2014-06-03 MISC: NE/IA

[Andrew Clope]

Well since we are posting pictures, I'll post mine from Tuesday. This was just ENE of Gothenburg, NE @ about 6:45 PM.

This was my first chase, and it's funny how 1500 miles of driving, 2 skervvy motels and a ton of junk food can all be worth it for a ten minute view of this! I'm hooked. About 2 minutes after this was shot, a funnel dropped out of the left edge of the wall cloud and began kicking up dirt/dust. Then, just as quickly as it was here, it was gone!

EDIT** How come my picture is not showing up without being a link?

 

[Dan Robinson]

After reviewing my video (which has much better low-contrast capability than my eyes), it appears that I observed a tornado just northwest of Nebraska City. I downloaded some archived Level III radar from OAX to get a closer look at the storm than what I had available with WxWorx. Here is an infographic showing the base reflectivity and velocity images from KOAX at 8:37PM CDT (01:37Z). The video image shown is looking northwest from Highway 2 and Steinhart Park Road at the same time, as a lightning flash backlit the tornado.

http://stormhighway.com/june32014/137z.jpg

At the time, I was not confident that what I was looking at was anything more than an area of heavy rain, which was consistent with everything I'd observed/heard reported with the storm all day. I did not observe any power flashes or any other indications. Only after a detailed post-analysis of the video did I realize this was likely a tornado. Otherwise I would have most certainly called this in at the time, especially since it was heading straight for Nebraska City. I have not been able to find reports of damage in Nebraska City from this as of yet.

Since I chase by myself and usually "marathon" my Plains trips, I often do not have time to do a detailed post-chase analysis like this until after I arrive home. I sent this in to OAX, if anyone in the area has heard of any damage from this, I'd be interested to know.

 

[joel ewing]

I know what it's like to have a low tally for a given year...it sucks. I've said for years that one of the things that separates a mature chaser from one who isn't is the propensity for a too-eager inexperienced chaser to conjure a tornado out of something that isn't. We all know that in tornadic weather there are lots of suspect low-hanging cloud features that can fool the best of us. Yet, my personal longtime code is that if I cannot be 100% sure of what it is I'm seeing, I don't call it a tornado. I have probably seen several actual tornadoes over the years that I just wasn't 100% certain about, so I never claimed them or called them in. All I can say is that the ones that I witnessed and spoke of earlier had definite, easy to see major rotation above them. There were times that my chase partner Doren Berge and I would crest a hill and see one or two small spinups, and it was obvious that they were gustnadoes. Yet there were other times that we seemed to be the only vehicle around for awhile, as traffic got to be pretty sparse after a while on those back roads. The actual tornadic spinups we saw often got undercut so quickly that I think it's highly likely that unless we saw another car or a car's lights, we may have been the only guys to witness some of the ones that we did. I'm sure it was that way with many other chasers that day, too. I partially grew up in that neck of the woods (Boone Co - Albion area), and have cousins in Broken Bow, O'Neill, Kearney, Knox County, an aunt from Nance County (where Jesse James' gang used to sometimes camp in some caves on their land!) so I know the general area and we took some of the back roads when others may have stuck to the primary roads. My chase partner Doren is the one who does all the videoing and I do most of the driving. I'm sure he got the rotation of some of the larger spinups...incl. the big multi-vortex in Nance Co, I think it was. We were very close to it, and could see the clouds rotate around above it VERY plainly...and low to the ground. Perhaps you actually DID score a tornado that day, Rob. I haven't seen any of the video yet....we chased the Neb. panhandle the next day, and we started in Sidney, Neb. this morning and chased the tornadic cell from it's inception that went thru the Cheyenne Wells, Colorado area today. We just landed at the Holiday Inn Express in Lamar a little while ago, and it's midnite and we still haven't viewed any video of his from this past week, and it may be awhile until we do. I'm out for another 3 weeks, and it may be just after that when I get to view what all we've shot this season. But rest assured, I'll be happy to post our scores from that day in StormTrack for all to see and comment on. To all who are still chasing this week....good luck down near the panhandle tomorrow (Okla. + Texas panhandles, that is). I think I'm due for an easy tornado about now. It seems it's been a s--tload of work for not much of anything, so far. But.....that's chasing. It ain't for the weak in spirit, that's for sure.

 

[Logan Karsten]

Joel, do you have any photos or video of this "multi-vortex" you claim to have seen? Also, of the three tornadoes the Hastings WFO documented, which one was this?

 

[Ryan Pfeifer]

He stated he hasn't got the chance to watch the video and might not for awhile. Also, the current survey system is not going to catch every tornado. If a tornado occurs in open field where there is nothing to damage, then there's nothing to survey. It would be interesting to see some video, but if it's not until 3 weeks from now I doubt I'll remember to check this thread for it.

 

[Bob Schafer]

If my integrity was being questioned, by my own chaser peers, no less, I'd find a few minutes to at least post a photo/vidcap. My guess is that he doesn't have any video. No pic? It didn't happen.

 

[Jeff Duda]

evidently Kathryn filmed a classic tornado just north of Ord yesterday.

Why don't we let her post her reports then instead of getting secondhand reports?

Doren and I had actually rolled into Ord a few minutes after they blew the sirens, and got caught in the tornadic/meso wide circulation as we drove to shelter at some spot on the abandoned airfield. Perhaps this is where we lost our passenger window, as we were getting hammered by extremely strong winds that blew debris as us from several different directions as the circulation passed over us. I really figured we'd #%^@* the pooch with that move, and when I looked at Doren his eyes were big as saucers. The thin, wrapping rain curtains were circling around us, as the local police escorted everybody on the road in the north part of Ord out of harm's way. I'll give them credit, they did a great job at rounding motorists up and giving them an escort to safety.

This sounds like quite the narrative. Sounds like you are lucky to be alive, and perhaps foolish to have put yourself in that position to begin with. Nonetheless, I would guess that just about any chaser caught in a situation like this would be eager to get video up to either show off or tell their story. Do you have any pictures or video of this account?

 

[Skip Talbot]

My guess is that he doesn't have any video. No pic?

If there are no decent shots, that's ultimately why it wouldn't even matter. The Hastings NWSFO might be interested from a survey or reporting standpoint, but from a storm chasing standpoint there's a lot to be said about quality versus quantity. Six to eight tornadoes that cannot be adequately documented well enough to be distinguished from RFD or gustfront circulations, are not worth a single, fully condensed rope. The broad, relatively weak RFD circulations and swirls at ground and cloud base could certainly be argued as being tornadoes. If you get the same effect from punching the RFD or chasing the gustfront, "tornado" just becomes an empty label.

Regardless if this was a tornado event, until I see otherwise, it definitely appears that this wasn't a photogenic tornado event. That might not matter to some chasers, but to me there's not much difference between weaker HP spinup tornadoes, and dime a dozen gustnadoes or just sitting inside the RFD, other than perhaps being able to say you got a "tornado".

Is getting your windows blown out and your safety compromised worth the bragging rights to say you got a few rain wrapped spinups of which you have no decent footage? Not to me. If there's no chance of getting a shot of the tornado, then I won't even bother chasing it, and that's ultimately why we left the storm. You guys chase for your own reasons though and take your own risks. That's fine. It seems like there is often this competition just to say you got a "tornado" even if there is little or nothing to show from it and at great risk. It seems silly and dangerous.

 

[Todd Rector]

If there's no chance of getting a shot of the tornado, then I won't even bother chasing it, and that's ultimately why we left the storm. You guys chase for your own reasons though and take your own risks. That's fine. It seems like there is often this competition just to say you got a "tornado" even if there is little or nothing to show from it and at great risk. It seems silly and dangerous.

I agree completely. I was up by Greeley Center getting thoroughly sandblasted. When I saw how this system had turned into an HP mess, I called it a day and was heading home by 5:30, hoping maybe to catch some good structure pics once I got some distance from it (no luck). Several hours later the storm caught up with me between Lincoln and Omaha - it was after sunset and I could *still* see dozens if not hundreds of people actively chasing whatever invisible meso happened to pop up on radar. I just don't understand it.

 

[Rob H]

Near Fullerton, I got a text message from a fellow chaser asking "did you just pass us?". Five minutes later he texted me "F%^! getting hit by large branches and wind-driven golf balls". That's why we passed you

I still had fun playing with that storm even though I knew the chance of tornadoes was almost nil. Staying in the inflow notch and getting out of the path of RFD lobes swinging out can be a challenge. I figure I might just see something amazing, and every time you're close to a storm you're getting more experience on how to handle those situations.

A reminder that if you're surrounded by swirling bands of rain, you're in the bearcage, which means the bear is nearby.

 

[Joshua Nall]

You know back on 6-1 there were a lot of differing reports with one of the tail end storms near the CO/KS border. First account I saw was "saw multiple rope tornadoes" Next was "saw a nice landspout" Next I heard on the storm from someone questioning the others..... "That was just a bunch of blowing dust" Then I see Jason Persoff has several pics here and said there were several gustnadoes that swirled to near meso base, which sort of explains the first report I saw of miltiple rope tornadoes, even if that was an incorrect assessment. I was a couple storms up the line from this one and was wondering how in the world that storm had a confirmed tornado warning on it when it first came out. The thing is people all have their own level of experience and different perspectives on the storm, so there will be differing stories, many incorrect of course. What does rotation in the cloud base really mean? There are all sorts of swirly clouds above gustnadoes and blowing dust. Depending on how someone defines rotation, you get different reports. For me I like to see a laminar nub funnel at least, so there is no doubt. Others on here, if there is rotation on a wall cloud and there is a dust swirl that looks " under it" then that is a tornado.

Concerning getting back in the hook on an HP... not every cares that much about photogenic scenes, they want to see and video a tornado uprooting trees and taking out powerlines from close range.... and feeling it, hearing it. And its not even so much about having something to show for it since what they have to show isn't much, often times. It's just about the experience. Yeah it's dangerous and silly and stupid. but so is riding bulls and all sorts of other things people do. People do dangerous, silly, stupid stuff. Deep water diving is the one I can't understand, all for this peaceful, disconnected from the world, feeling??? What about when you forget to hit the release to go back up and you die? They don't care. Back when I was a teenager and we had church football games... tackle, with no pads, in the rain.. me and some of the other guys stood and watched and talked about how that was stupid. But it was fun to them, and it was the guys out there getting muddy and bloody that got the girls and it's what people talked about the next Sunday. I'm just saying there are all kinds of kinds.

 

[Ryan Pfeifer]

Also, for people that only make it out say 5 times per year, gustnados can be plenty fun.