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

[Chad Cowan]

Bill Reid, Chris Gullikson and I witnessed the storm that would eventually drop the extremely destructive tornado in Jopin early on in its life cycle near Parsons, KS (first picture) and then saw and heard a violent tornado on the storm south of that near Southwest City, MO. We were almost a mile away and it sounded like a jet engine.

 

[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.

Here's some of the low contrast captures of the Joplin tornado:

 

[Matthew Crowther]

May 22 NE Oklahoma tornadoes

Finally got these uploaded. First tornado 11W of Grove, second north of jay- second one lasted 15 minutes (actually it went on into MO after we lost it)



Watch video >


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[Joel Wright]

Full chase log/pictures/video uploaded to my site. Check it out here.... http://qcweather.net/5-22-2011.php

 

[Austin Funderburgh]

Leach, OK Tornado

Intercepted the brief but beautiful EF-1 tornado that tracked just north of Highway 412 near Leach, OK & Twin Oaks, OK. Was very lucky to in several ways. Starting with the fact that I had a very late start, leaving work at 6:30ish. Left me with one storm that I could realistically target. Flew down 412 and took Highway 82 south to Peggs to intercept the main circulation. Nothing happening. Had to move east with it on roads yielding very few viewing spots (this is Green Country, after all). So many trees & hills & poor road options and poor internet data forced me back toward the 412/Cherokee Turnpike corridor to regroup where I notice on radar that a second circulation may form very near my location in Oaks, OK. So I just drive 2 miles to the north and was treated to the full development and dissipation of a very picturesque tornado. Video below:

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[Michael Towers]

Departed from home later than planned, the 8am start put me in the not so unusual position of having a long way to go with a short time to get there. Targeted Muskogee but the persistent and now maturing SE Kansas cell gave me enough enticement to switch targets as I reached the Oklahoma border on I-44. I was able to get under a large area of circulation just west of Neutral; it didn’t come close to producing but the broad scale rotation gave evidence of the storm’s potential lethal capacity which was ultimately realized in the tragedy that would unfold in Joplin.

Instead of staying with the storm I dropped SW to a newly developed cell near Miami, opting for a maturing storm with unimpeded flow. Unfortunately the new storm transitioned to HP and was quickly being flanked to it’s south by multiple cells. I made my way south on Missouri Hwy. 43 and a few miles north of South West City I saw a large rain wrapped tornado tracking to the NE on a path that forced me to retreat temporarily. Upon returning I observed debris strewn about ¼ mile wide with damage including some outbuilding structures, telephone poles, trees, bushes and miscellaneous unrecognizable debris.

I stayed with the cell and got on an area of circulation south of South West City but gave up on it as darkness encroached. Navigated the flash floods and found myself at numerous junctures having to stop and re-route. Spent the night in Miami where I learned the magnitude (known at that point) of the Joplin tragedy. Stunned disbelief and a depressing end to what up to that point had been an enjoyable day.

Time-lapse of the circulation west of Joplin:

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[Ben Holcomb]

I was on the storm that produced the Joplin EF-5 tornado, but didn't see the tornado. Full recap is posted at http://www.benholcomb.com/Chase-Accounts/20110522

 

[Joe Pudlik]

Me and my chase partner on the day initially ended up in E. Iowa. We made a play on one of the tor warned supercells which passed just northwest of Tipton, IA. It had a lowering for a time while we were on it, but it quickly became outflow dominant.

We ended up staying in the area for a bit to see if the two cells following would do anything, but they ended up being cut off by the outflow from the initial storm. We then raced east on I-80/I-88 to try and make a play on what was nice a bowing echo racing towards the Rockford area. We were no able to make it up into the Rockford area in time, so we played the southern end and ended up with a decent shelf cloud.

The first picture is from the inital tor warned supercell after it became outflow dominant, and the seoncond is one shot of the shelf cloud with the Rockford bow echo.

 

[Robert Reynolds]

Chase partner and I left Kansas City around noon and headed east as the storms started to initiate. We intercepted a storm 4 miles north of Higginsville, Mo that produced a weak tornado near Waverly, MO.
Storm continued to cycle as it headed east, but unfortunately became rain-wrapped, obscuring our view as we tried to navigate the roads in the area. Well developed wall cloud reorganized, but failed to produce anything we could see from our vantage point.
By this time, convection to the south began to choke off our cell, and we made the decision to drop south to I-70 just west of Columbia, where we encountered little more than heavy rain, small hail and decent straight line winds. While not spetacular, it turned out to be a decent local chase.

 

[Drew.Gardonia]

Jeremy Holmes, Terry Schenk, and Greg Guise and myself were chasing in Parsons, KS. I shot this video just north of Parsons. This cell would later become the storm that produced the Joplin EF-5. we dropped it as it had weakened near Oswego, KS and figured it wasn't going to do anything. full chase account here

http://funnelsrus.blogspot.com/2011/05/may-22-2011-southeast-kansas-chase-day.html

Watch video >

 

[Mark Blue]

Finally getting around to offloading images from our two chasecations in May and June. We were on the storm that eventually produced the EF5 tornado in Joplin, but for some reason chose the furthest cell to the west when it split into three and went tornado warned. Below is a GRL3 grab I saved from that day that shows when the split occurred and about the time we doubled back to the west. I wish we would have stuck with the lead cell, but it wasn't in the cards that day. The lightning picture is early on in the life cycle when we were Parsons, KS. The last picture is what we saw instead of the Joplin EF5.