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

[Chris MacIntosh]

Caught the Cromwell/Creston tornado from a few miles to the south. Not really going to explain this one, since it seems everyone that saw a tornado this day, saw this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bIO_nwzwTE

Something I haven't seen posted anywhere was what we caught south of Cumberland, IA. This was the storm that produced a tornado near Bridgewater:

Watch video >

To be honest, the video does not do this feature justice (partially because it's VERY shaky), but if you look closely, you can see the insane roll in the cloud (it may help to increase the quality/go fullscreen). I've never seen what seems to be most of the cloud rolling; usually, you just see a thin, snake-like roll. We're calling it the "atmospheric tidal wave" for now.

 

[Adam Lucio]

Had some interesting encounters on the Bridgewater/Greenfield/Winterset storm while trying to blast east to drop south to the Creston storm. Saw what I thought at the time was a scud-nado that turned out to be an actual TOR-nado thanks to video evidence shot by the Davies'. Failed to capture it on video myself so I still feel as if I came home empty handed. Experienced some strong inflow/hail and tree debris flying sideways as an 8/10 mile wide tornado [per NWS] formed just north of me...all I could see was swirling rain bands around my truck. DID manage to get some brief video of that, however. Other than that, plenty of hail to mess with and a few semi decent photos made this a great way to kick off the 2011 season for me.

Full log: http://www.chicagoillinoisstormchaser.com/032211-Iowa-hail-and-tornado-March-22-2011.php

 

[Brad Nelson]

Quite the incredible chase for March standards in Iowa yesterday! First ever March tornado for me. We missed out on the Missouri Valley tornadoes but caught an incredible anticyclonic tornado near Defiance, IA that was from the same storm. Definitely its last gasp before heading into the more stable air. Chase log and video are below:

http://eyeonthetwister.com/2011/03/24/032211/

Watch video >

 

[Jeremy.Degenhart]

Got a decent view of the Creston tor from about a half mile east of town...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZoIxqmZAq4&feature=feedu

Chase log at www.epicchasers.blogspot.com

 

[Chris Rice]

Creston, IA March 22, 2011 6:16pm

Initial Target: Red Oak IA

First cell we intercepted was near Greenfield, IA HP and moving very fast to the NE, we then debated on staying with it, just about that time a new wall, with clear slot was starting to form in the rear. We felt a large mass of cooler air moving in and figured it was being undercut by the cold front, so we bailed S to the Creston, IA cell.

Storm motions were moving so fast, there was no time to drive around, so we punched on through, and started taking vollies of ping pong ball size hail at times, not my favorite thing to do, and now have a new crack in the windshield. As soon as we came out, all we saw was a small high based wall cloud and not just a clear slot, but a plain blue sky. So we headed E to stay ahead of the storm, and no more than a minute passed and Brandon came over the radio with "funnel". Turned back to the six, and there it was. Totally did not expect that from the way that cell looked. But no complaints, it was a beautiful tornado. Hats off to Brandon Sullivan, Scott Bennett, Steve Polley. Communications were great and it made for a successful day.

YouTube
Watch video >

 

[TimothyCarroll]

My chase partner and I caught the Missouri Valley, IA Tornado, we did not get any video this time, and our still shots are a little lacking, but here they are . . .

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59254982@N08/5556562981/in/photostream/
To The Right is the Cone / Multi-Vortex tornado, on the ground, however the view is hindered by the hill.
To the Left, a very violently rotating satellite funnel ( Never touched down )

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59254982@N08/5556560663/in/photostream/
Tornado on the ground 3 SSW of Missouri Valley, IA, if you look at the left center side of the frame, directly above the White Semi-Truck, you will see the partially extended condensation funnel, if you look directly above the White-Semi, you can see in the tree's a very white-ish / hazy area, beyond the tree's, it was ground connection, as the vortex passed over a small body of water. I just wish I'd had a better camera, or video ! It lifted shortly after this...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59254982@N08/5556565577/in/photostream/
The main area of rotation and funnel as it passed about a half mile to my north, Just outside Persia IA at around 2115Z - Notice the Scud being sucked around the funnel ... it was VIOLENTLY rotating, I can't believe it didn't touch back down at this point

Due to road networks, construction, and lack of good radar data, we were unable to really get great shots, but at least we saw it ....

 

[Allan Jeffers]

Is this from that squall line that past through Iowa on the 22nd? I was near Tiffin of I80 when this hit. It was night time so I did not see any structure of the storms. But it did light up the sky pretty good and produced a good amount of rain. We only got the South edge of the core where I was standing. It produced some heavy rain and wind, loads of lightning. Only decent shot I got was a screen grab of the radar: http://twitpic.com/4cb38t showing where I am relative to the storm

 

[Skip Talbot]

4X Timelapse of the Creston, IA tornado from the camera dome:

Watch video >

 

[Joe Pudlik]

I ended up being in between the northern and southern supercells as I stayed behind to take some pictures. It would appear that I missed both the Massena and Creston tornadoes just by a bit.

Given some technical issues that were experienced and that it was the first chase on the season, I'll consider it a success.

This is one of my favorite shots from the day...

 

[Dan Melby]

Here are more of my shots of the Creston tornado. Thanks to all that posted footage of this tornado. It was very cool to see it from different perspectives!

 

[Skip Talbot]

Full chase log, photos, video, and annotated map:
http://www.skip.cc/chase/110322

 

[Jeremy Den Hartog]

Looks like we may have seen a second tornado on March 22 in Iowa (though I can't tell if it touched down or not - so technically its a funnel). You can see it on the left at the very beginning of this video. Also, approximately 2 minutes in an interesting lowering occurs way off in the distance just left of the road we are standing by. This lowering goes from vertical to horizontal – almost as if it was a tornado/funnel that was roping out. This all occurred as the storm was in the process of crossing over the warm front. You can see in the video it looks like its starting to gust out...

Either way some beautiful storm structure!

Watch video >

Btw, sorry about the focus issues. New camcorder - didn't turn off autofocus...lesson learned

 

[Simon Brewer]

Juston Drake and I documented two tornadoes on the big HP supercell along SR 92 in Iowa: cone tornado southwest of Bridgewater and a large tornadic circulation under a rapidly rotating wall cloud with brief condensation funnels northwest of Winterset. We documented golfball and larger-sized hail near Massena, IA when we plowed through the core to get in better position with respect to the meso before the first tornado developed.

Incredible structure east of Massena/west of Bridgewater, IA: rapidly rotating wall cloud to our SSW.

Cone tornado SE of Massena/SW of Bridgewater, IA: we were on a local highpoint and could see the condensation funnel literally scraping the ground, but too much rain to see debris.

Another shot of the cone funnel

Another shot of the funnel; damage survey from NWS Des Moines confirmed this tornado.

Beginnings of second tornado northwest of Winterset, IA; insane rotation on this wall cloud with dusty tornadic circulation underneath and brief condensation funnel development before it became completely wrapped in rain. Damage survey from NWS in Des Moines confirmed damage near to this location.

Chase Page Link:
http://stormgasm.com/3-22-11/3-22-11.htm

Simon