2024-04-30 EVENT: NE/IA/KS/MO

[Matthew Crowther]

I am a tad surprised today is not being discussed, I guess everyone is fat dumb, and happy already? I tend to like less hyped 2% or 5% days anyway. We have two more days on this excursion and hope to make the most of it. The obvious play seems to be SW IA into far NW MO, but how far south? One consideration is not getting too far away from tomorrow's target farther west in KS. Forecast soundings and UH tracks there look promising, but an eye should be kept on NE Kansas. In Topeka, waiting for further data.

 

[Sean Ramsey]

After four days of chasing, one day off, a travel day to get in position and little time to post, I'm out for today's chase in Iowa. Just in time mid 60 dews, reasonable T/Td spreads, nice helicity tracks, semi-looping hodo's and hopefully a reduction in the hordes that were out on Saturday are all looking favorable at the moment. Surface winds appear to be a bit southwesterly so that could look better. Right now I like just north of I-80 in late afternoon and hopefully catch a tor before it lines out later.

 

[Blake Naftel]

I am a tad surprised today is not being discussed, I guess everyone is fat dumb, and happy already? I tend to like less hyped 2% or 5% days anyway. We have two more days on this excursion and hope to make the most of it. The obvious play seems to be SW IA into far NW MO, but how far south? One consideration is not getting too far away from tomorrow's target farther west in KS. Forecast soundings and UH tracks there look promising, but an eye should be kept on NE Kansas. In Topeka, waiting for further data.

I'm back in Michigan for this cycle, but would concur with SW Iowa today, perhaps a zone initially along I-80 and the HW 71 corridor [Atlantic] to see what materializes this afternoon along the inbound front, forecasted moisture tongue/ pooling and pronounced diffluent split at 500on both 06z NAM3k and 12z HRRR. That way, dependent on what actually does transpire today, one could stay in Des Moines or Omaha this evening and plan a route towards I-70 and the Topeka/Salina region for Wednesday 5/1.

 

[Jeff House]

Northeast Kansas is my virtual target today. Regrettably I'm not out there yet.

Surface low and WF do make it up into eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. History likes to repeat. However instability will ramp up quickest farther south. Plus the prefrontal trough punch is a little stronger into northeast Kansas. Normally I love my boundary intersections. Today I like well south of the WF.

Very subtle boundary could exist in southeast Kansas this morning; which if true, would lift into northeast Kansas. We're really just working with differential heating. No true morning showers other than departing KCMO now.

Nothing squirrelly is seen in the hodographs. In fact the turning to straight west at 500 mb could promote some over achievement today. Probably for the best (public perspective) that the forcing is a little subtle in the target area.

 

[Matt Zumbrunn]

HRRR is very interesting with convection in Eastern KS. After last week I don't know what to believe.

 

[Jamie H]

I had one heck of a busy work weekend and into today, so only catching up on things now! I think I would be targeting eastern Kansas, as I worry about the amount of moisture to play with further north as the cold front pushes through quite fast. Kansas is on the edge of the best flow until after 0Z, so I don't know how much that will affect things.

 

[Matt Zumbrunn]

Unfourtunately, one confirmed fatality in Westmoreland, KS after a tornado struck the town. First tornado fatality in Kansas since Harveyville in 2012.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Another good Plains event today. A couple of the tornadoes in Kansas were very photogenic. Also, the supercell down along the Red River in southern Oklahoma has produced some remarkable oddities visible on the nearby KFDR radar tonight.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1785513665334292595

I don't have unlimited PTO, so I chose to sit this week out so I'd have enough left for an active May. Between work and trying to finish up video from this last trip, I didn't get any real look at today's setup. But I think I probably would have been likely to choose the Omaha target at least initially, hopefully seeing some of the factors Jeff noted in time to get down to Kansas. I can't say if I would have made that decision or realization in time (if at all) though.

 

[Mikayla Norris]

I was on a couple different storms to the north of the one Dan mentioned. I'll be making a REPORTS post about it tomorrow at some point. No tornadoes, but got some decent structure shots, saw a few funnels, and got several good looks at multiple rotating wall clouds as the storm cycled. It was definitely an eventful, if not unexpected, day down here in SW OK.

 

[James Wilson]

I had planned to go to Topeka and adjust from there for the "right exit region" play but was talked into going to NE. I was on the cell by Nebraska City as it started and it really looked like it was going to drop one south of Hastings Iowa. It had rapid rotation and I was in position for another cross road intercept but it just could not do it. It kept having cells to its south pop up and interfering with it killing most chances. I stayed on it until south of Des Moines as it attempted a few times and might have dropped one by Macksburg where a nice funnel was observed. Overall bust and I should have stayed with my gut and headed to Topeka. Today I will be out again.

I watched the cells in Oklahoma when I arrived at the hotel and just WOW!

 

[Matthew Crowther]

We went too far south (again)- too many storms, just got one OK pic SE of Wichita.
Did you see the wild storm action in SW Oklahoma? Crazy stuff.

 

[Mike Thornton]

Another good Plains event today. A couple of the tornadoes in Kansas were very photogenic. Also, the supercell down along the Red River in southern Oklahoma has produced some remarkable oddities visible on the nearby KFDR radar tonight.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1785513665334292595

I don't have unlimited PTO, so I chose to sit this week out so I'd have enough left for an active May. Between work and trying to finish up video from this last trip, I didn't get any real look at today's setup. But I think I probably would have been likely to choose the Omaha target at least initially, hopefully seeing some of the factors Jeff noted in time to get down to Kansas. I can't say if I would have made that decision or realization in time (if at all) though.

I remember driving down US-70 and seeing someone farming on their land all while hell was breaking loose just a few miles to their northwest. I remember saying to myself "There is nothing more Oklahoman than that!" By this point, it was 9:10 PM and the Tornado Warned storm had moved into eastern parts of Tillman County. I was on a conference call with my storm spotters, the Sheriff, and at times stakeholders in the county, keeping them all updated. Myself and other TCEMA Storm Spotters near Hollister noticed a wall cloud on the storm and I relayed the information to the NWS. I sat at the intersection of US-70 and HWY-54 for the next 20 minutes and at 9:29 PM, a funnel cloud developed on the storm. Ten minutes later, the NWS wrote "We believe there is a TDS signature emerging east/northeast of Hollister. A tornado appears to be in progress. 3-5 miles east/northeast of Hollister at present time." I repositioned to US-70 and CR NS 233 so I could try to identify this "tornado." At 9:49 PM, I saw a flash of lightning and something wedge-shaped in the rain curtains and wrote in NWSChat "I believe I see something on the ground." Not a moment later another flash lit up the sky and I wrote "Tornado on the ground Hollister." The tornado quickly became wrapped in rain and I repositioned myself to US-54 and EW188 where I met up with another TCEMA Storm Spotter. The time is now 10:09 PM. The NWS informs our agency that an anticyclonic tornado is ongoing near Loveland, just to my Southeast. Two tornadoes are currently on the ground. I contact city officials in Grandfield and inform them to sound the sirens as a tornado is just to their NW and moving towards the town. A new Tornado Warning is issued for the City of Frederick and Hollister, but power is out in the City of Frederick and there is no way to warn the citizens so I quickly contact the Frederick Fire Chief and ask him to sound the sirens on his fire apparatuses, however, I realize that it's unnecessary as the rotation is now SE of the City. Inflow winds start to increase as winds feed into the monster supercell to my east near Loveland and I tell my TCEMA Storm Spotter that we're in a dangerous position and it's time to move west towards Davidson. At 10:29 PM, the NWS writes "Debris up to 10kft with the anticyclonic tornado. Indicative of strong damage potential." I immediately inform the sheriff of this and my desire to perform a rapid damage assessment in the area. He agreed with my request and we put together a plan to perform such an assessment immediately following the departure of storms in the county. Additionally, I ask the Grandfield Fire Department to help with operations if they are not affected by storms. Ten minutes later I position myself at the intersection of NS221 and US-70. Lightning flashes and I saw what looked like a very large tornado on the ground. Storms exited the county an hour later and damage assessments were underway. During our assessments, we mainly find damage to trees and sheet metal. We call off all rapid damage assessments at 2 AM due to the Deep Red Creek overflowing and making roads in the area unpassable. I finally go to sleep around 4 AM. woke up four hours later and immediately began assessing the damage across Tillman County. At around 8:30 AM, a representative from Tom Cole's office called to offer assistance in light of the tornadoes. I respectfully informed them that I was still determining the extent of the damage, but so far, there was nothing particularly concerning. By 3 PM, I had sent a detailed six-paragraph email to local and state stakeholders, outlining all the recorded damage and confirming that no assistance was needed from the State. I also posted the following statement on our Facebook page: "TCEMA has conducted surveys throughout the day and we have concluded the following. Primarily, our damage across Tillman County focuses on snapped tree limbs/uprooted trees, and county roads that have been affected by flooding. Additionally, our agency found damage at the Frederick Golf Course and Airport. The damage consisted of sheds being destroyed at the golf course as well as trees uprooted/snapped and then at the airport, the roof on a hangar was torn off on the NE side. Elsewhere, we have confirmed minimal structural damage in Hollister and Grandfield. Please continue to submit damage reports to our agency if you know of anything."