2013-05-27 REPORTS: CO/WY/TX/OK/KS/NE

[Jared Orr]

Our team set out late from Kansas City, arrived at Smith Center, KS just in time to catch the monster supercell riding the warm front. Before it became completely rain-wrapped (to our dismay), we saw a couple brief spin-ups below the meso. I would love to see the footage of anyone who dared to get close enough to see the tornado.

 

[samuel stone]

I was also on the smith center storm, also did not dare to drive into the rain wrap of fury, but was close enough to see what was undoubtedly the large tornado-producing lowering just nw of lebanon before it became too low contrast. got a few good pics and also later got some nice structure and lighting pic of the ellsworth storm at/after sundown. hopefully ill have time to post later.

 

[JamesCaruso]

Our series of missteps and misfortunes on this year's chase trip continues. We played the triple point and spent the entire afternoon just south of Russell, KS as pressure fell and wind speeds increased. As the dryline bumped right up against the region, turkey towers began developing before 6:00. But the storm that finally developed never got its act together. We followed it north and east to an area south of Beloit. The updraft was horseshoe'd out for most of the time. On route 14, where we saw a number of other chasers, the updraft looked a little better viewed to our west and it tried to put down a wall cloud (I believe it had produced an earlier wall cloud as well, if I remember correctly...) However, a rain core began falling through the updraft as it moved northeast and there was not much of any structure left. With daylight waning, we blasted west and south, blowing off the southernmost storm along I-70, which didn't look like much on radar. We did enjoy some lightning in the back edge of the tower from I-70 though.

I assume the cap was the problem in north central KS??

 

[jwolfe]

Great chase in terms of unexpected excitement... We played the triple point as well, sitting at our target of Concordia, KS hoping to jump on a storm at maturity. As stated above, the southern cells did not gain solid updrafts due to the cap. The storm of the day was obviously the massive supercell along the NE border. We elected not to chase into it fearing it would eventually turn HP which it did. Instead we called it a day at 8 p.m. and trekked through the remnants of the storms... or so we thought. As we entered Marysville, KS just after 9 p.m., and turned north for Lincoln, a warning popped in the Diller area. We turned around to sit it out in Marysville at a gas station only to see residents fleeing inside as a large tornado crossed HWY 36 within a mile of our location. We escaped to the south again.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Chased from Smith Center to Belleville, KS yesterday. Dust whirls, rotating scud fragments, and Loch Ness Monsters hiding in the rain about sums up the day. I don't think we had the upper level winds and venting to keep the storms from going HP quickly, despite the favorable shear parameters.

Possible bird fart:

Something moving through the rain curtains, probably more rain:

And this was the big tornado the TIV sampled, but damn it for being so rain wrapped and low contrast:

A fun day, but hoping for better the rest of the week.

 

[Tony Gilbert]

We cautiously ventured in on a dirt road into the narrow dry slot on the Smith Centre storm and caught a brief dusty tornado/ spin up. The vortex looks to be located near the initial report. Moments later as we moved a few hundred yards east we had another much closer brief spin up on the road just in front of us. Not very clear still image from my camcorder. The spin ups at this time were pretty much dancing around all over the place whilst the mother storm was getting its act together.

Picture of initial dusty spin up.

 

[Tom Roberts]

Living in Concordia gave me a good starting point yesterday. I debated heading south and west of Salina or north and west on US-36. When I realized that the dryline was going to kick off the storms, I knew I would have to head west. (I waited a bit too long on this decision.) Like many others, I went after the storm that ran along the Kansas-Nebraska border, just north of US-36.

I stopped southwest of Bellaire, about 8 miles east of Smith Center and watched the storm pass to my north. Like others have said, the storm quickly became an HP monster, and while my video might have a hint of circulation on the ground, it's probably lost in low-contrast darkness.

 

[Adam Lucio]

Caught the Esbon EF-4, it was very hard to see and this low contrast view for us only lasted about 20 seconds before more rain wrapped around it. One needs to be north of these rain wrapped monsters to stand a chance of viewing them clearly, but then you've got gorilla hail and washed out muddy roads to worry about. A tricky situation no matter how you slice it.

Full log here: http://www.aerostorms.com/esbon-kansas-ef-4-tornado-may-27th-2013/

 

[Gene Moore]

Our team set out late from Kansas City, arrived at Smith Center, KS just in time to catch the monster supercell riding the warm front. Before it became completely rain-wrapped (to our dismay), we saw a couple brief spin-ups below the meso. I would love to see the footage of anyone who dared to get close enough to see the tornado.

Jared, here is a shot of the tornado from that day. At the time I saw it back in the notch (as in deep dark black....) it was wrapping in rain and dirt. Not one of my best shots, but considering the situation I'll regard it as a keeper. Hope the quality comes out good enough for this format. The foreground is overly bright due to my attempt to bring out the main subject, a large trunk tornado right on the forward (north) nose of the RFD/gust front. I'm not sure this is the exact tornado you were referring to although I'm convinced there were a series of them out over open country. I have no beginning or end time for this event: 7:00:34 CDT north of Franklin Nebraska.