2015-05-09 Reports: TX/OK/KS/NE/CO

Woke up in Eastland, TX after the previous day's HP beast along 380 in Haskall and Throckmorton counties. I woke up thinking that I would have to head north, but as the morning wore on and a few cups of coffee and analysis, it became quite clear to me to hang around Eastland and Cisco. I was on the storm as it first became a red speck on radar through the spectacular morphing onto a beastly tornadic supercell. The most incredible part was that it didn't instantly become an HP bowling ball as is 2015. :) Here is the sequence of events. Please forgive a couple of them being out of focus. In the heat of the chase, I failed to remember I had it set to manual and bumped the lens enough to jar it about out of focus. Ugh.

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I had planned on not doing anything Saturday and just happened to be in Colorado Springs when storms became tornado warned coming north through Avondale. I was able to get east of it and get in position to see a brief touchdown. These were the storms in El Paso County and not the bigger ones in Eads. I was about an hour away when the eastern storms became warned, and with the dogs at home I just headed home, myself. Was happy to just get a surprise. Moving to Colorado from Norman last year I became very suspicious of real chasing opportunities in CO. I've been very impressed so far at Eastern CO!

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Now that I finally have some quick videos posted up on youtube, I can add my account here.

After the Thursday night flood show in TX, I wasn't overly thrilled about spending another full evening trying to find spots to sneak into an HP beast's cage to get a glimpse of what I assumed would be a non-photogenic rain swirl(which, from what I saw, the Throgmorton storm I gave up on was about that exciting) all while driving away from the next day's target.

So, looking at the day two about 7 pm I decided to quit following the HP beast into zig-zag highwayville(again) and try to at least get to the west side of the center of the big mod-risk area for Saturday. I went to Childress and camped out, then woke up at dawn to see the shield of 'setup killer' and trailing storms in TX to mop up any good fetch of instability into the shear zone. So, after a quick look at visible satellite, low placement and surface obs, I headed out for Elkhart, KS to hope for some good clearing.

About the time I got to Elkhart, the cell south of Springfield started to bubble and the pre-watch MD hit, so i zipped up to Johnson City and got gas then headed straight west to 287 North of Springfield.

I followed the cell with Tornadoes from there up until it hit the cold front and lost its focus then shelved out. I then hopped back down to Cheyenne Wells and got on US-40 to head to I-70 and on towards home. I was recording a time-lapse of the back of the cells moving toward Oakley, when it went tornado warned. Kept the video rolling the whole time and actually got to see the elephant trunk tornado that was down just southeast of Oakley before it crossed the interstate. Oakley PD temporarily blocked US-40, so I had to watch from there for about 5 minutes before moving on.

Eads Tornado:

Cheyenne Wells Tornado(es):

Oakley Supercell Timelapse/Tornado:
 
I had been eagerly watching the models for this event for almost a week in hopes of being able to get a decent tornado chase relatively close to Denver. Not often do I wake up a 3am to check the latest SPC Guidance, but I did about every night last week leading up to Saturday. By Wednesday, I had accepted the fact I might have to travel a little further than normal and chase possibly in the southern high plains. On Thursday night, I began to get more excited at the prospect of choosing a “secondary” target that I was comfortable with; NE Colorado/NW Kansas as NAM was showing CAPE up around 2000, plenty of shear, fair EHI, and 50’s dew points between 18Z and 0Z Sunday.

Friday afternoon I made the call to my fiancé; we were heading to SW Kansas (or somewhere around there) for her second storm chase.

On Saturday morning I began studying the MCS/visible satellite hoping that my initial target was clearing. Slowly, it was. After looking at the RAP around 7am Saturday, I noted a nice plum of CAPE, EHI 0-3km and EHI 0-1KM forecasted and (hopefully) adequate dew points for tornados in SW Colorado given the lower temps. SPC furthered my hope with a 10% tornado prob. I refined my target to Kit Carson, CO. I informed my fiancé that we were going to leave Denver at 1630Z and no later as HRRR initiated storms around 19Z.

We gathered up our dog, plenty of goldfish for snacking, and set our way. We battled our way east on I-70 towards Limon with heavy rain and small hail, and saw several people hydroplane into the ditch. Once to Limon, we headed SE on 287 towards Kit Carson. When we arrived to Kit Carson, I noticed some small cells popping up about 100 miles south on the CO/NM border. SPC mentioned this on the mesoscale discussion with 95% probability of Tornado Watch Issuance (yay!). Soon thereafter, the watch was issued. In fear of missing something on the southern cells forming, I decided to retarget down to Lamar. On the way, the small blips on radar of the storms never became anything impressive. When we arrived to Lamar, we filled up with gas. I contemplated driving another 50 miles down to Springfield, CO to get closer to the storm making its way north, but decided not to as I was worried something would fire further up North or West. At this time, there had already been several tornado warnings (and tornados) about 90 miles west of us. I was a little nervous I was missing the ‘show.’

We headed a few miles south of Lamar and watch the sub-severe cell work its way north – both visually and on radar. Every few scans the hail marker would go from <0.50” to 0.50” or 0.75" but never showed impressive scans..but the fact it was still even showing up on radar for over an hour impressed me. I kept telling myself (and fiancé) that we were doing the right thing by waiting to see if this storm did something as it continued north into the better environment rather than heading west to the other storms already matured.

As the storm neared Lamar, we headed north to stay in front of the storm. About 5 miles north of Lamar, we headed east on some dirt roads into a State Wildlife Area gambling that the roads wouldn’t be too muddy. After a few miles, we were able to get on a north road option that would keep us relatively parallel with the storm as it moved generally north.

Suddenly the radar started to intensify for a few scans and I started noting some scud being sucked up into the storm. I got excited and watched the storm begin to develop a lower base. I then noted an RFD notch forming, and told my fiancé “we are watching tornadogenesis in front of our eyes” as I described the dynamics of the storm that was a few miles west of our position. We grew excited and before we knew it, a nice funnel formed and quickly put down a rope just to quickly dissipate again (right as we got alerted of a tornado warning), but the main funnel remained. Within another minute or two, we had this:

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(VIDEO BELOW AS WELL AS MORE PICTURES IN VIDEO)

We watched for 8-10 minutes (maybe longer, time warps when you are watching a tornado and taking pictures) as the beautiful tornado matured, morphed, and died capturing video and still pictures of the tornado. We noted how deep the RFD notch became and hoped for another show soon. We headed north and saw a new circulation developing with swirling clouds. The TIV headed north, but we opted to head east a few miles to have a safe north route for (what ended up being) the rest of the chase. We got in place about 10-15 minutes later to watch a beautiful tornado touch down a few miles to our northwest (VIDEO BELOW AS WELL AS MORE PICTURES IN VIDEO):





This tornado seemed much stronger and we noticed a possible satellite tornado forming. Sure enough, a few moments later we saw this:



We watched in awe at this beautiful site for about 10 minutes:



We then headed east a few miles, then north to catch up back to the storm. We were far enough away that we couldn’t see what was happening with the storm, but as we began to get better contrast we saw another tornado emerging from the depths (I can’t confirm if this was the rope-out of the previous tornado or a new tornado):



As this tornado dissipated, we continued north. A nice wall cloud began forming again and very briefly what appeared to be a multi-vortex tornado touched down (no pictures or video). About 2 minutes later, this nice tornado formed:



Once this tornado dissipated, the area of circulation continued and briefly produced another tornado (VIDEO BELOW)

The storm kept trying to form another tornado, and produced a nice funnel that I do not believe touched down.

Soon thereafter, the storm began to die as it went into the cold front and the whole area began to form storms. I knew this was probably game over, so we slowly worked our way north back to I-70/Burlington with smiles on our faces, and impressive pictures to match. We wanted to sleep in our own bed that night, so I decided to not go east to the Kansas storm and we headed back to Denver. Around Deer Trail, we encountered 4” of slush-snow on I-70 and struggled to get back to Denver, encountering some of the most intense blizzard/snow conditions I’ve ever driven in.

All in all, my best (and fiancés) storm chase to date. 495 miles, 12 hours, 5-6 tornadoes, and an amazing experience that I will never forget.

Here is a Youtube video with HD video of a few of the tornadoes as well as more pictures not in this post.

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Looks like most scored, but I frustratingly ended up on the wrong storm near Graham, TX eventhough trying multiple times to abandon it. I too wanted to be on the storm down by Cisco, but there was no way I could make it. What was an even bigger kick to the junk was that the stuff produced up along the red river. It had looked severely linear earlier which is why we made the decision to keep hauling south.

Write up http://www.benholcomb.com/chases/20150509
 
Looks like most scored, but I frustratingly ended up on the wrong storm near Graham, TX eventhough trying multiple times to abandon it. I too wanted to be on the storm down by Cisco, but there was no way I could make it. What was an even bigger kick to the junk was that the stuff produced up along the red river. It had looked severely linear earlier which is why we made the decision to keep hauling south.

Write up http://www.benholcomb.com/chases/20150509


Ben, I was up by the river and STILL got the wrong storm. It was the one in front that produced, and I just didn't have the roads to catch back up to it. I let it pass thinking the one behind it would do something for me.
 
A frustrating day for me as well, as I stayed in SW Kansas, even though the night before and morning of I "guaranteed' tornadoes in Colorado, and mentioned north Texas since it was south of the early morning junk. I was hesitant to drive that far to reach either of those targets, so I stayed and waited all day for something to fire in SW Kansas. Finally got a storm, and it went tornado warned, but it was never able to do it. Really kicking myself after seeing all the beautiful pictures and videos from Colorado! I didn't want to be so far away from home, but it would have been worth it!
 
Ben, I was up by the river and STILL got the wrong storm. It was the one in front that produced, and I just didn't have the roads to catch back up to it. I let it pass thinking the one behind it would do something for me.
I think I have you both beat. I was eating a late lunch at Rohmer's (Wiener Schnitzel) in Muenster, TX and watching radar trying to determine if something might pop to the SW and come my way, or was I going to have to make a drive down towards Graham to a nice looking cell there. I saw a "little" storm off near Gainesville (only 10 miles east) and didn't pay it much mind. I figured if it produced (I thought it not likely), it would be over in OK on bad roads and cellular network. As I'm eating, that nearby storm torwarns and sure enough produces for a brief while. I could have caught it easy enough thinking with hind-sight, and maybe even followed it, but no, I decided to drive 90 miles SW to a cell that fizzled just as I arrived near Bryson.

The one I ignored might have had some play but I have not seen any recorded evidence of the storm that tracked from Gainesville, NW through to near Caddo, and torwarned most of the duration, and looked impressive on radar. Oh well. The meal was good, but I like Main Street Diner over in Gainesville better.
 
Glad we chose the north target! HP storms just aren't my thing and after several chases in Texas on dynamic systems with abundant moisture...pass. Targeted Lamar, CO from the get go (only a 7 hour drive from our hotel in Wichita Falls) and never had to deviate which is a great feeling! Surprised at the amount of people that were on this storm beings that the roads were never too cluttered.

@Verne Carlson looks like you got the second to last tornado by Cheyenne Wells, I don't think I have seen any other shots of that one. I thought it produced while we were going through town, but couldn't tell with the buildings. Great score!

Here are a few photos with more at my blog chip-redmond.blogspot.com

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Chip
 
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My report sounds so crazy, I probably would doubt it if I saw someone else post it....where do I begin?

My friend Dan and I left 11pm Friday night for the overnight drive with an initial target of the area near Dodge City, Kansas, hopingto get to Wichita around 9am and make a quick stop to analyze the day. We ended up getting a Ford Escape, very nice car, because it was apparently the only car that tiny Enterprise office had - we were very happy to get that for the price of an economy car! I drove from the I57/70 interchange in Effingham, IL all the way to just west of the KC area from about 1am to 6am. I'd just like to say 5 hour energy really did the trick! Never even felt drowsy. We switched seats, I napped off and on for an hour and a half, then woke up to "Yeah" by Usher playing on the Sirius/XM satellite radio, and I knew it was going to be a good day, haha.

When we get around Wichita, we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts for a snack and a little break from the car ride so we could analyze some data. We were very concerned about the morning precip all over our target area and how long it would take to clear out, but we decided the best thing to do was to continue on highway 400 west and make stops every hour or so to analyze. We drove through Greensburg, and though we were just on the main road, the city looked to be in pretty good shape! Eventually we stopped in Dodge City for a brief Sonic lunch and to check out data again...we knew the watch included WesternKansas at that point but Eastern Colorado was the only place seeing action anytime soon as Kansas still needed to clear out.

So, we kept going west, making it to Garden City and camped for a bit. It was at that point where I honestly thought about making the mad dash for eastern Colorado at that point, as there was a developing storm that I just had a gut feeling would produce. I was in the Stormtrack chat at the time and mentioned this, and pretty much everyone said we needed to just be patient etc. One thing I learned on this trip is that even though I am not and expert by any means, I need to listen to my own voice instead of what I did on Saturday and try to consider everyone else's opinions during the middle of the day. If we had just gone west into Colorado at that point we would have seen multiple beautiful daytime tornados.

Instead, we headed west slowly towards Syracuse, Kansas, and when we got there I opted to head south towards a few developing towers we could see. We parked not far south of Syracuse and watched them for about 25 minutes or so, and you could tell there just wasnt enough CAPE as the towers were getting heavily sheared up top, and the bases had trouble sustaining themselves. At this point Dan and I started arguing out of frustration of not just continuing west like we should have, figuring the whole day was lost. Our options were to head south towards the OK panhandle or follow these new storms north, as the Eastern Colorado storm seemed to be at least an hour away and uncatchable. i agreed to follow the storms and hoped that if we went fast enough we could make the Colorado storm....

Once we got to Colorado and hopped on highway 385, I could not believe the openness of both the plains and the road! We could see practically forever, there were basically no other cars except for the other chasers flying north, and it was about 15-20 miles between each town along the road, with no stops and barely any intersections inbetween. I won't say my maximum speeds, but we were able to absolutely FLY down this road and caught up the the storm around Cheyenne Falls, Colorado. We missed the last tornado by 15 minutes, but set up in a field north of town watching excitedly as it would try to produce again. However, after about 5 minutes of watching, we were blasted by very cold outflow and knew it was dead.

Frustrated again, we wanted to continue north to I-70 and head back east into Knasas as there were storms developing in that area, some already with tornado warnings. We followed the parade of chasers up 385 towards the interstate, but then disaster struck - as we approached a hail core with a TVS on radar, we elected to pull off the road and wait a bit for it to pass - the problem was the million cars behind me and the lack of turnoffs along the highway, I hurridly pulled off to the shoulder which was basically non-existant and turned to grass real quick. Only it wasn't just a nice grassy shoulder like it looked...it was completely soaked from the rain and hail and we got stuck quickly in the mud between the road and the field.

Refusing to accept fate, i desperately tried pulling plants from the ground and shoving them under the tires in an attempt to escape. It failed. Dan sat idley, knowing it was hopeless. Probably 100 different storm chase cars drove by, none of them stopping. After 10 minutes or so, I finally tried flagging a car by who said he contacted 911. I didn't think it could get any worse, but as I was wiping the cold mud off my hands onto my jeans, still trapped in the frigid 45 degree outflow air, the wedding ring flew off my finger!! A couple very nice people did stop not much later and helped me look around, but after 10 minutes of searching everywhere I had already accepted the fact that the chase was over, my ring was gone and my wife was going to kill me, and ban me from chasing ever again. I was prepared to stay on that ground all day and all night until we got both a tow and a metal detector....

Suddenly, Dan found my ring! It somehow had gone backwards from where I had been standing, and was resting not far from the road’s edge. I can’t even describe the relief I felt and the graciousness for my friend’s help. A super friendly police officer had shown up by then to assist, and the hero of the day, fellow chaser Mr. Thomas Debaillon arrived in his 4x4 Pickup truck complete with tow cable. He hooked it up, pulled us out, and 45 minutes after our mishap we were on the road again.

Though we were out of the mud, daylight was running out and we were so frustrated and bemused by our constant misfortune while stormchasing that we debated giving up that day, the next day, maybe altogether. On our way up to I70 and the gas station there, we had a deep conversation. We did not let this situation ruin our day, nor did we let it ruin our friendship. Eventually, we decided to continue east after a tornado-warned storm that was near Grinnell, Kansas. Even though night was falling, we decided between residual light and the lightning from the storms, we could still make an attempt at an intercept about 40 miles to the east. We had to first drive through a bunch of severe storms that were still sitting behind the very cold outflow boundary near the Goodland, Kansas radar site. Finally, we managed to escape the cold air we had been trapped under for the past two hours, our windshield instantly fogging as we crossed into the warm sector once again – an amazing site!

Our target was east of Colby, Kansas, letting the storm pass north of highway 24 and then going directly south of it once it had cleared the area, hopefully getting a great view looking directly north at the northbound storm. Amazingly, we made it to our target right as the tornado was crossing the highway about 8 miles east of us. We couldn’t see anything due to the RFD wrapping, but the storm was a whole looked very intense and was our first encounter with a nighttime tornado warned storm, so we took caution. After I was sure the storm had completely crossed the road to the north, we eased east and got our view looking northward. We could not see anything other than some ragged lowerings, so we found a northbound road that would be safely east of the storm’s track in an effort to keep up and confirm my 2nd tornado ever, and Dan’s first.

We found a dirt/paved road heading north towards Selden, Kansas and moved as fast as we safely could. We never got closer than 8 miles to the center of rotation on radar, not wanting to risk anything. Eventually we pulled off before we got to Selden and tried to take a video. Lightning flashed and we could clearly see soemthign extending all the way to the ground – tornado confirmed! I almost couldn’t believe it, after everything we went through, we actually were seeing one, who cares if it was nighttime and from a distance!

Not satisfied, we kept going, hopped on US 83 at Selden and continued north towards Oberlin, KS, hoping to get within about 5 miles of the rotation and a clearer view of any tornados. The road paralleled the storm perfectly, and we reached Oberlin at about the same time. The sirens were still sounding as we rolled through the empty town at 11pm, an eerie feeling. We made it just north of town and the airport and found someplace to pull off on the left next to another car. Radarscope said the toation was in the field just west of us by about 4 miles, but we couldn’t confirm anything visually. Inflow winds picked up and I could see some low clouds rolling in. It was about this time I noticed there was another vehicle parked in front of us with their lights off right up next to the edge of the field. I noticed how oddly shaped it was, at first thinking it was a tractor or something, when the lights fired – it was the TIV! I couldn’t believe it, but I didn’t want to be a complete noob and try to go talk to them, especially since they were obviously still on business hours!

I looked at the radar and it seemed the storm might be cycling to the east of the old rotation, and Dan and I had a unsafe feeling about or position, so we decided it was time to bail. One back in Oberlin, I figured the storm was weakening based on radar and we were dead tired, so we began searching for a place to stay for the night. Though the storm did end up continuing into Nebraska with tornado reports along the way, I was beyond satisfied and we found a Sleep Inn not too far east in Norton, Kansas. We nabbed one of the last rooms over the phone and rolled in around midnight, both of us about ready to collapse.

What a ridiculous day! Despite all that happened, we have very little photo or video evidence of the tornado. I currently have to use my Iphone for video and we did not have time to set up tripods for long exposure stills. Dan did get some tripod video, and we will add a few pics later. Thanks for everyone for sharing thoughts, opinions, and advice heading into the event and for helping me in the chaserchat when we were stuck in the mud. I don’t know if Thomas showed up as a result of that, someone else contacting him, or it was happenstance but he saved the day.
 
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