2012-03-02 MISC: IN/KY/TN/AL/IL/MO

[David Hoadley]

Skip, great photography on an historic day, which you have defined. I was curious as to your chase strategy. Where did you start from and what decisions did you make along the way that brought you there? - - - David Hoadley

 

[John Vandehei]

Jenn, those are some amazing shots. I'm curious as to what those were shot with, or what post processing you used. They have a contrasty, gritty look to them (especially #4) that remind me of old historic photos. Actually, the famous Paul Huffman photo of the Goshen Twin tornado was what first came to mind when I saw them.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Skip, great photography on an historic day, which you have defined. I was curious as to your chase strategy. Where did you start from and what decisions did you make along the way that brought you there? - - - David Hoadley

Thanks, David! We left from Chicago at 8:30 am. I initially wanted to keep this a triple point play as the winds were better backed by the surface low and didn't want to tangle with the trees and river crossings near the OH river. I was hoping to play north of I-70 from Terra Haute to Indianapolis. When we left that morning it became clear, however, that the northern end of the target area was just too socked in with clouds to realize any substantial instability for surface based supercells. The cold front and surface low were moving faster than I planned for as well so the new target shifted to Greensburg, IN where we could go after a more southerly target in the relatively chaseable farm fields of SE IN. Instability and shear combinations seemed to peak around 21z and that was where the models had cells moving through at that time.

Enroute the clearing on visible satellite was still well to the south, hugging the OH river. We passed in the wake of some elevated severe storms that dropped baseballs on Indianapolis that morning and realized we had to get well south if we wanted a shot at intercepting anything. The RUC showed the surface low on and just north of the river so winds weren't terribly veered down there, and there was even a 2000 Cape bullseye being plotted over Louisville. That became our new target. A cell went up well ahead of the cold front and was cruising along I-64. We made a play to to intercept taking I-65 south of Indianapolis. It took us close to two hours to make it down there, but I figured it would hold together given the environment. An accident delayed us and almost cost us the chase while another couple of cells went up ahead of our target cell, shortening our available time to get south even further. We beat the cells down and actually stopped in Henryville initially to try and spot the base. There were just too many hills and trees, and gobs and gobs of traffic. Probably a dozen school buses trying to move kids while the sirens wailed. We were mortified at the spectacle, so I pulled a U-turn as soon as we exited and we went south to the next exit. With great luck there was a truck stop on top of a hill right at the exit with a clear view to the west. The tornado came into view moments later on the leading cell. We made a vain attempt to go after it but realized it had done significant damage to our north/northeast and there was just no way to keep up with the storm motions or get any closer as a continuous stream of emergency vehicles passed us heading into Henryville. We went back to the same truck stop to watch the next cell in the training line come in with a big HP RFD core but no tornado. We had to duck south to get out of the way as the cell was further south than the first, and we still cracked the windshield. I'll write up a full log when I get some time.

 

[Mike Johnston]

Jenn, those are some amazing shots. I'm curious as to what those were shot with, or what post processing you used. They have a contrasty, gritty look to them (especially #4) that remind me of old historic photos. Actually, the famous Paul Huffman photo of the Goshen Twin tornado was what first came to mind when I saw them.

The exact same thing came to my mind when I saw those photos. I'm no photography expert, but those shots taken by Skip and Jennifer have the look of instant classics. It's hard to believe, and a testament to their skill, that they were able to position so well on such a fast-moving storm. Absolutely incredible. There have been many great storm photos posted on Stormtrack over the years, but these must rank right up there as some of the very best.

 

[Jenn Brindley]

Thank you, guys.

They were shot with a D3s, with three different lenses. Nothing special, no film there. Post processing involved NO actions, just using basic raw processing, and adjusting the contrast and a few other things to bring out the features of the storm from the murkiness of the rain. Thank you for your kind words!

I actually will be RE-processing the images tonight as I did those on Skip's laptop which was not calibrated. I will share the updated link soon.

~Jenn

 

[John Vandehei]

The difference in editing on my calibrated monitor and skip's laptop is huge.

I saw your revised photos. I figured the gritty nature of the originals was due to high ISO/low light shooting, as they had that look of being shot around dusk. It was the brown nature of the tornado and clouds that had me wondering. Of all the storms I've seen and pictures I've looked at, I've never seen so much brown in a storm. I was curious if the storm really was that color. Either way, both sets of pictures are incredible.

 

[John Vandehei]

I've never seen so much brown in a storm.

Just as I make that post above, I look at my own Avatar. Maybe I have seen that much brown before.

 

[John Farley]

I agree with what others have said about Skip and Jenn's video and photography - great work! On another matter, there are a couple videos of the West Liberty tornado on the Jackson, KY NWS Web page, along with damage survey information and photos:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=jkl&storyid=80087&source=0

In a couple of the videos, there is an interesting combination of fear and fascination, as locals kept the camera rolling even as they knew they were in the path and would soon be in great danger.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Congrats Skip on that intercept. It's interesting that I pictured tornadoes from this event looking exactly like that. I was thinking June 2, 1990 Albion, IL look-alikes.

Some of my comments/thoughts on this event:

- Chase strategy for this event type favors being far, far downstream to ensure maximum time for organization before choosing a target storm. It was, however, a gamble to be too far downstream due to the possibility of storm mode going more linear with time.

- Winds were more backed in the foothills of the Appalachians, generally east of a Lexington longitude.

- Veering surface winds severely impacted tornado potential outside of 1.) the warm-frontal zone on the northern edge of the instability axis, and 2.) the zone of southerly to southeasterly winds on the eastern side of the instability axis.

- Notice from the satellite map on the link John posted above that the significant tornado tracks around West Liberty are entirely within Appalachian mountain terrain (visible on the image as the dark green area with a NE to SW edge), with the West Liberty track beginning in the foothills.

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

I wish I could have chased this event, but it's early in the year and I am busy this time of year. However, I was able to get a unique perspective of the deadly supercell as I happened to be flying north and passed a couple of hundred miles east of the storm at about 4 - 4:30 PM EST ... The storm view is from about 39,000 feet, looking west, while flying over the western parts of West Virginia.

Above: Supercell storm (producing tornadoes at the time) while flying on a commercial airliner, looking west, on March 2, 2012.

 

[Jesse Risley]

I wrote a combination chase synopsis (for the group) and synoptic overview of the event on Sunday: http://convectiveaddiction.com/2012...ornadoes-convective-addiction-chase-synopsis/

Also, I think it's worth noting how well the SPC forecast actually correlated with bona fide SVR reports from Friday: http://convectiveaddiction.com/2012/03/03/march-2-2012-major-svr-outbreak-verification/

I had some problems with the video that I shot near Henryville, but some of the stills that I was able to refine are at the bottom of the first link.

It was interesting to note that the Henryville cell (and several other proximal clusters) developed near the best moisture flux south of the warm front, moving into an area that had sustained some partial clearing during the later morning and early afternoon hours. The MLCAPE wasn't astronomical by any means (1000 J/KG), even though it was seasonably sufficient for early March, but the 0-1 km SRH values were certainly ambient for tornadogenesis given other factors, notably the environment characteristic of strong deep-layer shear profiles.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

I suspect that there were deaths in the Tuscaloosa tornado from people who stayed too long without seeking shelter in order to take video or pictures of the tornado. I mention this because videos like the one linked to below remind me that people don't always act responsibly or safely in extreme proximity to tornadoes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPh3IRQGsAI
On the other hand, there is some pretty neat multivortex structure towards the end of that video. *Way* too close for someone to be outside a safe shelter, though. The vid is in HD (go to the YouTube page for the video to see it in a higher resolution), and it contains NSFW language.

 

[Jason Harris]

Why was there that delayed fall with the tree after the main winds were already past?

 

[Jeff Duda]

Multiple surveillance cameras caught the West Liberty tornado. Pretty telling video: http://wtvr.com/2012/03/10/uncut-surveillance-cam-shows-tornado-tear-apart-buildings/

 

[Joshua Nall]

Why was there that delayed fall with the tree after the main winds were already past?

Concerning the tree, if you compare it to the telephone pole when we first get a look at it you will notice it is perpendiculiar to the horizon, just like the pole. Then a few nice gusts occur, one of which starts it leaning, probably popped some large roots in the ground anchoring it on that side. Then all it took was another good gust to down it.