2011-05-22 REPORTS: MN/WI/IA/IL/IN/OH/MO/OK/TX

[John Hudson]

The northwest section of the Twin Cities has taken significant damage after a storm reportedly produced three tornadoes here this afternoon. I am visiting my brother in Minneapolis and was not chasing today, but the sirens were blaring when we emerged from the hospital where I met him for lunch.

I fired up PYCKL3 on my cell phone, and there was an intense thunderstorm crossing north Minneapolis with a very pronounced hook.

There has been one fatalitiy and reports of at least 22 injuries.

John
VE4 JTH

 

[Bill Schintler]

Tornadic storms in eastern IA

Photo link:


Note: moderators may want to add IA (and probably several other states) to this thread...

Parnell, IA this afternoon, looking west. Parnell is located in east-central IA, about 20 miles west of Iowa City, and the time was 2:55 PM CDT. Several funnels and rotating wall clouds were also observed by us from several storms in the area. Photo credit: Patty Ankrum, who was with us.

Bill Schintler
www.twistertoursusa.com

 

[Skip Talbot]

2011-05-22 REPORTS: MO

Jenn Brindley and I intercepted a rope tornado southeast of Slater, MO. The storm initially looked rather shelfy/linear put quickly organized with a pronounced wall cloud. The tornado was intermittent, condensing fully several times and then fading over a 10-15 minute span ending with a needle funnel south of Glasgow. The storm got wrapped up in precip pretty good afterwards so we called it a chase and were treated to awesome sunset mammatus and lightning display. Jenn will post some pics when she gets the raw files edited.

 

[Jeff Duda]

2011-05-22 REPORTS: IA, IL

Chased the early afternoon storms in eastern Iowa. After lunching at the Tanger outlet mall at the Williamsburg exit on I-80, noted storms going up to the WSW. Ended up sitting just south of I-80 - exit 201 - for several minutes watching the storm develop a wall cloud as it closed in. However, as the storm got closer it lost is organization. After repositioning northeast, we stopped off Hwy 6 just south of Ladora where we noticed the base (now a shallow wall cloud) with moderate rotation. Slipped through to the north side of town and witnessed tornadogenesis. Tornado eventually condensed from a little nub funnel into a skinny cone/elephant trunk as it moved across rural Iowa farm fields. However it did loft some debris from a few farm buildings it hit.

The tornadic storm weakened quickly after producing the tornado. There had been a storm or two to its south the whole time, so we made a weak core punch attempt, getting nothing greater than nickels, on our way back to I-80. Stayed with the subsequent storms just north of I-80 until we got to around Tipton, where we got sick of chasing what had become an outflow dominant storm. Stopped again briefly at the rest area on I-80 in Cedar County, where we took one more big storm that initially dropped a few quarters on us. Called the chase after that, and seeing new storms developing just ahead of the front struggling to survive in the rain cooled air.

Went back to investigate the tornado damage on our way home. Path length was probably only a few miles, and I would estimate the damage at EF0 or low end EF1.

Images:

 

[Joel Wright]

...Tornado eventually condensed from a little nub funnel into a skinny cone/elephant trunk as it moved across rural Iowa farm fields. However it did loft some debris from a few farm buildings it hit.

So the northern storm did in fact produce! Very interesting. We were on that storm for quite awhile but bailed as it began to look like crap like you mentioned. Looks like we were very close to where you shot that top pic. I remember seeing that skinny little rain shaft on the southern side of the wall cloud like what's in your pic. We were in a black F-150.

Anyway, after watching the first (northern) storm for awhile we went for the newer cells just to the south. Intercepted a needle tornado west of Parnell Iowa. It lifted and then dropped again in elephant trunk form as we pushed south.

 

[John Farley]

I intercepted three supercells near Treloar, MO south of Warrenton and east of Hermann. The first one initially had a massive, ground-hugging wall cloud, then re-organized as it moved to the ENE between Treloar and Warrenton.

First supercell:

Wall cloud approaching a foggy Missouri River west of Treloar.

View of supercell a little later looking northwest from just west of Treloar.

I tried to chase the first storm for a while, but then doubled back to intercept the next supercell right behind it. I caught up to it just in time to see strong rotation just as the TOR warning was issued, but the rotation didn't last long. It did try to wind up once more a while later between Treloar and Warrenton around the time of this video capture:

Both of these storms produced large hail in the Warrenton area - one report of 2.5" with the second storm.

The third storm was a nasty looking HP that went right over Hermann toward dark, but darkness and the HP nature of the storm precluded any decent photo ops.

Getting supercells but not tornadoes seems to be my story in 2011.

I will eventually put a full report with video and more pics on my Web page, but it may be a while as I plan to chase the next several days.

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

I was on the supercell storm that first developed near Parsons, KS and followed it southeast to near Joplin and farther east to Chesapeke, MO. Unfortunately, this storm caused numerous fatalities and violent tornado damage in Joplin.

Above: Image of the mesocyclone of the storm west of Joplin, MO about 15 minutes before affecting the town.

Above: Radar image of the storm with my location. I am pretty close (too close) to the tornado (2 miles to my south).

Above: Damage and overturned vehicles near Joplin, MO.

Above: Mammatus over Joplin, MO.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

I was on the storm that produced a tornado south of Grove, Oklahoma. I haven't uploaded video yet, but I will try to get it done tomorrow. We were probably two miles south of it when it touched down. Locals saw us video taping and literally locked up their brakes on the highway to watch the tornado. Unfortunately the tornado did do some damage. I saw at least one house it hit. It wasn't bad, but there was a huge tree that got uprooted in the front yard. Only minor damage to the actual house that I saw.
On the way back we saw numerous emergency vehicles, including one caravan of about 30, heading towards Joplin. Kind of eerie when you see that. Also met a group of nurses in Parsons that were on their way to help. I was very sorry to hear about Joplin, but its good to know people from all over were coming to help.

 

[Jason Persoff]

Brief report....forecast area verified and vilified.

Much longer (but bear wtih me here): Choosing which storm was which in outflow early on made identification of storm structures very difficult. Shelf cloud after shelf cloud put out accesory cloud structures that looked like wall clouds, but when under them, the winds were cold out of the north and were clearly not updrafts. I'm sure some of them augmented updraft bases, but structure identification was truly impossible.

Radar provided the guidance, but that meant heading east on I-44 with risk of some RFD punching. We interfaced w/ Cloud 9, and George K helped with navigation. We were there right after the tornado hit. By right after, I mean <5 minutes. Initial hopes that the tornado had only grazed Joplin (with a sign blown down here, and a semi on its side there) were abandoned when we came across semis clearly thrown from the road by tornadic-level winds. Semis, in this case, worked out to about 15 that I saw scattered over the highway.

Uniformly it was clear from the devestation that that our chase was over. Cloud 9 went into a first responder mode with Mike Ratliff taking at least one of the truckers to a staging area. Myself and chase partner Robert Balogh (also a physician) approached a police officer to ask where incident command was. He informed us that St. Johns, a large hospital and one of only two in the area had been destroyed. We reported to the Freeman Hospital ER, and began what was a marathon of patient care. Each of cared for at least 40-50 patients with at least 7 fatalities total from both groups. Upward scaling the injury count, there were easily 1,000 injured (most minor, of course) coupled with the need to also take in one large hospital's worth of patients and one nursing home's patients (both were destroyed). I'm way too tired to type this out right now, but need to debrief a little. In short, the hospital was a blood bath in a way I'd never even considered possible. As was anticipated by their ER, a mass casualty incident would involve combined efforts of the two hospitals in Joplin plus outlying hospitals. No scenario considered one whole hospital destroyed.

The staff I worked with down to every single one were impeccable, appreciative, effective, and efficient. On that level, it was ballet. On the other, seeing children die, gruesome injuries beyond what I'll discuss here, and seeing the reality of this phase of post-storm devestation left me crying at one point. We worked until we started making mistakes, and then spent an hour discussing the day together because there was no sleep in us.

It's difficult to tell you the hard duality of the tornado. It was wished for in almost all aspects. I really picked my target carefully. I felt elated at seeing the TCu become Cbs, and all of this early in the day. Then there was the reality of what was wished for manifesting itself in reality. The hospital work really felt inifinite and I could tell I couldn't work indefinitely. I had to leave, but felt the pain that this disaster will not be leaving anytime soon for those in Joplin (even while we left major trauma continued to arrive) left me feeling the tornado so intensely sad.

Hospital workers there didn't even know the fate of their own families: cell service was down for many hours, and due to the hospital's need to run on generator power, most of the electrical outlets didn't work and the telephone network was down. And yet, there was no end to the enormous dedication to patients. People who may have lost everything kept tending to their neighbors. Perhaps that was the most heart wrenching thing: people recognizing friends who were injured or worse. But they kept working. I felt humbled by their work. I knew my role would have to end though. I checked out my patients to one of the MDs and just like that I'm suddenly sitting in a clean hotel room in N/C OK. Lights are on, wireless network is great. Joplin is literally 100 miles away.

While driving here, Robert was shocked to hear that I was going to chase on 5/23 and 5/24. After what we'd seen, how could the reasonable person chase? I had to think about that, and then realized why. I didn't cause the storm by wishing for it, and had it not been there, Robert and I wouldn't have been there either to help. Karma. I'll chase again (if I sleep). But I'll never ever forget what happened today in a way I've never appreciated so deeply.

Anyway, forgive the rant...before today, I'd only seen a couple (at most) injuries from storms. Today was apocolyptic....

Last: Cloud 9 was amazing in STOPPING a chase tour to render aid. That was so deeply touching. I just don't have enough words about my gratitude for seeing people do what they could.

 

[Tony Perkins]

This is just NE of Riceville, IA, not far from Mason City on the MN/IA border. The tornado became obscured in rain very quickly.

Video is below. I was having issues calling in the tornado hence an unattended and less than optimal tripod shot.

Watch video >

 

[Andy Jackson]

I initially targeted the SW MO/NW OK area. I ended up going about an hours drive north earlier in the day thinking some storms might develop farther north. After seeing the storm develop on radar/satellite down in SE KS I knew that was the one to be on. I believe it was slowly intensifying for an hour as I drove south. I ended up in Joplin, at this time I noticed the meso. At this time the sirens were going off and I think I first realized that the tornado was on the ground by it's sound or the power flashes. I finally made out the funnel and filmed for about a minute. As I went to reposition to my east I realized sitting at a red light would not be wise as traffic was peaking so I turned south about this time the RFD curtain was wrapping around so I stopped at a hotel and parked under an overhang. A few other people were in the lobby watching as we could hear the distinct roar of the tornado just to our NE as well as see the outer circulation of the tornado. I did drive south for a while until the radio was announcing that there was massive damage. I ended up turning around and headed back to assist in search and rescue. As I first entered the scene I had to take deep breathes because of the reaction to my surroundings. People were just walking around stunned. I do plan on returning to help out in a few days I just really don't think I can do much right now with the current situation. This will be a long recovery for them.

 

[Jason Bolt]

Only have sec. Chased near Parsons back toward our house in Riverton. Really didn't look that impressive. Followed it into Joplin being pretty skeptical just seeing rain until we drove up on the damage. Turned around to get work truck w/ S&R equipment. Been working non-stop since (I am EMS mgmt in Cherokee Co. ks). Will try to post pics soon as I can. Really just wanted to post a huge thank you to Jeff and Kathryn for stopping at EMS command to see if they could help us. Your warning to JPD saved lives I am sure of it.

 

[Jenn Brindley]

Hi everyone!

Here some of my favorites from 5/22. The rest & report can be seen here!

(Chased with Skip.)

~J

 

[James Gustina]

Mods please add IN/OH to this thread.

Started out chasing a grungy multicell cluster near Batesville, Indiana early in the day. That storm diminished pretty quickly after we got to it. We stopped in on Indiana 1 near St.Leon and waited for more storms to initiate. We waited about half an hour before another one got its act together. New updraft plume shot up pretty quickly and anviled out within in 10 minutes. We went back east into Ohio to catch up with it and finally got close enough to make out its updraft base near South Lebanon. Had a nice inflow tail (and maybe a wall cloud?) drawing into the storm's base. We chased it for about 45 minutes and then broke it off as the storm gusted itself out.

 

[Robert Edmonds]

Purposefully avoided MO because of my dislike for trees and hills. Instead chased storms near the Red River this day. Tried my recently converted D70 IR camera. The environment seemed a bit 'hazy'. However, the IR filtering seemed to cut through the haze a little better. Below are the results. Storm was beautiful despite no tornado.