2014-07-06 MISC: IA

[John Farley]

I know there were at least a handful of chasers on the tornadoes around Traer and Reinbeck, IA, but have yet to see anything about it on Stormtrack. The Traer tornado (second one there in a week) has to be one of the prettiest ones of 2014:

https://www.facebook.com/kgancbs2/p...60216628095/10152384603208096/?type=1&theater

 

[Todd Rector]

First of all, congrats John because this was your 1,000th post!

I positioned myself near Albert Lea MN where the HRRR indicated mid-afternoon initiation. I latched onto a cell that looked somewhat healthy and followed it SE into Iowa for two hours or so, but there was NO WAY this thing was going to spin something up so I headed home to Des Moines on I-35 around 6pm.

As the line fired southwest along the boundary, picturesque cells popped up in a modestly discrete manner to my southeast but all of them looked weak. Despite 70+ dewpoints, bases were relatively high, and anvils were spreading out H4 at best. Lame.

The line was moving SE, and I am sure one of these cells eventually (sigh) dropped the Traer / Reinbeck tornadoes as well as one recorded near Newton, IA...

Okay, PLEASE don't flame me for my lack of meteorological insight, but...

1. These were very picturesque but weak-looking cells. Supercell? No way.
2. At no time did I see an indication of a meso, either visually or radar-indicated.
3. Did I mention these cells were pathetic and weak?
4. Pathetic. Weak. Lackluster convection despite 3500+ CAPE forecasts.
5. See attached pic. Pretty! (but weak)

While I am sorry I didn't blindly chase after these lame, pathetic cells and grab fantastic pics of the tornadoes everyone else seems to have (I might be slightly bitter coming back from a 380 mile bust) but I need to ask:

Were these LANDSPOUTS? Because that's the only way I can reconcile this in my head.

Everything I know about tornadic activity was NOT present this day, yet everyone (including a co-worker with a cellphone camera) seems to have awesome pics of a tornado 30 miles from my home while I was busy driving nearly 400 miles chasing after absolute crap.

Someone please talk me down from the ledge.



TR

 

[John Farley]

Wow! I had no idea that was my 1000th post. Just to be clear, that was not my photo. I don't know that "everyone" has great pics of these tornadoes. Most of the ones I have seen were taken by Brad Goddard, who definitely DID get some of the best pics of tornadoes this season. As to the meteorology, I was not paying attention to this system so I don't know much about the nature of the storms, but if you can access the picture below from Facebook, I would say this picture strongly suggests supercell, with the appearance of a lot of storm-scale rotation and a large RFD cut.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...1205201620814.31507.1551866440&type=1&theater

 

[Marcus Diaz]

All I can say is, weird and freaky things happen with 3,000+ CAPE and any boundaries the storms can latch onto. While I did not chase, nor did I even know about the potential of Sunday, I know exactly how one off a storm can be. I've had it happen a couple of times down here in the panhandle. Todd, don't jump that ledge quite yet because I've been in your shoes before. I missed the Campo, CO tornado because I looked on radar and thought "well, surely it'll gust out like every other storm in that area. 3 hours later, the tornado warning never dropped. I was gutted!

 

[Todd Rector]

I can definitely see supercell characteristics in that pic, and will happily stand down from my previous assertion this was landspout-type phenomena (for this particular tornado, at least).

Gorgeous pic, with a clearly defined features - I am literally awestruck. This is the kind of shot I dream of - kudos to the man behind the lens.

TR

 

[Todd Rector]

Thanks, Marcus - I feel slightly better

The twin tornadoes in Pilger NE a few weeks ago? I took off that morning with my target area centered on Norfolk, NE (20 miles from Pilger). Heavy morning convection coupled with low vacation time and the knowledge that my four previous Nebraska chases this season were HP crapfests (including a free RFD sandblasting) caused me to turn around and head back to work, thus missing the tornadic event of a lifetime.

On the plus side, I have half of the Nebraska sandhills in my car for a souvenir!

On the down side, my fiancee tolerates this, but steps out of the room when she talks to her mom on the phone.

 

[Dave C]

Hey Todd I know how you feel. My season has included an HP / MCS crapfest every day that I could chase, and when I could not get away there were three workable tornado days. Last year, I missed Rozel, KS because I was out of position and so instead focused on the storm to the north near Ellis that almost put down a mean looking funnel. People' grandmas' cats were posting videos of Rozel, seriously I think everyone on the planet but me saw it.

Pilger? Nope. I was so tired from a chase in NM on Saturday (that I didn't want to go on but someone begged me to go) that I didn't check the model updates for that Monday and so didn;t realize what I was missing until it was too late. Saw Pilger on radar from my desk at work. Same as Bennington, Moore, so many other recent events. Its just a frustrating hobby sometimes.

So far, the best chase I had all year was a 2% day that I knew going out had nil chance of producing. We saw some beautiful storm structure and relaxed for a change, without the self imposed pressure of finding rotation.

 

[Andy Wehrle]

Nice to hear I"m not the only one who dies a little inside every time someone shares an awesome Pilger (and now Traer) pic.

I initially targeted the La Crosse to Rochester area on July 6th, then threw in the towel when it looked like cloud cover would kill things. Drove south along the river to Prairie du Chien, then east home. I should have saved it for the day after, when there was an interesting-looking (on radar, at least) discrete cell diving southeast ahead of the second bow echo for awhile. No tornadoes, but it probably had photogenic structure at some point.

 

[Brad Goddard]

Just popping in here as I was curious what other thoughts were on this day. All I can say is what a surprise this day was. I certainly wouldn't beat yourself up too badly for missing this event. Earlier in the day when the storms further north were looking horrible I bumped into a friend along side the road and made the comment to the effect of I am not telling anyone I was out here for this junk. An hour and Half later I was literally driving home thru Rienbeck not paying attention to what was going on at all. I stopped and pulled over after I noticed a few other chasers doing the same. To this day I cant believe that funnel dropped west of Rienbeck. The whole time it was forming I was like no way that makes it to the ground, this isn't supposed to be happening. The only thing I can think of is some sort of very subtle boundary was put down by one of the other storms that this thing latched on to and was able to ride for a little while. Here is a quick little TL clip off my dash cam, sorry for the crappy quality. Video really isn't my focus.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10204973336483758

 

[Dan Robinson]

Brad, great catch on that day. One of the best RFD occlusion+tornado images ever, in my opinion. I have found that many of the Midwest's days are just like Traer, unexpected things that are so subtle that you almost have to be already out chasing to see them coming. Nothing synoptic points to many of these. In fact, they've made me quite paranoid as I don't feel like I can ignore *any* general t-storm day in my backyard. I've seen funnels 1/3 of the way to the ground with rain showers here.