that part is poorly contrasted and from several miles away(to the SE), so it was hardly discernible as a tornado from my vantage point. My night tornado video was also poor, mostly due to hanging back a couple miles since I'm still not used to night chasing, so those screenshots are pretty weak.

Overall, I had lots of fun to get back out to start 2011. The lessons this time are I need to work on keeping a bit closer to the storm and videography still needs work, but at least the forecast part was great as I left Southern Illinois at 4am and stopped in Blair,NE about 2:15, then moved north an exit to Onewa about 3:30 and got to wait for the storm to form and come to me across the river.

I do have another vantage point on the Onewa gustnado/tornado though for anyone reviewing that debate. Here is the timelapse(4x) of that part of the storm and slide show of a few lightning shots and nighttime tornado video grabs.

Watch video >

 

[Michael Stanga]

A Few Photos From 4/9/11

 

[Chip Redmond]

Finally got my blog updated with all the photos and a little of the story to go with it.

Here was our view of the gustnado and funnel:

The third tornado of the night for us:

Tornado #7:

The 8th tornado that could've been the 2-3 mile wide before it strengthened:

And finally, the left edge of the massive (if it stays recorded as such) 2-3 mile tornado. Our location was just west of Pocahontas:

Many more images on all the tornadoes (9!) at my blog: http://chip-redmond.blogspot.com