Michael Snyder
EF3
Lacrosse
Hey Brad,
That was us ahead on the road there, watching your video was like being there again.
Hey Brad,
That was us ahead on the road there, watching your video was like being there again.
2012-05-25 REPORTS: KS
- Thread starter edward oneal
- Start date
Paul Knightley
EF5
Copied from my blog - apologies for the late post!
The day started drizzly and humid in Salina, Kansas. The SPC had issued a slight risk of severe thunderstorms, with a 5% risk to our west. Morning analysis and model guidance suggested the Great Bend - Hays - Russell triangle would likely be a good starting point, so we headed to Great Bend for lunch.
We spent a while at Subway - managed to Skype my Dad and Mum whilst there. We also met Scott McPartland, Dave Lewison, and the remainder of their chase team - it was great to chat. Stu Robinson also joined us so it was great to catch up with him too.
After a while, word came through that development was starting towards LaCrosse/Rush Center. We all parted company and generally headed that we. We headed north after a while as we wanted to make sure we remained ahead of the developing storm, and not let it get away to our north.
We played around for a while with this storm, observing numerous outflow vortices (known as gustnadoes by many chasers). We also caught sight of a dusty tornado to our north.
After a while it became apparent that this storm was crossing the warm front and starting to look less interesting, at least to us. We paused somewhere south-west of Russell, Kansas. The next storm in the line was throwing out plenty of CGs and we watched as a wall cloud developed to our west. However, this became ragged after a while so we started to head south as a much bigger storm had developed back down towards LaCrosse (the tail-end storm). As we did so, we noticed another very flat, well-defined updraught base to our west. This began to develop a wall cloud, so we paused to watch. We repositioned and got sight of a brief tornado before it dissipated. We then watched for a while longer as the main updraught continued to move north-east. However, the previous low-level mesocyclone was not done. As it started to drift westwards, it suddenly wrapped up and generated a stunning tornado directly down the road. We got several shots which were reminiscent of some of my earliest ideas of Great Plains tornadoes might look: a line of poles down the side of the road, with the tornado in the distance.
It then roped out in an orangey sky, as the sun set.
Thunder was now booming to our south-west, so we continued to drop south to intercept the next storm, which was already producing tornadoes. We stopped to watch it for a while, about 15-18 miles to the north-east. The thunder was incredible - enormous distant explosions, which seemed to shake the very earth.
After a while we decided to drop south and then head west. As we closed in on the mesocyclone we stopped, and observed 3 tornadoes develop in reasonably quick succession. It was after dark by now.
After these had gone we headed to Hays for the night, although had to negotiate some slippery dirt roads as LaCrosse has sadly suffered damage and we couldn't go through the town. We only passed through this little place a few days ago.
Pics are on blog - http://ukstormchaser.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/tornadoes-in-kansas-may-25th-summary.html
The day started drizzly and humid in Salina, Kansas. The SPC had issued a slight risk of severe thunderstorms, with a 5% risk to our west. Morning analysis and model guidance suggested the Great Bend - Hays - Russell triangle would likely be a good starting point, so we headed to Great Bend for lunch.
We spent a while at Subway - managed to Skype my Dad and Mum whilst there. We also met Scott McPartland, Dave Lewison, and the remainder of their chase team - it was great to chat. Stu Robinson also joined us so it was great to catch up with him too.
After a while, word came through that development was starting towards LaCrosse/Rush Center. We all parted company and generally headed that we. We headed north after a while as we wanted to make sure we remained ahead of the developing storm, and not let it get away to our north.
We played around for a while with this storm, observing numerous outflow vortices (known as gustnadoes by many chasers). We also caught sight of a dusty tornado to our north.
After a while it became apparent that this storm was crossing the warm front and starting to look less interesting, at least to us. We paused somewhere south-west of Russell, Kansas. The next storm in the line was throwing out plenty of CGs and we watched as a wall cloud developed to our west. However, this became ragged after a while so we started to head south as a much bigger storm had developed back down towards LaCrosse (the tail-end storm). As we did so, we noticed another very flat, well-defined updraught base to our west. This began to develop a wall cloud, so we paused to watch. We repositioned and got sight of a brief tornado before it dissipated. We then watched for a while longer as the main updraught continued to move north-east. However, the previous low-level mesocyclone was not done. As it started to drift westwards, it suddenly wrapped up and generated a stunning tornado directly down the road. We got several shots which were reminiscent of some of my earliest ideas of Great Plains tornadoes might look: a line of poles down the side of the road, with the tornado in the distance.
It then roped out in an orangey sky, as the sun set.
Thunder was now booming to our south-west, so we continued to drop south to intercept the next storm, which was already producing tornadoes. We stopped to watch it for a while, about 15-18 miles to the north-east. The thunder was incredible - enormous distant explosions, which seemed to shake the very earth.
After a while we decided to drop south and then head west. As we closed in on the mesocyclone we stopped, and observed 3 tornadoes develop in reasonably quick succession. It was after dark by now.
After these had gone we headed to Hays for the night, although had to negotiate some slippery dirt roads as LaCrosse has sadly suffered damage and we couldn't go through the town. We only passed through this little place a few days ago.
Pics are on blog - http://ukstormchaser.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/tornadoes-in-kansas-may-25th-summary.html
J Allen
EF1
Somewhat belated but its hard to keep track when you are running like a mad thing all around the states. Started off the day in Emporia, and took a leisurely drive to sit just west of Great Bend waiting for the target area (south of Hays) to fire. Looked a little dicey at times, but the first cell quickly assuaded that when it finally got up. Had some great fun with the dust and gustnadoes and structure, including that very weird feature that formed on the gust surge of the leading edge, and culminated with a great view of the long rope tornado on sunset. We then dropped south onto the LaCrosse storm and sat a little wide on review, but got to see a whole mess of night-time tornadoes and some really nice structure illuminated by lightning. Definitely pretty memorable, just a damn shame it was at night. Ended up with 11 for the day (distinct circulations, from seperate wallclouds or satellites), including a really nice stovepipe and a few nice multivortex stages. Full blog post can be found in 2 parts:
Part 1: Everything up til the rope on dark here: http://www.huntersofthunder.com/2012/06/may-25th-part-1-kansas-classic.html
Part 2: The nighttime stuff: http://www.huntersofthunder.com/2012/06/may-25th-part-2-monsters-in-dark.html
Part 1: Everything up til the rope on dark here: http://www.huntersofthunder.com/2012/06/may-25th-part-1-kansas-classic.html
Part 2: The nighttime stuff: http://www.huntersofthunder.com/2012/06/may-25th-part-2-monsters-in-dark.html
Mark Ellinwood
EF2
Started the day in Waterloo, IA after the somewhat failed chase the day before. Got up early and drove down towards Great Bend until we saw the first cell go up. We watched everyone jump on that cell and decided to try our luck with whatever would pop up south of the first cell, and it paid off nicely.
We (Jason Foster, Ian Livingston and I) caught a brief spin-up on the middle cell before dropping to the southern cell, and we were all alone on that southern cell for a bit as we watched it mature during the early evening. We stuck with it as the wall cloud quickly materialized just as the sun was setting and stayed ESE of the circulation until the end of the tornadic stage of the storm.
Watch video >
Some video stills: http://bit.ly/L8KOKT
Ian's blog post with his chase log and imagery: http://www.ustornadoes.com/2012/05/27/may-25-2012-storm-chase/
We (Jason Foster, Ian Livingston and I) caught a brief spin-up on the middle cell before dropping to the southern cell, and we were all alone on that southern cell for a bit as we watched it mature during the early evening. We stuck with it as the wall cloud quickly materialized just as the sun was setting and stayed ESE of the circulation until the end of the tornadic stage of the storm.
Watch video >
Some video stills: http://bit.ly/L8KOKT
Ian's blog post with his chase log and imagery: http://www.ustornadoes.com/2012/05/27/may-25-2012-storm-chase/
Last edited by a moderator:
Dave Lewison
EF1
Here's a link to my video of the tornado(es) near La Crosse KS. While many chasers saw this storm from the east, we were actually to the north and west of this tornado when it formed and we followed in behind it into La Crosse. Got some spectacular images of the tornado as it roped out, being illuminated by lightning!
Watch video >
Watch video >
James Gustina
Supporter
Coming pretty late here but this was the second day of my Plains trip. We started out in Des Moines that morning (got lured to the IA/MN state line the day before).
After a quick bbq stop in Kansas City we made it to Salina around 2 PM and waited for a bout half an hour to see what was going on further SW. We decided to re-position to Great Bend and wait. First storm went up en route and we caught up to it just north of Hosington on US 281:
And finally the first tornadic storm producing near LaCrosse. Had to contrast enhance most of these because we had no radar data and stayed way back:
After a quick bbq stop in Kansas City we made it to Salina around 2 PM and waited for a bout half an hour to see what was going on further SW. We decided to re-position to Great Bend and wait. First storm went up en route and we caught up to it just north of Hosington on US 281:
And finally the first tornadic storm producing near LaCrosse. Had to contrast enhance most of these because we had no radar data and stayed way back:
Last edited by a moderator:
Derek Weston
EF5
Ben Holcomb
EF5
Made a decent forecast and worked in Norman until almost 1 pm before leaving to head to Hays, KS which was my morning target. Turns out it verified, and I saw multiple tornadoes with JR Hehnly after dark near LaCrosse, KS including 2 at once!
Recap: http://www.benholcomb.com/Chase-Accounts/20120525
Pictures: http://www.benholcomb.com/photos/stormchasing/20120525
Recap: http://www.benholcomb.com/Chase-Accounts/20120525
Pictures: http://www.benholcomb.com/photos/stormchasing/20120525
Paul Sherman
EF2
Full write up in the Link below, pretty much the same as others, targeted Hays along the Warm Front along I-70, Saw mostly Nocturnal Tornadoes ending with 6 in Total mostly near La Crosse.
http://plainschaser.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/friday-25th-may-2012-kansas.html
http://plainschaser.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/friday-25th-may-2012-kansas.html
Scott Nicholson
This is long overdue... I've (finally) converted and made available tornado/storm chasing videos from years past and posted them on the Videos page on my website at www.springwx.com. There are several videos available for viewing...and I'm adding more as I find archived storm chase videos in my collection.
The video available for this date is titled La Crosse, KS Tornadoes:
May 25, 2012: This was a fun chase...I just wished the tornadoes dropped while there was still some sunlight left. The storms didn't start producing tornadoes until sunset. After chasing the first two cells, we dropped to the southern most cell. We missed the tornado with the second storm in route to the third cell...but what a great decision it was! We caught 5 tornadoes...all (unfortunately) after dark. The video portion shows the development of the tornado...but due to lack of light, I could only get video stills when lightning illuminated the tornado or the silhouette of the tornado. The quality of the images doesn't tell the story or excitement that we felt observing these tornadoes. What a sight it was...the motion, the tornadoes, the lightning, the hail!
The video available for this date is titled La Crosse, KS Tornadoes:
May 25, 2012: This was a fun chase...I just wished the tornadoes dropped while there was still some sunlight left. The storms didn't start producing tornadoes until sunset. After chasing the first two cells, we dropped to the southern most cell. We missed the tornado with the second storm in route to the third cell...but what a great decision it was! We caught 5 tornadoes...all (unfortunately) after dark. The video portion shows the development of the tornado...but due to lack of light, I could only get video stills when lightning illuminated the tornado or the silhouette of the tornado. The quality of the images doesn't tell the story or excitement that we felt observing these tornadoes. What a sight it was...the motion, the tornadoes, the lightning, the hail!
