We started the day near Hebron, NE where we picked up a very brief rain-wrapped tornado. After the northern mess got more...messy, we headed south towards Salina, KS for some Cozy Inn slider burgers. We then drove south to HWY 4 and parked just west of Marquette where we watched this beauty for about 20 minutes until it passed over the bluff.
We followed that cell back to Salina but decided to jump south to the next supercell in the line near Hutchinson. That storm produced twins that were tough to spot as it was getting dark. We made our way back north and east after dark. Set up and took some bulb exposures near Hennington, KS which yielded these:
Headed back to Omaha after fighting some gravel (slick sloppy nasty mud) roads. Great day!
After taking a cat nap in Salina, KS in the morning. I was hesitant to go any further north than the I-70 due to instability issues. After realizing that the storms were already starting I drove to an area east of Hays, KS and waited for the first storm to make it's way up. After punching through the precip I made my way to a clear part of the storm at Russell.
After an interesting experience with that storm I decided to go for the new supercells coming up from the southwest. I finally made it to the updraft south of Great Bend.
The inflow really started to kick into the storm and at one point I got sand blasted pretty hard. Then came the chase:
I did maintain a good position with the storm for a while but lost it due to some reasons, I did have a visual of the large tornado northeast but needed to gain a lot more ground if I wanted to get a decent video of it. After getting cut off by blocked roads with tornado damage. I ended up driving to the 135. In amazement I caught back up with the storm around the Salina area where a new tornado developed soon after.
I'm grateful that I got at least one tornado at a decent distance. The frustration is my timing with the large tornado but it is what it is.
I believe this day is a pretty significant day as far as the amount and intensity of supercells that not only developed but maintained for quite some distance. I wish people didn't have to die, but it's just a reminder of the unrelenting power of these storms.
After making sure the storm coming up from Haven wasn't going to split, I headed west out of Hesston and caught the entire tornado as it formed and ended up following it until it went past K-15. The tornado cycled a few times before finally getting its act together. I raced back when I learned it went right through a friend's house. I didn't think chaser convergence was too bad actually, but I'm sure there were quite a few that pulled off and headed south as this one was moving pretty quickly and wasn't very photogenic. I had to do damage assessment for the fire dept for most of the evening, so I had to take a rain check on my first steak dinner of the season.
Congrats to everyone that got at least one tube yesterday.
Had a successful chase in central Kansas. Originally thought I wouldn't have to go too far as Omaha was squarely in the crosshairs of the day 2 high risk, but eastern Nebraska couldn't shake the rain and clouds til very late in the afternoon. We left a couple hours of later than we had hoped, so we didn't get down to Kansas and the storm we were going for til about 715. This was the first long track supercell that went near Salina, weakened briefly before strengthening again near Solomon. First views were of a bowl shaped funnel most of the way to the ground, but before we could get into position for pics and video it had dissipated. We watched the wall cloud continue to rotate rapidly, but eventually weaken. However, it soon reformed again and this time formed a tornado. Had a great view from several miles away and would have loved to have been closer, but sacrificed being close to make sure we could get good pics and video. The tornado widened into a stovepipe for about 5 minutes before weakening again and roping out. However, it refused to die quickly as the rope out stage lasted at least another 5 minutes. Had 2 people with me today that saw their first ever tornadoes!
Brief Summary: Observed 5+ tornadoes across central Kansas stretching along a line from Hudson to Langley to Salina to Manchester. There were a lot of highlights on this chase with tornadoes of all shapes and sizes, with two of the tornadoes relatively long-lived (30+ min). Perhaps my favorite view of the day occurred along Highway 4 just north of Langley, KS as a strong/violent tornado crossed the road. A preliminary EF4 rating has been assigned to this tornado for damage just north of Highway 4. I'll post a detailed summary with additional photos to my webpage and Facebook account in the coming days.
Strong tornado crossing Highway 4 near Langley, KS.
Our ten-person, two-car caravan (doing our part to limit traffic!) caught the Cherokee twins alongside everyone else and their dog. It was close, though, as we were caught too far north (Alva) due to the cell service situation. We were probably two of the later cars to pass through Cherokee from the north before the tornadoes touched down, and the scene was unnerving. As sirens started to sound, and as the first carload of our group yelled to take cover, residents continued to stand on the sidewalk and gawk at the sky. I can't blame them--that's exactly what I spent all day doing--but we were pretty concerned. We watched the closest tube loft some kind of debris (I heard via Twitter a barn was destroyed there) and things got pretty tense on the roadside there until everyone realized it would pass north of town. Frame grab from video...sorry for the quality, that's what happens when using a basic camera on a light tripod in 60+ mph inflow!
It should be noted that while chaser convergence was just as thick as you'd imagine there at Cherokee, things went very smoothly and most everyone was courteous. The wide shoulder and open field on the south side of town were especially convenient and allowed all the chasers there to get well off the road. When it was time to leave, I didn't see anybody pulling out recklessly. Most people drove through town afterward to check on the situation there. As for the overcrowding, I'm sure it's nice to be the only one watching a tornado, but I think I speak for everyone there when I say that was so spectacular that it was hard to even notice the multitude of chasers. Of course, I can't imagine what Cherokee would've been like if not for the long-track supercells in central KS--a couple hundred more chase cars would've been more than the area could handle.
I arrived in Kansas City from Florida, late Friday evening (4/13) and made my way to Wichita, KS for the night, as that was my primary target. On 4/14, I looked at data and saw TWO areas of interest - One up in Central Nebraska and another stretching from south-central KS and into N Central Oklahoma. I did not trust the northern target, as that seemed to have about the same shear as the first (original southern) target, but te latter had MUCH better CAPE and instability to work with (south of the warm-front and ahead of the dryline in the free warm sector).
I made it to Russel, Kansas for the early storms, meeting with Tony Laubach and his group, and then catching my first tornado NE of Russel and followed it to near Lucas. This was highly rain wrapped, but was briefly observed during it's early stages NE of Russell. Damage was also observed along a continuous path with power poles snapped. I was the first one to report a tornado (first of many to come) on spotter network - woohoo)!
Above: Rain wrapped tornado NE of Russell, KS just before 2 PM CDT.
Above: Damaged power pole NW of Lucas, KS.
After abandoning the storm near Russell, I headed south and intercepted another major supercell near Rush Center, Kansas ... Which produced a beautiful stovepipe and cycled again to produce a nice rope tornado before weakening as another supercell to it's SE cut-off it's inflow.
Above: Stovepipe near Rush Center, Kansas at roughly 4 PM CDT.
Above: Rope tornado near Rush Center from same storm as above.
After the second supercell of my chase day weakened, attention turned on an extremely intense storm to the SE near Rice County, Kansas. This storm was to be the best on of the day in this area, and produced a long-tracked, and violent wedge tornado that tracked out of NE Rice County and points NE while on the ground for narly an hour. I encountered this supercell and had to punch through it between the N and S splits, focusing on the S split and happy the largest hail I saw was about 1.5 to 2" (but soft and sporadic). Once clear of the storm core, and looking NW, the storm rapidly intensified, with a very strong RFD, and went to produce the violent tornado from about 6 PM and visible until about 7 PM along a very-long track to the NE. Ran into Verne Carlson and his group among other chasers, on a farm road blocked by downed trees (trees were debarked) with the large tornado visible to the NE. This was near I followed this storm for a while, until the tornado lifted and it moved out of sight.
Above: Supercell backside near Rice County that was to produce violent tornadoes (at about 5:30 PM CDT looking SE).
Above: RFD and clear slot just before violent tornadogenesis in Rice County, KS at roughly 6 PM CDT.
Above: Multivortex tornado formation.
Above: Wedge tornado near Genosea, KS at about 6:15 PM CDT.
Above: Wedge tornado (enhanced), incredible motion, and horizontal vortex / satellite to its right.
Above: Self portrait from camera mount while meeting with Verne Carlson and other chasers on farm road.
Above: Debarked trees.
After following this long tracked tornado for some time ... I decided to call it a day by about 7:30, stopping in Salina, KS for dinner and feeding out some video. Another major supercell came up from the SW - Producing more tornadoes but near or after dark. This storm was encountered at about 9 PM south of Salina but no tornadoes were observed (just wall-clouds / funnels illuminated by frequent lightning). This storm also produced hail and high winds, and hail was seen on the ground / hail fog south of Salina. I wrapped up the chase spending the night later in Abilene, KS ... Returning to Kansas City on 4-15, and flying back to Florida later that night.
Above: Supercell and lightning to the SE of Salina, KS.
Congrats and hat's off to all who headed out and it appears everyone had some sort of success this day to say the least. God bless those affected in Woodward, OK - Where at least 5 deaths were attributed to a tornado striking the town. This day could have been MUCH worse, the storm I was on in Rice County / Geneseo was rated at least EF-4, but managed to miss important / majorly populated areas during most of its rampage. Awesome footage from all who chased!
Intercepted multiple brief tornadoes with the first storm of the day near Burdett, Kansas including a very photogenic Elephant Trunk tornado! Then we dropped South to the Salina Supercell that produced multiple tornadoes including a Wedge, Multi-vortex, and Stovepipe Tornado.
Bill Oosterbaan, Rob Forry, Steve Barclift, and I spent a somewhat frustrating early part of our chase Saturday with one storm that putzed and frittered and then, a while after we gave up on it, went gonzoid; and with its next-door-neighbor to the south that looked great until we moved in on it, at which point it progressively weakened and vaporized. We finally dropped south yet again, and the third storm did the trick. We picked this one up southwest of Hesston and tracked with it as it pumped out tornadoes that got progressively larger and stronger as the light diminished. Fortunately, my Panasonic does well in low light, and I got plenty of decent video--not as spectacular as some of the great stuff I've seen, but more than sufficient to put a smile on my face after a frustrating 2011.
Unfortunately, I picked up some kind of bug which slowly blossomed last night on the long drive home to Michigan, and today it has taken over. I feel like crap and am presently not up to writing a detailed account. Those of you who know me, know that I'm good for it once I'm feeling better. For now, consider this post my down payment, because it seems wrong to not provide at least a "thumbnail." Back at you in a few days with something a little chewier, including a video clip that I'm in no shape to edit right now.
Bridget and I observed 8 tornadoes from two different supercells. The first two were earlier in the day, both small and brief, north of Freedom, OK. The rest came from the Tornado Machine that tracked through Alfalfa county, OK and into KS. Here's a video of the last two tornadoes we observed just after dark. We're on OK11 east of Cherokee, looking northeast.
Like many folks here, it was a long and frustrating, hard day. Add to that, I'd been up all night ill - it was not a pleasant experience until early evening when things really started to pick up for us on the fourth or so cell down the line. We had a few blips of funnels and some halfway decent structure - but ultimately it was worth the trip. We observed some close range tornadoes in their infant and formative stages, which was a new experience for me (all my previous tornadoes, I'd come upon them after they'd already formed.) -- Standing in relative close distance and feeling the change of the wind, the temperature, pressure and sound of the howl as a tornado forms? That was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
Successful day in Kansas. First tornado near Burdett as it was transitioning from a cone to a rope. I then moved northeast viewing a few more up to Timken. This is where I came out of the rain and had a beautiful white tube kicking up dirt in the field next to me. I stopped to watch the laminar funnel grow into a slender elephant truck and disipate. Feeling great at what I just encountered I dropped south to Lyons to pick up the next supercell. I quickly filled the tank and headed east out of town. Looking back northwest I could make out a huge developing wall cloud which looked to have rapidly rotating precipitation shafts underneath. The next time I looked back I saw surface debris and knew it had touched down. When I hit Mitchell I headed north and the black churning mass came into view. WE were both on a collision course so I continued on as the event unfolded in front of me. It's not very often if ever you get a front row seat to a 3D tornado experience.
Played with the Timken storm while it took on liberty bell structure producing intermittent cones and ropes before dropping down to the Langley wedge, following that supercell until it died north of Interstate 70.
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((Chased with Skip Talbot and Brad Goddard.))
