3/22/11 REPORTS: NE, IA, MO

[Jeremy Den Hartog]

Figured it was a good time to start a reports thread...

It was our first chase of the year and it was a pretty good one. We ended up targeting the storm that basically moved right over Omaha. Below is a contrast enhanced video still of a large cone/possible wedge taken between Earling, IA and Dunlap, IA. It had poor contrast and became rain wrapped quickly. The storm then crossed the warm front and died off fairly quickly...

 

[Dan Melby]

Bagged this beauty just west of Creston, IA. Surprisingly ended up in great position to witness this for birth to rope out. It was a rough day due to storm motions. Here is one photo, I will post a few more later when I get a little more time. I love Iowa!

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[Rob Hepper]

A couple of video captures of the Creston, IA tornado:

There are likely some folks who got quite a bit closer than I did, as I decided to go on a dirt road adventure and fell a little bit behind the storm.

By the way, this was my first tornado. Yay!

 

[JeffGonzales]

Got this tornado near Missouri Valley, IA just north of Omaha around 5:00. formed into a nice cone after this and got rain wrapped.

 

[Jeremy Den Hartog]

Got this tornado near Missouri Valley, IA just north of Omaha around 5:00. formed into a nice cone after this and got rain wrapped.

I believe this is the same tornado I got - just earlier in its development. The track of the storm/tornado would make sense. Nice shot

 

[Kevin Rolfs]

Got the Creston, Iowa tornado as well! Had to double back through the town of Creston as me and my chase buddies were sitting east of town, but I managed to get a good couple pics before it lifted. Man it was beautiful!!

 

[Jeremy Den Hartog]

Our tornado video from 3-22-11. This is a contrast enhanced video as the contrast was poor so the tornado is somewhat hard to see. Initially we weren't 100% certain it was a tornado but after increasing the contrast I have no doubt.

Watch video >

 

[Jenn Brindley]

Just a few from the day. No tornadoes for us, but I still had some pretty shots of the structure.

Great rains and a good dump of hail:

Shot out the window as we tried to race north:

Just ended up with a pretty sunset on the way home.

~Jenn
JBe Photography
Chased this with Tony Laubach

 

[Skip Talbot]

Broke my Iowa curse finally. I am now 1 and 25 for Iowa chases.

Same Creston, IA tornado as featured above:

Will post more pics and video later.

 

[Chris Allington]

Well I had to work today so I figured I would jump on whatever I could get to in a hurry and see what would play out before heading back for a short 5 hour shift. I left the house about 2:15 seeing the storm struggling to get going along the KS/NE border and other TCu along the dryline. As I headed south on 75, I watched as the tops shot up and a bit of an appendage formed on the southern storm. I got on it about 3:30pm near Burr, Nebraska to the northeast of Beatrice. It was struggling but had an rfd cut and a bit of a lowering/wall cloud. I went back northeast along 66E spur to stay ahead of it and saw this:

I struggled to keep up with storm motions near 60 mph along some gravel roads in Otoe County. An intense RFD cut kicked in lofting some dust and making the storm briefly appear pretty outflow dominant:

I decided to drop off the storm and head back up US-75 as the storm was racing to the northeast and storm motions were already frustrating me, and I had to be back at work by 5pm. All-in-all for driving 75 miles I defintely can't complain. Enough to wet the whistle for some slower moving classic beasts in May and June!

Heres one last shot from the day, a panorama of the grungy structure:

 

[Sluroots]

Got these shots on my first chase of '11 near Greenfield, IA and then at sunset near Winterset, IA.

 

[TimothyCarroll]

Figured it was a good time to start a reports thread...

It was our first chase of the year and it was a pretty good one. We ended up targeting the storm that basically moved right over Omaha. Below is a contrast enhanced video still of a large cone/possible wedge taken between Earling, IA and Dunlap, IA. It had poor contrast and became rain wrapped quickly. The storm then crossed the warm front and died off fairly quickly...

I Was on this same cell all the way from Missouri Valley, IA to nearly Defiance, IA, watched it produced at least 2 Tornadoes that myself and my partner witnessed, one Multi-Vortex / turned cone with a satellite funnel ( no ground contact ) . . . I have some images, but have not figured out how to put them up here just quite yet, I need to get Flickr.

Great Storm, it was VERY cyclic.

 

[Andy Jackson]

This day was one I was looking forward to, I started out in Avoca, IA. After storms started getting going in Nebraska I dropped down to the southern cell as it crossed into IA. I stayed with this one as it produced some hail strong winds and a gustnado. I think if I were to have stayed on the 34 East I might have seen the tornado. Oh well, I'm glad some people got lucky, I will give my experience 3/5 stars. Here's a still/vid capture:

The gustnado:

 

[JeffGonzales]

Our tornado video from 3-22-11. This is a contrast enhanced video as the contrast was poor so the tornado is somewhat hard to see. Initially we weren't 100% certain it was a tornado but after increasing the contrast I have no doubt.

Watch video >

Yes I believe it was the same storm, I saw you on spotter network a ways to my north east as the tornado was on the ground. It started as a multi vortex, where i got the screen capture. (unfortuntly, my dome cam ran out of video so dont have pics to prove the rest), Then it formed into a nice cone with alot of dirt kicked up as we were Probley about a mile in front of it. Reminded me of what the Aurora, NE tor looked like. The circulation got a lot broader as we followed it parallel, then got rain wrapped as we ran out of road options, so based on what I saw I believe you have a large rain wrapped cone that probley did take a wedge form at one point based on how broad the circulation got.

 

[Steve Polley]

Got on the Creston storm after feeling I was behind the whole day. Got a beautiful shot of the backside of the soon to be Creston tornadic storm. Then captured the tornado just west of Creston, IA on Hwy 34. Pic and video below.

Watch video >