3/26/11 REPORTS: MS/AL/LA/ARK/GA

[Drew.Gardonia]

Adam Reagan and I left Murfreesboro, TN around 7:30 AM for Tupelo, MS. That was our initial target area but after arriving there and consulting Wes Carter, and checking the SPC, which had just issued a watch for Central Alabama from east to west stateliness. Hauled the mail back towards Birmingham and intercepted a cell that was starting to hook near Jasper, AL (Walker County) at around 2:28 PM. The cell weakened and failed to produce anything notable.

We continued on to Birmingham where we proceeded south to Exit 228, and rendezvoud with Wes Carter to intercept a severe warned cell that was reported to have produced a funnel. Witnessed a nice wall cloud at the intersection of I-65 and Exit 228 in Calera, AL with moderate rotation, we photographed and filmed the wall cloud for several minutes before pursuing it to the East. We halted on a side road, as the wall cloud seemed to intensify, and video recorded once again, then pursued till the storm was out of reach and watched as it made it’s way east towards Georgia. This wall cloud tried like crazy to put one down, but “I” didn’t see anything conclusive to say I saw an actual funnel or a tornado.

Hi-Def Video of the First Wall Cloud (Intersection of I-65 and Exit 228)
Watch video >

Now there is some debate amongst the three of us as to whether or not we saw a funnel/tornado. After we pursued the wall cloud, we pulled off to the side of a back road and watched it for a minute (see video below:) Wes noticed what appeared to be a cone shaped object to the left. The base was obstructed by trees, so we could not verify if it was indeed on the ground, but it does appear to at least be a funnel. It looked that way to me, and that’s what I said in my video, but after seeing the video, I wish I had said “funnel” instead of tornado, because I can’t verify it was indeed on the ground, and I could not see a debris cloud on the ground, therefore to my knowledge it didn’t meet NWS criteria to be categorized as such.

Watch video >

This is an image my chase partner Adam Reagan took, look to the left of center, there appears to be a cone shaped funnel, that is well defined protruding from the wall cloud, but it's obstructed by the trees, and you can not see a debris cloud on the ground (so in MY standards, it didn't meet NWS Criteria of being on the ground and/or visible debris cloud, so it's not a tornado from this perspective, but it may very well have been a funnel, but like I said, it's debatable).

Regrouped back at I-65 and Exit 228, and then Wes Carter made the decision to go North back towards Huntsville. 30 minutes down the road, Wes was rewarded when the SPC issued a Mesoscale Discussion (and called for a watch to be issued shortly therafter), and then 20 minutes following that the SPC issued a Watch for the Northern portions of Alabama. On the drive back up 65, Adam and I both took several photos of the storms building to the west and the storms fleeing to the east.

Proceeded to intercept a supercell near Athens, but oddly enough this one wasn’t severe warned, but produced heavy rains, nickel size hail, intense lightning and some pretty strong wind gusts. After that, we decided to call it a day, and headed for the barn. Pulled in to Murfreesboro at about 9:20 pm

14 hours of driving, 730 miles, 2 ½ tanks of gas, 3 intercepts, 1 rotating wall cloud, 2 great friends, and a heck of a lot of fun later, we made it home, but one heck of a fun filled day!

I'm quite please with the structure of these storms and how photogenic they were, made for a great day, and got my adrenaline pumping!

all of the pictures are available here (as well as Full Size Hi-Def 1920x1080 videos)

http://drewgphotography.smugmug.com/Weather/StormChase32611/16357311_tXVVM

 

[Zack Hargrove]

We began our day in Winona, MS and quickly realized things were going to get going much further East than originally expected. We hit a few cells that went up and died, but then we finally hit a storm that had a bit of a hook that never went warned. We witnessed a very large wall cloud from a distance but the storm then fizzled out. We realized we didn't have many other options so we waited on the storm behind it. The storm looked pretty ragged, but we decided to give it a chance anyways as it seemed to maybe be developing a hook area.

We got in position for the hook area and the storm exploded (This was the Shelby County tornado warning storm). It went severe warned and then tornado warned shortly after and for a short time we were the only chasers on it. We got some amazing time lapse video of the first funnel cloud we saw from it, but I have to upload it online at some point. Later, we got more distance shots of a funnel cloud from the same storm. From our vantage point, it looked like a possible large wedge, but we couldn't see if it was touching the ground because of the trees. We are assuming it was never a tornado because at this point, tons of chasers were on the storm. The storm had a beautiful rainbow coming out of it, however, and was ridiculously photogenic:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=588164806362&set=a.558756406032.2084927.51105633&pid=33612325&id=51105633

We kept following the storm into Georgia as it was dying out because we were bunking with family in NW Georgia later that night and got some amazing storm structure pics:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=588165215542&set=a.558756406032.2084927.51105633&pid=33612327&id=51105633
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=588165285402&set=a.558756406032.2084927.51105633&pid=33612328&id=51105633
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=588165385202&set=a.558756406032.2084927.51105633&pid=33612329&id=51105633

The severe day was nothing spectacular, but the photogenic quality of a few of the storms was incredible. Because of this aspect, it was a wildly successful chase! We witnessed 2 funnel clouds and 2 wall clouds. Most of the wall cloud images were only caught while driving on video, however.

 

[Jesse Risley]

I chased E MS and AL with Mike Brady and Jeremy Degenhart. We initially targeted Grenada, MS, but decided to head across Hwy 82 towards the I-22 corridor to play the early convection, which produced some of the nicer wall clouds and large hail reports S of BMX. We played a cell north of BMX that moved INVO and then north of the front up in Fayette County, later puttering out.

We moved back towards Columbus, MS later in the afternoon and watched some towers go up north of the AFB around 6 PM, deciding to head north and intercept the developing storm NE of Vernon, AL after the storm crossed the state line, as it was obviously proximal to the frontal boundary. We followed the cell as it tracked close to the boundary, moving SSE towards Jasper and Birmingham. We observed a number of lowerings, a possible funnel or two, and plenty of great structure. We were not able to confirm any tornadoes in the Birmingham area. I threw together a brief snyopsis along with some time lapse video that I put on Youtube, which is embedded in the synopsis, on our chase reports page at Convective Addiction.

 

[Trey Alvey]

Watch video >

We began the day near Columbus, MS and worked our way towards Central Alabama throughout the afternoon. We observed a couple wall clouds and funnel clouds. We were originally on the Calera tornado warning (Southeast of Birmingham). We also intercepted the Gadsden tornado warning and Birmingham tornado warning in the evening. A full write up is at 28storms.com

 

[Zack Hargrove]

Here was our video chase account of the Shelby County Storm. We followed the storm from its birth to its death. Thats why the video was so long, but it really did turn into a gorgeous storm, even when it was dying.

Watch video >

Here is a time lapse of our first possible funnel cloud. You can see a possible white condensation funnel forming at the bottom left of the base. We believe that this was around or near the time that the touch down in the area was occurring. For all we know, the funnel was on the ground blocked by trees, but it doesn't seem to look like it.

Watch video >

 

[Gerard Jebaily]

Filled the SUV up with gas and people and left Florence, SC and headed into Birmingham, AL just as initiation began. We headed south towards Calera, AL and intercepted multiple storms between Calera and Montgomery in some annoying terrain. The terrain did improve as we headed further south. We eventually ended up crossing the AL/GA border. Here are a few time lapse videos.




Watch video >

4X Time lapse of wall cloud near Hurtsboro, AL



Watch video >

This second video starts out with us driving behind the hail core near LaFayette, AL. We stop to pick up and measure a few stones which were 2.25". Around :50 in, we saw some hail fog form. Never had a time lapse of it actually forming so this was a first.
4X time lapse.


Here are a few photos from the day as well.

Rotating Wall cloud and Meso outside of Hurtsboro, AL

Another Wall cloud near Calera, AL.

 

[Tony Cook]

NW AL after-dark supercell

Caught the tornado-warned supercell that tracked from Guin, AL to Gardendale just after sunset. Numerous deadly-looking wall clouds and funnels. Here is one of the better video grabs near Cordova, AL:

Full report available here:

http://twistedtexas.blogspot.com/2011/03/chase-report-26-mar-2011-crazy-in.html

TonyC