2015-05-16 REPORTS: TX, OK, KS, NE, SD, IA, MO,MN

[Mike Marz]

I woke up in Wichita and was extremely excited for this day. I saw the precip ongoing in southwestern Kansas and decided to go south for the Oklahoma target, south of where the precip was, and where it looked like solid instability would form. As I reached I40 in Oklahoma and started heading west, there was a solid deck of clouds in southwest Oklahoma that did not seem to be clearing. This got me pretty frustrated but I saw the cells continuing to fire in the Texas panhandle so I just kept going west on I40. It became clear that going south was going to be the best play as the tail end storm started to look more and more interesting. I paralleled the storm as it crossed the red river and then found a paved road south to core punch it. I got into a great position to go west into the cage and see the wedge and all that other fun stuff that I am seeing in other chasers' videos, but I hesitated because of how hazy and HP it all looked in there. Chasing solo is really keeping me from being too risky, and I really wish I would have just drove west and got in there. I missed some great stuff by being too cautious.... I am done doing that. O well, I waited on the outskirts of Tipton and finally I could see a stovepipe show its face through the haze and rain. That was such an amazing sight. I sat there in awe filming with my iPhone as it crossed the road and proceeded to destroy some power lines with an awesome display of power flashes. At this point the RFD was surging in and dust/rain started to obscure my view again. I then flew east away from the RFD and stair stepped the supercell all the way to OKC. Here is my video, contrast really picks up at 30 seconds, power flashes towards the end.

 

[Joseph Tyree]

The forum won't let me edit my original post but here is a link to my GoPro time lapse of the Elmer, OK Tornado.

https://www.facebook.com/josephtyree/videos/10152769923891750/?pnref=story

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

Crazy 2015 continues for me, now 5 for 5 tornado days to out of state chase days. Knowing I was likely going to end up in extreme SW OK I made a chunk of the drive Friday and overnighted in Pratt. From there initially targeted Shamrock TX, SW of there near Hedley watched a weak tornado/funnel 90% to ground, persist for 10 min. Then watched as a multi vortex tornado formed as the rain started to wrap, it crossed hwy 287 1/4 to my W near Lelia Lake before I lost visual in the rain.


From there bailed S for what I was expecting to be the main show, and sure enough as above posts show the rest is history. Watched the LARGE wedge cross the red river from dirt roads SSW of Elmer, then led it NE as it began to shrink a bit, eventually to where I watched it cross hwy 283. Bailed N through the nasty bears cage, cautiously as knowing it could occlude and lift and cut me off. Followed a East through Tipton before bailing S for next storm coming up. Overall a solid day.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

Still trying figure out how to upload photos...and now can't edit last post, won't post many video grabs of Elmer/Tipton tornado, but here are a couple of less seen Lelia lake storm....Working on reviewing footage from GoPros now which should be impressive! Multi vortex Tornado crossing hwy 287

 

[David Drummond]

Eleven and half minutes of nothing but tornado from the Southwest Oklahoma Supercell.

 

[Bill Hark]

Here is a link to my May 16, 2015 chase log with images and video links of the Tipton, OK tornado. http://www.harkphoto.com/05162015.html

 

[Adam Lucio]

After being on the Elmer-Tipton cell from near birth, I decided to take the long way around it as it crossed the river and approach from the north. I came south through the core and caught the Elmer tornado just as it developed. I followed it east through Elmer as a multi vortex/wedge to my south. Watched it cross 283 in great contrast before getting munched by the RFD.

In hindsight I probably could have made an attempt to get out of it by blasting east at highway 5. By then my windshield had taken a severe hit from probably a softball size stone and was completely compromised so my only thought was to not add forward momentum and make it worse, so I simply just rode it out. A very intense day that gave me what I have been waiting for all year. A solid 10 minute DVD chapter. FINALLY, I can stop hating 2015.

Full report coming later. A new windshield is only $179 for my vehicle. You can't put a price on experiences like this. I love getting up close and personal with natures temper.

Video:

[Broken External Image]:https://scontent-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/h...857_810880499007490_1583984446220313188_o.jpg

 

[Jesse Risley]

I chased with Steve Polley, Shane Kirk and Tim Thomas. We initially targeted near Sayre when it became evident that southwest OK was going to be the major play, given ongoing convection to the north and the linear mode to storms going up near the I40 corridor. When that cell developed in northern TX, it became clear that it was going to have a fairly unimpeded environment to work with, and hi-res BR scans from KFDR seemed to indicate some sort of longitudinal boundary that the storm may have interacted with near the Red River.

We intercepted the cell east of El Dorado, then stayed northeast of the hail core as we approached Elmer. We moved east on Hwy 5, then dropped south on the east side of the North Fork Red River, on N2210 several miles west of Tipton. This didn't yield the most photogenic view of the tornado, but the inflow winds were intense, and the cone was visible with intermittent power flashes as the tornado moved NNW of our location as it got closer to Tipton. The structure was incredible, as was the amount of lacustrine soil being lofted into the storm by the intense inflow as the storm approached our location. We dropped south and intercepted the next two cells, finishing the day off in Wichita Falls as that storm tried really hard to drop a tornado as it crossed Hwy 287 on the west side.

 

[Marcus Diaz]

Timelapse structure, big wedge, hailcore action, big fat white cone. Full video from The Chase.

 

[Marcus Diaz]

After carefully looking through some pics, I did manage to capture the Shamrock tornado, but only barely. NWS Amarillo did a survey and determined the tornado started at 3:14, which is the exact time I took this picture. You can make out the right edge of the tornado. We did note a couple of power flashes over the interstate at the time, but we only thought it was from straight line winds.

 

[sdienst]

I woke up in Burlington, CO after chasing the day before in Colorado and Nebraska knowing we had to move south quickly for a play along the Red River somewhere. Navigated my way towards the Hedley, TX storm just in time to watch the tornado form and cross 287.


I ended up bailing south after this storm became too much of and HP mess and eventually got on the Elmer - Tipton tornado. Opted to stay out ahead of it more to avoid breaking a windows so got mostly poor contrast. Here are some overdone video stills.

 

[James Wilson]

I chased with Guy Rhinehart and Allison Marshall with a target of the Oklahoma Panhandle … as the day progressed it became obvious the target to be at was SW Oklahoma. For the first time this year I busted as I was hard headed that my target all week (Liberal Area) would verify. The fact that I made my son that weekend made me want to get back to KC at a decent time as well. I guess I still make silly decisions after all these years. We did see some nice structure on a dying cell around Hooker Oklahoma and a gust front needle funnel but this was my first bust after hitting on all others this year.

Photos by chase partner Guy.

 

[Matt Hunt]

I chased with Rob Gardner for the first time in 5 years, and finally we got a tornado together, but had quite the adventure in the process. I left Indy at the ungodly hour of 2:30am with a SW Oklahoma target. En route we decided to go for the first storm of the day in the TX panhandle. We reached that storm just outside of Shamrock. I thought I saw a tornado there, but wasn't sure, so I just snapped pictures. It appears I did get the right edge of it, and the time stamp on my camera matches up to when the survey said the tornado was on the ground.
View media item 628From there the storm turned outflow dominant, and roads to follow it north were subpar, so we bailed on it to head south. Long story short, we passed on each storm along the line all the way to tail-end Charlie as it approached Altus. We dropped south on 283, where I was somewhat concerned to punch the core because of the hail, but at that time we never got any big hail. We came out of it and saw the low hanging inflow jet streaming into the storm. We parked at the General Store where the TIV and several other chasers were and watched the tornado form, though it was pretty low contrast.

The plan after leaving that spot was to go east on 5 to stay in front of it, eventually letting it cross the road to our west. However, as we began eastbound on 5 the giant hail started falling. A big stone hit the windshield, but somehow didn't break it. It must have been a soft stone. I didn't want to break the windshield and end our chase, so I decided to drop south on the first paved road we came across. After we got due east of the tornado, there was a huge dip, more like a trench, in the road. I was going way too fast, nailed that trench sending the vehicle airborne and slamming back down. We got out to assess the damage and cosmetically it didn't look too bad. Unfortunately, it was leaking oil. The oil pan was cracked, and there was a dent in the exhaust. That's all the damage I could see. Our chase was done. Luckily there were some local guys parked next to us, and one of them worked for the Ford dealer in Altus. He called their tow truck driver to come and get us. My car is still there. We were able to catch a ride home with Blaize Edwards and Adam Davis.

Luckily I'll be on my way to Houston next Thursday, so as long as it's fixed by then I can pick it up somewhat on my way. In hindsight, I'd rather have just stayed on 5 and hoped to avoid a hail stone breaking the windshield, but all things considered, a broken windshield wouldn't have been as bad as what happened. But, it's not as if I could have predicted that awful road! Next time I'm just staying on well-paved roads!

 

[Albert Rodriguez]

More later..

 

[BVanDalsem]

Brett Roberts, I was wondering who was in that car. I was in the white Forester. I managed to pull into the Elmer convenience store about 2 minutes before the storm went tornado warned, and watched it from there for a while until it had went a short ways past 283. Then I hopped up onto highway 5 and caught back up to it just before it crossed the road again and managed to get some pretty good footage of it there. Continued to follow the storm for a while before eventually dropping off and driving back home.

Looking SW from Elmer as the tornado was forming.

The wedge south of Elmer

West of Tipton on Highway 5
Structure/Lightning