2012-04-14 REPORTS: TX/OK/KS/NE/IA

[Skip Talbot]

Jennifer Brindley Ubl, Brad Goddard and I had a long but ultimately rewarding day in central KS. We initially went after the more more northerly cell in central KS that looked like it was a tornado machine judging from the reports. We intercepted it west of Greensburg noting a very beefy wall cloud and intense inflow, but no tornado. We lost it due to storm motion and the road grid, and dropped down to the next cell in the line. It looked like it had less impeded inflow so we thought it would go bonkers, even more so than the northern cell. We worked it for a long time noting a couple of nice funnels (one of which was reported as a tornado, but not sure it really had a tornadic ground circulation), decent structure, and mesocyclone handoffs, but it finally sputtered out near Hutchinson. We dropped south again and picked up a storm near Kingman. There was a lot of scud on the forward flank and not much of a well defined RFD/clear slot/wall cloud. We got right into the inflow notch northeast of Kingman, and the storm rapidly cycled, developing a nice updraft base with a kink on the RFD/inflow/FFD interface. A scuddy funnel quickly condensed less than a mile to our southwest. We couldn't see the ground underneath at the time due to trees, but we had confirmation moments later that it was a tornado. The funnel retreated a bit but as it crossed the road a few hundred yards to our west we could see a swirling, partially rain wrapped ground circulation cross the road with sparks showering down off the power lines. We were moving east at the time to put some distance between us and the circulation, but we saw at least one car inside of it behind us. The storm appeared to become rather unorganized afterwards with a real mushy/watery base. The road grid prompted a hook slice to stay on top of it and we cautiously proceeded under a horseshoe updraft base. A few minutes later, somewhere between Kingman and Newton, the storm looked like it was cycling in similar fashion to how it did northeast of Kingman. We got right into the inflow notch again and this time a much more robust looking funnel cloud formed with howling, intense inflow at the surface. A plume at the surface was evident almost immediately underneath the funnel marking our second tornado. I don't know if it was a local spotter or chaser, but somebody pulled up between us and the funnel, which was less than a half mile away and moving rapidly. "You guys see any circulation?" he asked. "There's a tornado behind!" came our reply. He quickly tore off south down the road. We had front row seats as the developing tornado passed just to our north with the circulation evident in the field. We moved east to keep ahead of the RFD and the tornado fully condensed into a large cone. We pursued it until we had a good north road, and by the fast moving tornado had a few miles on us to the north. The tornado roped out in the rain before we could get close again. Another stovepipe formed again near dusk north near Newton, and our fourth and final tornado of the day was another stovepipe that formed after dark well south of Junction City. We broke off the chase then, exhausted and hungry and got a room for the night. We fled our hotel briefly to get out of the way of more tornado warned storms, but luckily they missed to the north. What started as a frustrating and exhausting chase, was a great day out in central Kansas. It was nice seeing Bill Oosterbaan and Bob Hartig again as well as meeting Caleb Elliott.

 

[Brett Roberts]

Left home around 8:30am, and started chasing by 12:30pm after lunch in ICT. Never bothered getting out my camera until after 7:00pm. What a long, stressful day -- the kind that has never panned out for me historically, until now.

I chased four supercells over an eight-hour span. The first three (#1 - W/N of Greensburg, #2 - S/E of Pratt, #3 - NW Harper Co., KS) were completely unrewarding in every way, especially given the parameters in place. By 6:30pm, I was resigned to going home in disgrace, as has been typical on High Risk days. I dropped S out of Attica into northern Alfalfa Co., where I found I had absolutely zero data on either Verizon or AT&T. After all the money I've invested in data plans, antennas and amplifiers, etc., it was NWR and local radio that provided me with the information I used to intercept the long-lived, cyclic beast that tracked from Woodward Co. to ICT. I strongly suspect that having data would have allowed me to intercept this storm earlier, and thus bag a couple more tornadoes than I did, so I'd like to give a big shout-out to Pioneer Cellular and their non-roaming towers for screwing chasers year-after-year.

Basically, after sitting helplessly for awhile at the OK-58/OK-11 intersection near Burlington as one clearly non-tornadic supercell passed by, I was eventually able to get detailed locations on the southernmost cell from a local radio station. I then dropped S to Cherokee, and watched in awe as tail-end Charlie approached my location.

I must admit, I was slightly frustrated that the new meso which dropped the drillbit/cone just W of town couldn't really get its act together until it did. By that time, road options had forced me to rocket E on OK-11 for the long-term play. It finally paid off when I watched the fat stovepipe pass near Manchester from a mile S of town.

I'm not much for night chasing, so I wasn't too aggressive in trying to play catch-up N of the state line. However, while driving back toward I-35 in southern Harper/Sumner Co., I could periodically make out one or two of the stout tornadoes ravaging the Argonia/Conway Springs area.

EDIT: Here's video from yesterday, the first I've ever done after six full seasons shooting only stills. I have a lot of learning ahead of me...

Watch video >

 

[Trey Thee]

This was just to the south, southwest of Mooreland at about 4:30 or so. Primary area of rotation wayy off in the distance probably 3 miles away.

This area of rotation developed right in front of us as the original area became pretty disorganized.

We quickly headed north

Broad area of rotation as it crossed the road south of Mooreland a mile or two.

The second storm that moved through the area within an hour that went on to become the big Wichita storm...
Broad area of rotation but it was rapidly rotating

I'm sure you guys have seen a thousand of these SW of Cherokee

Redeveloping over Cherokee

And a youtube vid...this was probably 10 minutes later and it was quite dark...the camera did a good job bringing out the available light. Shortly after I filmed this we had it backlit by lightning one more time and it was quite wide bordering on wedge...then OHP shut the road down due to debris and our chase ended.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsQemyKe-mQ&feature=player_embedded

edit: I noticed Brett commenting on lack of data. We were in the same boat, no data in this part of the state. At one point we were 93 minutes without a radar update. We did manage to get a few updates from radarscope via phone but otherwise not much. Thankfully we were both experienced and had a general idea of what we were doing.

 

[Trey Thee]

Left home around 8:30am, and started chasing by 12:30pm after lunch in ICT. Never bothered getting out my camera until after 7:00pm. What a long, stressful day -- the kind that has never panned out for me historically, until now.

I chased four supercells over an eight-hour span. The first three (#1 - W/N of Greensburg, #2 - S/E of Pratt, #3 - NW Harper Co., KS) were completely unrewarding in every way, especially given the parameters in place. By 6:30pm, I was resigned to going home in disgrace, as has been typical on High Risk days. I dropped S out of Attica into northern Alfalfa Co., where I found I had absolutely zero data on either Verizon or AT&T. After all the money I've invested in data plans, antennas and amplifiers, etc., it was NWR and local radio that provided me with the information I used to intercept the long-lived, cyclic beast that tracked from Woodward Co. to ICT. I strongly suspect that having data would have allowed me to intercept this storm earlier, and thus bag a couple more tornadoes than I did, so I'd like to give a big shout-out to Pioneer Cellular and their non-roaming towers for screwing chasers year-after-year.

Basically, after sitting helplessly for awhile at the OK-58/OK-11 intersection near Burlington as one clearly non-tornadic supercell passed by, I was eventually able to get detailed locations on the southernmost cell from a local radio station. I then dropped S to Cherokee, and watched in awe as tail-end Charlie approached my location.

http://www.skyinmotion.com/gallery/photos/chase/2012/2012-04-14/2012-04-15_8324.jpg[/IG]

[IMG]http://www.skyinmotion.com/gallery/photos/chase/2012/2012-04-14/2012-04-15_8336.jpg[/MG]

[IMG]http://www.skyinmotion.com/gallery/photos/chase/2012/2012-04-14/2012-04-15_8349.jpg[IMG]

I must admit, I was slightly frustrated that the new meso which dropped the drillbit/cone just W of town couldn't really get its act together until it did. By that time, road options had forced me to rocket E on OK-11 for the long-term play. It finally paid off when I watched the fat stovepipe pass near Manchester from a mile S of town.

[IMG]http://www.skyinmotion.com/gallery/photos/chase/2012/2012-04-14/2012-04-15_8354.jpg/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.skyinmotion.com/gallery/photos/chase/2012/2012-04-14/2012-04-15_8360.jp

I'm not much for night chasing, so I wasn't too aggressive in trying to play catch-up N of the state line. However, while driving back toward I-35 in southern Harper/Sumner Co., I could periodically make out one or two of the stout tornadoes ravaging the Argonia/Conway Springs area.

Great shots Brett, you weren't too far from us it appears

 

[Rick Schmidt]

I was going through my images, and thought I would throw these in, since multi-vortex images are not that commonly seen. Taken near Marquette at 6:11 PM.---Rick Schmidt View attachment 6827

View attachment 6828

 

[Jeff Duda]

Long post, but it was a long day.

I had a day much the same as Brett minus the data issues. I just bought a refurbished Samsung Stratosphere in February for $20. Although there were gaps in NW OK and far SC KS in which I had no data, those gaps only lasted 10-15 minutes. Most of the time I had a good strong signal and was able to keep up with the radar updates better than on any chase before (even when I used to live and chase in Iowa).

Left Norman with my friend Logan at about 11:30 AM. We headed up the Northwest Passage highways of US 281, US 270, US 183, and OK-3, stopping briefly for food in Woodward. We had gotten into clear air by that time and could see storms going up to our west as well as the cell that was in Clark Co., KS at the time (that was the one that would go on to produce the wedge near Salina). I'm glad I told the employees at the Arby's on the south side of town to pay really close attention to the weather for the rest of the day given what happened. Initiation of almost all the storms we chased seemed to be very near Woodward.

-Supercell #1
This was the first dominant storm that developed west of Woodward early in the afternoon. We got into position ahead of it near Buffalo, then led it northeast to the OK-KS border on Hwy 34 south of Coldwater, KS. It rapidly organized, going through mesocyclogenesis in a matter of a few minutes. It looked like it was ready to produce, but abruptly lost organization just as it was about to cross the road very near us. We opted to stay with it for the time being even though a new cell had developed to the southwest that was tornado warned - we didn't think we'd be able to get in front of it. The first storm did produce a brief funnel along the leading edge of the RFD just a few miles north of the KS-OK border. Amazingly, we were able to stay with the storm despite having to go up to Coldwater, then east towards Medicine Lodge. However, the storm still looked ragged and disorganized as we passed south of it on U.S. 160. Of course, that storm would go on to produce a tornado...

The closest supercell #1 came to producing while we were on it.

Funnel cloud near KS-OK border

-Supercell #2
We decided to camp out near Medicine Lodge to wait for the next storm down the line (introduced in the previous section) to come up our way. It had produced a brief tornado northeast of Woodward. Sure enough, as it began to enter into KS it seemed to fall apart. Thus we began south on U.S. 281 to get back into OK and get on yet new storms forming southwest of Woodward. However, the storm appeared to reorganize on our way by, so we backed up north and put ourselves in the path of the meso, just south of Medicine Lodge. Again, observed mesocyclogenesis and perhaps a brief funnel or two, but the storm did not organize further. Of course, 30 minutes after we ditched it, it went on to produce a tornado near Kingman. What luck...

-Supercell #3
We moved south through Alva on 281 after a pair of supercells that looked meatier than anything else we had been on so far. Stopped at the railroad tracks near Hopeton for 20 minutes watching a well sculpted updraft move our way. Tons of CGs at this point. However, during the entire time we watched it there was never even a hint of it trying to form a meso at the low levels, much less anything resembling a wall cloud. Disgusted, we continued south to the next storm...

Sculpted updraft on non-tornadic supercell #3

-Supercell #4
I figured we were in store for yet another high risk bust even after we got on this storm. We sat just southeast of the 281/45 intersection for awhile getting rained on without being able to discern anything on the storm. We moved back to the intersection where we caught nickel-quarter sized hail briefly. Then the base started to come into view, but was partially obstructed by trees. We moved west a tad from the intersection where we finally caught the tail end of one of the tornadoes it was producing near Waynoka. That's where things got exciting for us, finally.

Although the tornado died and the circulation appeared to weaken as it approached us, it suddenly reorganized and began rotating rapidly a minute or two later. Since it was heading straight at us, and given the road network, we opted to move west to let it pass to our east so we could get behind it. Observed a faint vortex condense just to our south as we moved west. We moved west a mile or so then turned back east. I thought we were safe until I heard the whooshing sound and the winds rapidly accelerated. Also, the wall cloud was almost overhead and appeared to be moving more N or NW than NE. Thus we had to pull a Reed Timmer and back up a bit. A trucker in the other lane seemed to think we were crazy as he paralleled us down the highway, but his smile faded when we told him he had basically just driven under a developing tornado. I honestly don't think he had any idea what was going on around him. Anyway, once it passed, we moved back east along 281, noting snapped power lines, trees, and bent over signs at the 281/45 intersection (i.e., where we had stopped and seen the previous tornado die out). Just around the bend north on 281 we were forced to slow down and stop numerous times due to intense RFD winds probably exceeding 60 MPH. Light tree damage flew around us then, even though the tornado was clearly visible about a mile down the highway. It eventually condensed into a skinny tube, but we lost it in the rain as we were forced north back to Alva. Coming east out of Alva on U.S. 64, we punched through the back of the hook and witnessed the twin tornadoes with the old one roping out very close to us. It was very colorful and very high contrast...quite a treat to the eye. We lost the new one in the rain partially due to traffic getting intense (someone suddenly flipped a 3-point turn coming from the other direction right in front of us, effectively blocking our advance eastward). However, we did observe at least one more tornado under the rapidly rotating wall cloud north of Cherokee. Also observed a fairly long-lived tornado in the dark northeast of there, between Waldron and Amorita. Called off the chase at the OK-KS border as the roads went fully to hell and as we fell behind the storm and lost the tornado.

Tornado had just crossed U.S. 281

Colorful, high-contrast rope out

Just south of Waldron, KS

-----------------------------

In summary: things could've gone better, but they could've gone much worse, too. I was happy to at least see a pretty tor in a high risk, although I didn't get great documentation on it. We were both frustrated after repeated failure and our emotional state probably influenced our actions on the last storm. But I had fun. It was my first time chasing in that region. I was very impressed with the terrain and road quality (for the most part), and with the data availability.

 

[Matt Hunt]

Full chase account is up on my blog, so I'll keep this short & sweet. Easily my best chase ever! Saw 3+ tornadoes in central Kansas. Initial target was Salina, but as storms developed west and south, we decided to go after those. Caught a brief tornado near La Crosse, then went east and south to get on the better looking cell. We were right underneath the circulation near Frederick before the wedge developed. As the RFD wind & rain came in, we dropped south to get back to a paved east-west option, then headed back north on 14. Once the storm was in view, we saw the wedge. Went east on 4 and got within 1/2 mile or so of it near Crawford & Langley. Watched it move away to the northeast, then got on the interstate and caught the same cell as it re-cycled and dropped another northeast of Salina. I know many are counting it as 2 or 3 because it may have lifted and dropped back down, but I'll still just say 1.



Video: http://youtu.be/ocjGbooESso

Blog link below

 

[Eric Whitehill]

Had a good day yesterday - saw a tornado near Oxford, NE.

Video is up at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKmYpRGTSo0

Pretty close to 1,600 miles on the car between the last two days. Yuck!

Congrats to all those people who bagged tors in Kansas.

 

[Lee Smith-Whaley]

Yesterday was interesting, and a learning experience, as it was my first real solo chase. Luckily for me, and others my mistakes ended up not being bad. I originally targeted Salina, and when the first group of storms went up I was hesitant to move into position, thinking that the main show would be later. While sitting at McDonalds I noticed that the storms were becoming, and staying tornado warned with funnels reported. I then repositioned to Great Bend where I debated going to the tornado warned storm to the north. Instead I liked the southern storm, and dropped down to Ellinwood where I then proceeded east. I caught the first picture posted just east of Ellinwood after the core moved through. The storm kept looking better, and I continued N and E until I ended up on 22nd road (more on that in a sec). I ended up seeing the wedge, and followed it until I hit a debris path that included a power line draped across the road (2nd and 3rd photos). I then navigated around the debris path going back west vs. going under the power lines. During all of this, I lost the wedge, and headed towards Salina as the storm tracked that way. Luckily the tornado lifted, and it was only after passing Salina that it put another tornado down. I caught back up, and got a few more photos. At this point, I called it because I did not wish to deal with a night time event. I learned a few hard lessons, about chasing, and getting in position.

Matt, I was the guy in front of you that you mentioned in your blog, and no excuses, I did make a bad decision while driving to mess with electronics, which caused me to go off the road. That is something that I WILL NOT DO in the future as I learned my lesson. I apologize for doing that. The power line thing was a scary moment. Because of how it was draped across the road I was going to hit it head on. I was not wanting to try and go under or over it at speed, and risk clipping the line not knowing if it was live. Unfortunately I've never slammed on my brakes in bad weather with this Jeep, and I've never had them lock up like that before. Upon further inspection I discovered that the previous owner pulled the ABS fuses, cut the prongs off, disabled the ABS light and used 3M adhesive to re-attach them to pass PA inspection. I've since gotten new fuses for the ABS.

WORDS....

Rainbow East of Ellinwood

Contrasted image of the Wedge

Power line across the road.

North of Solomon as taken from the exit ramp on I-70.

 

[Joshua Nall]

I stayed in Weatherford after coming out for the storms the previous day. Woke up not sure about where I wanted to go, but ended up heading North with the early convection firing in the OK panhandle and North of there. Caught up to a storm West of Greensburg and worked my way east as storms came up out of OK. These storms all looked unimpressive most of the time, plus I ended up hitting them on down swings. They were visually appealing at times.

Pretty discouraged by the time I started heading for the last two storms south of the state line, hoping the last one would look as good when I got to it. Got out in front and down to just south of the border where I found a place with a view to the West. Spotted an elephant trunk probably 10 miles away and could barely make it out as it was getting dark. I headed back N to get closer to the estimated path and watched it transition to a cone with an impressive debri whirl around the base. It then briefly went to a mean looking stovepipe before breaking up into several vortices. I lost visual after that and started heading for I-35. Never could make out anything else.



Tornado Photos are a bit blurred because I was shooting at 800 ISO and between 2 and 5 seconds.... It was practically dark.

Saw this guy earlier in the day, grabbed his tale and he struck a pose. He got all mad and started squeezing the grass while making a loud gurgling hissing sound. I was content to let him think that he had scared me away. He continued on his way (I like snakes) and I continued on mine. I tried to photograph a roadrunner also, but those things are fast

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

Let me tell you, this was a day when I was glad that things didn't turn out as planned for my target area. I picked the Nebraska target; never dropped down into Kansas due to hopes that the atmosphere could recover and the fact that I needed to be back in Kearney and well-rested by Sunday morning. I chased with Darren Addy -- we started the day in Kearney, drove to York to watch the inbound storms, realized that they were evolving into an MCSish crapfest, then drove to Elm Creek, watching for anything isolated that might pop off the dryline in Kansas and ride north. Sure enough, a cell popped around Norton, and like the little train that could, scan after scan looked a little better. We dropped south to Holdrege, then southwest on Hwy 6 to the junction of 6 and 4. Caught a nice little brief tornado just north of Oxford, NE -- literally about a minute and a half from first real funnel to dissipation. But pretty cool all the same.

 

[Rob H]

Got on the first tornado warned cell of the day at noon and chased until midnight. Tiring, yet amazing, day. Saw five tornadoes in Kansas this day, while dealing with an accident that messed up the alignment and a flat tire. Video documented the Kanopolis Lake beast from dust whirl birth to rope-out:

 

[Erik Perozo]

Started the day off in Wichita. Drove to Russel, KS to set up thinking the warm front might be the play. Once there I jumped on the cluster that formed around 11AM and chased it to near Nebraska. Once doing some analysis, I quickly realized the storm firing near Dodge City had the best environment so I headed south. I by passed the Dodge City storm to get to the Greensburg storm. I figured this storm would eventually rob the northern one of its environment. The further south the better anyway with SRH 0-3 approaching 500+ later in the day. EHI's were stout as well with 3KM above 10. Basically I saw the southern storms the best options. Finally caught up with the Kanopolis, Salina storm an hour before it produced the fat wedge. All in all not a bad day. Been a rough 4 days with 3400 miles driven.

Tornado as it crossed near hwy 14 SE of Geneseo

Same tornado aprox 20 mins later.

Here is the video of the tornado

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trsBrCGkpLA

 

[Josh VandenTop]

Caught the tornado near Oxford, NE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4oBEZHB7gE

 

[Winston Wells]

Like many others, I found this day to be long and initially frustrating, then - thanks to the daytime Marquette tornado - very rewarding.

I arrived in York, NE about noon but soon realized that cold fog would probably contribute little to tornadogenesis. So I headed south on US 81 toward the first convection of the day that had fired along I-70 in western Kansas and was moving northeast toward me. My first play was on the TOR-warned cell that moved from Mankato, KS to Superior, NE, which I eventually intercepted on NE 8 near Hardy, NE. It was a mess, though, with little more than small hail to show for itself.

My second play soon followed on the large cell just to the southwest of Belleville, KS that prompted MCD #529, which I found encouraging. Heading south on US 81 from Belleville, I ducked east on KS 148 to avoid being munched by this cell, which by then had taken on a notably linear shape and did not in fact seem promising. I continued east until I reached the intersection of KS 148 and KS 15. It was now about 4:00 p.m.

I regrouped there for a bit, dejected by both the realization that the warm front play was likely not going to live up to expectations and the distance to the string of discrete supercells that were now popping off of the dryline to the north and south of DDC. I didn't think that I had much of a chance with even the northernmost cell, but I decided to continue south down KS 15, blast west on I-70 and reevaluate near Salina. This cell looked beautiful on radar scan after scan, and by the time I was south of Salina on I-135, the cell's velocity couplet really intensified. I exited the interstate at Bridgeport and headed southwest through Lindsborg. After driving about ten more miles west on KS 4, I encountered the Marquette tornado as it was transitioning from its wedge phase:

I took these shots from KS 4 just after 6 p.m. The view is to the northwest. I had a wonderful, unobstructed view of this tornado for nearly ten minutes from this location as it passed to the northeast:

I then lost sight of it and headed back to I-135 with everyone else. By all accounts the cell waited until just clearing Salina to produce again near New Cambria, KS, which I did not see. I quickly hopped onto the eastbound lanes of I-70, so I was in good shape when the storm put down another tornado north of the interstate near Niles, KS. The following three photographs look due north from the shoulder of I-70, about midway between Salina and Abilene:

I then got off the interstate at the KS 15 exit in Abilene and headed north just in time to watch the tornado rope out slowly and horizontally to my northwest. I was one of easily a hundred or so cars blasting north on KS 15, but the show looked over by then. On my way north to Marysville I did, however, hear radio reports of touchdowns in Wakefield and Riley, so perhaps the cell cycled yet again.


Links to video of the Marquette and Niles tornadoes: