3/23/09 REPORTS: KS, OK, NE, SD

[Jason A.C. Brock]

3/23/09 Oklahoma chase

CHASED WITH JEREMY WILSON FOR HOLY TORNADO TODAY. GOT ON CELL NEAR CRESCENT OKLAHOMA FROM SEVERE WARNED TO TORNADO WARNED AND INTO STILLWATER AREA. NICE WALL CLOUD & STRUCTURE AND NOT A BAD CHASE DAY FOR MARCH. PHOTOS BY JASON A.C. BROCK. CHASED BY JASON BROCK & JEREMY WILSON. NOWCASTED BY JEFF PAPAK & AARON HUGHES.
WE WILL HAVE PICS VIDEO AND A NEW WEBISODE OF STORMCHASER MAN FOR THIS EVENT HOPEFULLY BY THE END OF THE WEEKEND OR EARLY NEXT WEEK. BE SURE TO TUNE INTO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL AT WWW.HOLYTORNADO.COM (WHICH WILL DIRECT YOU THERE) OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS NOT ONLY FOR MORE CHASES BUT NEWLY EDITED VIDEO OF PAST CHASES FROM THE ARCHIVES OF JEREMY WILSON.

WE WERE ALSO ABLE TO STREAM LIVE THE WALL CLOUD NEAR CRESCENT OKLAHOMA TODAY SO HOPEFULY THAT WILL WORK OUT AS WELL.

LINK TO OTHER PICS ON MYSPACE
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/ind...viewPicture&friendID=459876281&albumId=689001

OTHER LINKS
http://www.holytornado.com
http://www.youtube.com/holytornado777
http://www.myspace.com/holytornado777
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/storm-chaser-man

 

[Matt Hughes]

Intercepted a cell NW of Wichita early on which looked really impressive with a nice rotating wall cloud.



Later we intercepted the tornado warned cell in Cowley Co. but missed the tubes probably because we were viewing from the NE side at the time but saw a few more nice rotating wall clouds.



Catch the short HD vid here.

 

[Aaron Gerhardt]

Tim Jones and I headed out at about 5:20AM yesterday morning from Cedar Rapids to make our trek west. We ended up playing the dryline for the day.

We decided to ride the Kansas turnpike, started seeing storms firing in the Medicine Lodge area and jumped off at El Dorado to 254 and headed west to 96, before finally ending up around Mt. Hope IIRC when we started jumping onto the farm roads to fine tune our spot.

This was just south of town looking SW, this is a little before the wall cloud got a little more solid, RFD was trying to break in at this point but was having troubles.

We sat in this spot for about 10min, ran some streaming video for a bit and prayed for it to develop a bit more...but no dice.


Decided to run NE to try and reposition, but as we followed it northeast it started to lose form, hit light hail and some rains, then decided to let it go.

Took a break in Newton, KS for a bit to fill up and take a look at other storms down the line, saw a cell forming well over Grant County, OK and decided to head south and the east before Wichita to position ourselves around the storm.

We then encountered the worst technical problems ever....no data, no stream...no nothing. We had to just fly east hoping to stay ahead of the storm while Tim was in the back trying to coax data cards into actually function. During that time we heard the warnings on the HAM and just about had aneurysms because we were so out of position.

We finally got data at 5:50ish, we turned off at Severy, KS finding out we were right in the path of the storm, but not having much left in it in terms of tornado threat. Then the camera decided to not be recognized on the computer for stream, so I pulled out my little camera and try and get something on stream/tape.

We hit 99 just west of Severy and headed south a couple miles before stopping off on a farm road to salvage anything. We were getting some strong and close CG at this point on video.



Watched some broad but slow meso rotation for a couple of minutes before it started outflowing like crazy. We were so frustrated at this point that nothing was working that we just punched through it.




Just before getting destroyed by this core...



Pulled off a half mile or so after hitting the outflow and got 1/4 inch hail as we just didn't care anymore. We let the storm go bye bye and called it a day and headed to Chanute for the night.

We had some positives and negatives. Positives was we finally got out of Iowa to chase. Second thing is we got the most viewers ever on our stream (KGANWX) that we've ever had, which I think was close to 250 on the first cell. Third thing is I got some more experience chasing with a partner, and a great one at that.

Negatives is nothing worked when we needed it to...too many equipment problems to even count. We also missed the tornado warned life of the second cell. All in all I think it was a good day for being early in the year, got one storm on the verge of dropping, and the other was strong but outflow dominant, had a good core punch and hail.

 

[Danny Neal]

SUMMARY: Adam Lucio and I left Chicago at 9 P.M on Sunday night (22nd) and arrived in Wichita Monday morning at around 830 AM (23rd) and met and stayed at Mike Nelson's house. Left his house around 1 P.M and intercepted a hail storm just East of Kingman, KS. From there we followed the storm for about 10 miles before abandoning it and headed South to SR 49 and intercepted 3 LP structures all in a row just north of Conway Springs, KS. We then got word of a large supercell coming north out of OK and intercepted that near Hunnewell, KS. We then followed this amazing storm to near Cambridge, KS where along the way it dropped at least 1 brief tornadoes and over half a dozen wall clouds. We then abandoned that storm and picked up our last near Cedar Vale, KS, and were treated to a rainbow and beautiful sunset. On our way back to Wichita the dryline lit up so we had a great light show. We went to bed at about 1 AM and left Wichita the next day for Chicago at 9 AM and arrived back at 8 PM. All in all it was about 1,950 miles roundtrip, talked with some nice people, and met a great chaser in Mike Nelson.

Sorry for the font and size and all of that, but I am just taking it from my website report I am currently making up, just thought I would post the summary and then the FULL report with pics and vids in an hour or two.

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

Finally got the video up on the computer and it is currently uploading and I will post a link immediately after it is done. Anyway here are some stills of what we saw. The first is of the Kingman cell, the second is a gustnado near Medford, OK, the third is a rapidly rotating wall cloud that produced a brief tornado, the fourth is of a nice gustnado near Drexel, KS.

http://www.motionbox.com/videos/3098dcb6191ee0c2be

 

[Stephen Locke]

Running with the Wind

Photographs and account right here.

 

[Matt Gingery]

I had a chance to get out and chase into Elk County, Kansas. The supercell had already produced two seperate tornadoes, but I did manage to get some video of the cell. Nice video of updraft base and wall cloud. I spotted a funnel as well as it tried to cycle. The cell became elevated shortly after.


Video 3/23/09: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLO77z6bfWo


We were chasing along HWY 99 near Howard Ks in the video.

Video 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Pt_lV_Dc8&feature=channel_page

I managed to get video of other chasers along Hwy 99. You may recognize your vehicle if you were in this video.

 

[Danny Neal]

Well after hours of typing up and formatting this account I am done!

You can read our amazing account HERE

What a day!

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

A few more photos and what not at the link here, I have some ok video and a lot more photos but figure this chase wasn't worth spending to much more time on.... http://severechase.com/3-23-09.html

 

[Skip Talbot]

Log and pictures: http://www.skip.cc/chase/090323/

 

[Adam Lucio]

Full account here. http://www.aerostorms.com/032309.php

Started off the day intercepting a potent hail maker a few miles east of Kingman. Followed that storm as it strengthened before losing it as it became severe warned. Moved south to better moisture area noting some nice LP structure before getting on the big storm near the KS/OK border that produced the brief weak tornadoes. Pursued that storm but fell behind it in Arkansas City, followed it to just east of Winfield before letting it go once it fell apart, dropped back south to 166 and sampled a few more small hail cores followed up by some nicely lit storm structure thanks to the setting sun.

Overall a fun action packed chase, from 2pm till 10pm we were around some sort of weather, bagging 2009s first tornado was the icing on the cake albeit weak and brief. Definitely worth the trip.

 

[Matt Gingery]

I shot this video along HWY 99 north of Howard, Kansas in Elk County. Video of wall cloud/updraft base.

In the video I shot several chasers along the side of Hwy 99. You may recognize yourself in this video if you chased along Hwy 99 in Elk County.

Video Elk County: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Pt_lV_Dc8&feature=channel_page

 

[AndyGabrielson]

I considered this a very successful chase. Started off the day by sitting in a dust storm with visibility down to a mile at some points. The first cell I intercepted in south central was sort of a "pre-show" storm. It had a fantastic wall cloud that was rotating quite nicely at the end of its life and actually kind of wrapped up into a little funnel before it's death.
The next storm I intercepted again moved out of OK into south central KS near Winfield I think. Sorry I always mess the towns up. This thing did go tor warned and at one point had two wall clouds. We saw the funnel but didn't see any touchdown. Also continued chasing during the night and intercepted some nice storms along I-44 some of which were severe, had a decent lowering with one. Anyway heres the pictures to accompany this. As always streamed live video during the event at SS, thank you to anyone who watched!

findthetornado.smugmug...9534_XFiLp

videos and photos can be found there...

 

[Brian Thalken]

Chase account: http://www.nebraskastorms.com/storms.htm

Left Lincoln around 2pm, headed west towards Seward, NE. Waited just north of I-80 Seward, NE exit for 30 minutes or so. Tried to get in position on a cell moving up from the south towards my location, was able to get a decent view of the cell near the Milford, NE exit as it had a radar indicated tornado warning. Couldn't really tell if that lowering was rotating but still caught my attention. Then decided to head east to get in position on new cells moving north.

Video grab just off of the I-80 Milford, NE exit.

Made it to Lincoln, NE ahead of the cell as it was approaching my location.
Was just north of this cell as it skirted just east of Lincoln, NE. I should have gone further east past Eagle to be in a better position on this cell, but ended up getting caught up in the core as it was moving towards me around 60mph. I was happy to finally see some structure of this storm, there was SO much dust being kicked up making it extremely difficult to see anything, especially from my northern vantage point. Got out of position and my chase was over. Overall a good chase to test out some new chase gear and the live video feeds, along with a few lessons learned on staying in position with these fast movers.

Chase cam capture at 148th and 'A' east of Lincoln, NE - looking directly south.

 

[James Langford]

More pictures and full chase account here:
http://www.langfordphotography.com/gallery/7712829_SrQEB

Chased with my friends Zack and Colin. We initially targetted the area just West of OKC. As we came up 35 and approached OKC, we decide to avoid town and take highway 9. Cells were firing to the West of town, so this gave us a good approach. We eventually ended up on Highway 81, just north of El Reno. The Kingfisher storm was churning away to our NE, but was too far away and moving to fast to catch:

Several smaller cells were struggling to get going to our West. With the sun setting behind them, this made for beautiful pictures:

These little cells really struggled to get going, and we were quickly losing our light. We stopped a bit further up 81 to get some more pics:

We entually ended up on highway 33 heading East towards OKC. Several of our smaller cells to our west started getting their act together, and we stopped for a lightning picture or two:

We had only a few minutes here before a cell to our south really started intensifying. We shot East on 33 into town, and headed down 35 towards home. As we came into Purcell, we noticed a very strong cell on radar that was approaching from the West. We stopped just north of town and capture a few pictures of what we believe was a wall cloud:

After some more shots here, we struggled back towards DFW in the intense headwind. We were hoping for a bit more storm action, but the photography was pretty great.

James