2018-05-01 REPORTS: TX/OK/KS/NE/IA/MO

[Randy Jennings]

More latter when off the road, but my chase partner Chadwick Steizl and I got what is probably the first tornado of 2018 for OK. It happened about 6:27 CDT just to the NE of Buffalo, OK. It lifted quickly and the storm moved into KS.

 

[Quincy Vagell]

Disclaimer:
No tornado photos. In fact, the two photos aren't impressive at all, but they help tell the story...

I went back and forth on targets, but tended to have a lean toward more discrete activity down the dryline. I got up to St. John. KS around 1 p.m. and literally stayed put for about four hours. It's very rare that I stay put for so long during an event, but I wasn't thrilled by what I was seeing up north. My concern was that I might get decoyed north, get stuck in the hoards and then miss out on discrete storms to the south. Knowing my chase style given the setup, I probably would have driven around, back and forth, blowing another 100-200 miles and could have very well still missed any tornadoes.

One supercell to my southwest did take on a classic appearance (on radar) just north of Greensburg. I got into position and almost as quickly as the storm looked potentially tornadic on radar, it began to fizzle. I stayed with it for a short time, but I had to make another decision. I could either bail north and go toward what looked like a grungy mess, or take a shot at a tornado-warned cell near the Kansas/Oklahoma border.

Much like the cell to its north, this storm looked tornadic for a short time, but it gradually faded into the night.

I bailed on everything early and decided to head back to Oklahoma City, rather than stay at a hotel that's only a couple of hours from home. I missed the storms to the north near I-70, but I have to give major credit to the HRRR and most other convection allowing models (CAMs). They pretty much all did a fantastic job with storm placement, cell longevity and where the most robust storms would occur.

The "tail end charlie" setup doesn't always happen. The writing was on the wall here: Weak large scale forcing to the south, neutral (if not slightly rising) heights and displacement from better boundary layer moisture and relatively modest low-level shear. Not to mention all of the CAMs suggested that any cells in southern Kansas (or adjacent northern Oklahoma) would be fairly short-lived.

Chase and learn. Don't get hung up on days like this. Instead, take it as a learning experience.

 

[Chris Dickerson]

I’ll get some more photos up once I have the chance, but I was out with Bailey Allard from Canada and we got the tornado that touched down near Aurora, KS. This cell organized and kept prompting warnings while putting down several reported tornadoes. This is one of her photos that she got while I was taking care of the live stream.

It was ridiculously rain-wrapped at times, and this was one of the photos during a brief period where the precipitation curtains cleared a bit. Even then, some clarity was needed and this photo was a quick “road-enhancement” to satisfy the “pics or it didn’t happen” crowd on our social feeds. We’re back at it tomorrow, but I’ll cycle through all the footage and get some better stuff posted.

 

[Royce Sheibal]

Was in between the Doniphan, NE tornado and the cell to the south when it went up. Was in sight range but couldn't tell if it was touching down. By the time I turned around and started getting into photo range it was gone. Was just a little bird fart anyway. Maybe Thursday we'll have better luck.

 

[John Farley]

I will write up a full report later, but I was on the cell that passed NW of Albert and Hoisington, KS and dropped 4-inch hail in Susank, KS. The storm had two tornado warnings, but did not quite get the job done tornado-wise. Gorgeous storm, though. This picture was taken around the time of the 4-inch hail in Susank.

 

[Brett Nickeson]

Waited patiently in Russell, KS as the dryline blew up and ultimately headed south to the HP cell near Rush Center. It had its moments with structure and even looked like it might tornado once when the RFD swept out the precip and the wall cloud descended somewhere near Susank if I remember right. When the cell to the south rammed into the one we were chasing I thought that was over and started heading south to the tornado warned storm northeast of Greensburg. After only about 10 miles though, I could see that cell was struggling and a new storm was building significantly to the west of the previous one I was chasing. So I did a 180 and went back north to watch this new supercell intensify significantly. Glad I did. I got a bit behind it near I-70 due to road options and the hail core, but caught up on the interstate and was able to see the brief funnel north of Ellsworth.

At this point it seemed like the sup was moving quite a bit faster and it was harder to keep up with it. Since it was 7:00 by this time, I knew the LLJ was kicking in and I figured it had a good chance of finally dropping a tornado, which was later bolstered by the storm to its northeast dropping a fat one across Hwy 81. The chaser convergence north of Glendale made me take dirt roads to its east, all while the RFD cut was apparent and it was obvious a tornado was going to drop. The creek between me and the tornado limited road options, but I managed to get the last minute or two of the large wedge tornado on video before it wrapped in rain as soon as I stopped the truck.

Overall, patience was key yesterday and I got a gorgeous tornado out of it, albeit with only brief video and a couple rain-wrapped photos.

 

[James Wilson]

We started out with the masses around Russell and stayed North for the early stuff. We got suckered into going for the southern cell as it was isolated. We were almost to it when we saw it was weakening and turned around and BLASTED north to get back on the northern stuff. We caught up with the cell we wanted and then got in front of it to see this wedge just in time. We latter saw a night tornado by Oak Hill KS where a large tree blocked our road. All in all a great mistake was avoided and the prize was this ...

 

[Andrew Constans]

Left Lincoln (NE) an hour late, got down to Hoisington, KS just after initiation positioning for the Jetmore cell. Followed it from Otis to Black Wolf as it cycled and formed a few wall clouds, really started to wrap up on the cycle before the cell merger near Ellsworth. I briefly lost it because of a bridge outage, but caught back up after detouring via Old 40, 156, and I-70 right as it dropped the wedge. I could faintly make it out through the RFD from the south before becoming completely rain wrapped. Hopped off I-70 at the Culver exit and went north hoping to catch another cycle before darkness set in, only to get hopelessly stuck in the mud NE of Bennington on Kiowa Rd east of 220th. Overall decent chase; I was a little rushed and learned the perils of Kansas clay first-hand, but saw a tor nonetheless. Wish I got a photo, but balancing interstate driving and a DSLR is blood in the water for KHP (and unsafe in general). Here's a pic of that cell earlier on with some scary scud instead.

 

[Lucas McIntyre]

I got off work here in Manhattan, KS just before 5. Had to go home and shower then quickly hit the road when I saw how some of the southern storms were discrete. I got to Ellsworth County in time to watch what would produce the Tescott tornado really get its act together, it was my first tornado and the day before my 23rd birthday to boot. I followed K-18 back home and saw a glimpse or two of the tornado over Clay County from affar, but no pictures.

 

[James Wilson]

Another photo of the EF-3 this one by my chase partner that day Allison

 

[Nikola Pavlovic]

Left Chicago around 1 am, spent some time in Russell, then moved toward Hays to observe the first cells. Intercepted TV cell in Otis, welcomed me with 2.5 inch hail and more than 20 dents. Followed this storm/s all the way to Manchester KS.

Fog after hailstorm, Otis KS, 5/1/18. by Nikola Pavlovic, on Flickr

Hailstorm in Otis and "hailfog".

Near Otis KS, 5/1/18. by Nikola Pavlovic, on Flickr

East of Otis.

Near Wuilson KS, 5/1/18. by Nikola Pavlovic, on Flickr

5/1/2018. Kansas at its best. by Nikola Pavlovic, on Flickr

5/1/18. by Nikola Pavlovic, on Flickr

Around Wilson and east.

EF3 tornado near Tescott KS, 5/1/18. by Nikola Pavlovic, on Flickr

EF3 Tescott KS tornado, 5/1/18. by Nikola Pavlovic, on Flickr

Tescott, EF3

 

[Devin Pitts]

I targeted Great Bend like many others did for its road options and proximity to either area of interest for the day. Saw the initial slop that went up north near the border and held back from taking the bait, and then a few cells went up off the dryline near Jetmore. They looked solid on zdr and were managing to stay semi-discrete, along with their motion eventually taking them into an area with better moisture and no early capping concerns so I decided they were going to be my storms for the day. I waited near Rush Center for them to approach and stuck with them the rest of the night all the way up to when it produced the Tescott EF-3.

Sampled some hail from the storms:

The storm definitely had trouble maintaining itself as it was being bombarded by left splits from the south and the LLJ wasn't going to kick in until much later, but I had faith that the LLJ would sort things out and boy did it. Once the mergers finally finished, the storm took on some very nice structure as it began to reorganize:

After I saw the structure improve, I decided to work on getting back into position, but unfortunately due to poor road choices I ended up on the western side of the Tescott EF3 tornado when it touched down. As a result, the rain filling in to the RFD prevented me from getting a solid view, but I was still able to see the general silhouette of the tornado. After adjusting contrast levels in my footage, I was able to get a screencap with the tornado just barely visible through the rain:

And my position:

After this tornado I attempted to maintain positioning on the storm, but ran into some fairly nasty mud roads Northeast of Bennington(where several other chasers ended up getting stuck). My Forester did an excellent job of keeping me out of ditches thankfully.

 

[Chris Dickerson]

I’m in the process of reconciling the best photos from this chase, but here is a video clip from my rear-firing camera.

This was taken between Luray and Lucas, in Kansas along Hwy 18, and it’s compressed to a 2-minute clip. This was the Glasco-Aurora supercell just after it grew from some wispy gray clouds over the open prairie into a massive HP monster. It would spawn two tornadoes shortly after this video was taken.

 

[James Wilson]

There was another tornado after the wedge around Oak Hill Kansas. We were able to get these dash cam photos of it. Not the best but still a good catch at night.

 

[Bill Giles]

After getting stuck at the car mechanic waiting on a repair for most of the morning, I ended up leaving Denver around 11:30AM and through the magic of definitely not violating any speed laws, ended up in Russell, Kansas right around when things were starting to really happen.

Just outside of Bunker Hill I opted to try to get south of my target storm (i.e. the only one I could reasonably chase since I showed up so late), putting my poor Hyundai through another four wheel drive challenge. However, I was successful and ended up just south of the storm that would eventually produce the Tescott wedge.

Mesocyclone by Bill Giles, on Flickr

Unfortunately, heavy rain had ruined the already muddy roads where I'd come in, but a couple kind chasers told me that I'd find a paved road just east of where we were. I ended up south of Wilson and jumped back onto I-70. Headed to Culver and stopped in time to catch what looked like the only few minutes of non-obscured visibility of the tornado.

Wedge tornado near Tescott, Kansas by Bill Giles, on Flickr

I followed after it, but it was pretty heavily rain wrapped (at least when looking from the west), so I followed to Bennington and decided that I wouldn't be able to get another decent look at it before the sun dropped completely. I headed north a little ways to Minneapolis briefly forgot how my power windows operate, soaking myself when the gust front of another approaching storm hit me.

So....all pretty much crazy luck on my part. Do not chase like this; my life exists purely as a warning to others.

EDIT: A couple more pictures on my Flickr account if you're interested.