Tony Laubach
EF5
A surprisingly awesome chase given the circumstances... I was actually quite shocked when this weekend was over to say this was the better of my two chase days in terms of storms. After I wrapped up my day near Des Moines the night before, I ventured down to Kansas City for the night, and out the door I went early Sunday morning. My 'feasible' target was Conway, AR; as much as I wanted to get into the much better chasing terrain of northeast Arkansas, I just didn't figure it was doable, so I figured I'd hit Conway, and hope that maybe, I'd get a storm that would lead me that direction.
So I arrived in Conway shortly after 3pm; storms were already underway out east, and while I had given a brief thought of consideration to all-out racing out that way, I was concerned with the lack of overall storm potential, to the point where I wondered if there'd be anything I could even get on had I opted for that choice. So, I decided that despite the horrid terrain of north-central and northwest Arkansas, I would basically cherry pick storms off I-40 between Conway and Clarksville. There were multiple blips popping, so I figured it was gonna be a rapid-fire type deal.
Well, the storm of note was a little guy on radar, but it seemed to look the best amongst the blips, and it was an easy intercept route along I-40; almost leisurely the drive was from Conway to the scenic-overview spot a couple miles southeast of Knoxville. I didn't know of this spot til I saw the sign, and the storm was basically heading straight for it, so it was a picture perfect intercept spot.
A couple other chasers had gathered here (please chime in if you were one of them). I introduced myself to one, and please forgive me, I THINK your name was Nathan?
But as we waited on its approach, a group of concerned motorists had began to gather here as well. The storm, which was undergoing a pretty incredible evolution to a full-blown supercell, was certainly taking over the western motorists view as they were westbound on I-40.
It had occurred to me to consider moving; but the overview was a one-way exit back to westbound I-40, and it looked like it was several miles to an exit where I could (legally) get back on eastbound 40 to get to a north route. I was also largely unfamiliar with the area, so I didn't really have an idea of whether there was any views better than this (I saw later there indeed was). Alas, I decided to stick here and hope it would do the thing from this view. As you see in the image, a nice wall cloud was developing, so it was a take it or leave it for me here.
The storm was moving at a decent speed, but I felt like we were there watching this approach for a good 20 minutes or more. The lightning really picked up and provided some fantastic shots. I didn't think to get the good still camera out, but the lightning was good enough that a single frame video still provided a great image.
The storm crossed I-40 off to our west, the wall cloud really churning away. As the storm got to our north, and obviously mostly behind trees, the funnel of the Pope County tornado poked down, and through the trees, I could see ground debris. My first tornado of 2022 not a wall-hanger by any stretch, but was actually my first legit Arkansas tornado (my unofficial first was a TWISTEX chase where we saw a tornado on the river near Memphis, so I don't know if that's technically an Arkansas or Tennessee tornado).
So while the tornado had waited about 10 minutes too long to come down, it eventually did, producing EF-1 damage across Pope County, mainly limited to trees near the town of Dover. I made my way that direction, knowing darn well I was not going to catch this storm again and not seeing any new development to the south.
I pretty much called it a night by 630PM, bunking down in Russellville early enough to actually enjoy a very tasty steak dinner at Colton's Steak House. Very well priced, extremely tasty steak, and refreshingly friendly service which has been hard to come by as of late. I stayed up for the eventual squall that came through, but like the earlier part of the day, was very underperforming. The Knoxville/Pope County storm was definitely the storm of the day, and was really one of the only ones (I know there were a couple birdfarts in northeast AR). Still, the structure was a genuine surprise for Arkansas, and the brief view of the tornado I had was more than enough for me to walk away from this day happy.
So I arrived in Conway shortly after 3pm; storms were already underway out east, and while I had given a brief thought of consideration to all-out racing out that way, I was concerned with the lack of overall storm potential, to the point where I wondered if there'd be anything I could even get on had I opted for that choice. So, I decided that despite the horrid terrain of north-central and northwest Arkansas, I would basically cherry pick storms off I-40 between Conway and Clarksville. There were multiple blips popping, so I figured it was gonna be a rapid-fire type deal.
Well, the storm of note was a little guy on radar, but it seemed to look the best amongst the blips, and it was an easy intercept route along I-40; almost leisurely the drive was from Conway to the scenic-overview spot a couple miles southeast of Knoxville. I didn't know of this spot til I saw the sign, and the storm was basically heading straight for it, so it was a picture perfect intercept spot.
A couple other chasers had gathered here (please chime in if you were one of them). I introduced myself to one, and please forgive me, I THINK your name was Nathan?
But as we waited on its approach, a group of concerned motorists had began to gather here as well. The storm, which was undergoing a pretty incredible evolution to a full-blown supercell, was certainly taking over the western motorists view as they were westbound on I-40.
It had occurred to me to consider moving; but the overview was a one-way exit back to westbound I-40, and it looked like it was several miles to an exit where I could (legally) get back on eastbound 40 to get to a north route. I was also largely unfamiliar with the area, so I didn't really have an idea of whether there was any views better than this (I saw later there indeed was). Alas, I decided to stick here and hope it would do the thing from this view. As you see in the image, a nice wall cloud was developing, so it was a take it or leave it for me here.
The storm was moving at a decent speed, but I felt like we were there watching this approach for a good 20 minutes or more. The lightning really picked up and provided some fantastic shots. I didn't think to get the good still camera out, but the lightning was good enough that a single frame video still provided a great image.
The storm crossed I-40 off to our west, the wall cloud really churning away. As the storm got to our north, and obviously mostly behind trees, the funnel of the Pope County tornado poked down, and through the trees, I could see ground debris. My first tornado of 2022 not a wall-hanger by any stretch, but was actually my first legit Arkansas tornado (my unofficial first was a TWISTEX chase where we saw a tornado on the river near Memphis, so I don't know if that's technically an Arkansas or Tennessee tornado).
So while the tornado had waited about 10 minutes too long to come down, it eventually did, producing EF-1 damage across Pope County, mainly limited to trees near the town of Dover. I made my way that direction, knowing darn well I was not going to catch this storm again and not seeing any new development to the south.
I pretty much called it a night by 630PM, bunking down in Russellville early enough to actually enjoy a very tasty steak dinner at Colton's Steak House. Very well priced, extremely tasty steak, and refreshingly friendly service which has been hard to come by as of late. I stayed up for the eventual squall that came through, but like the earlier part of the day, was very underperforming. The Knoxville/Pope County storm was definitely the storm of the day, and was really one of the only ones (I know there were a couple birdfarts in northeast AR). Still, the structure was a genuine surprise for Arkansas, and the brief view of the tornado I had was more than enough for me to walk away from this day happy.
