4/22/07 NOW: NE / KS / MO / IA

[mike scantlin]

well i guess since everyone is beat after yesterday, i will post. there are 3 watch boxes. 2 tornado watches, one in SE Nebraska and NE Kansas, and another just east of that one. theres a severe thunderstorm watch just east of that one, for the eastern 1/2 of iowa, the NE corner of MO, and the western edge of IL. there is one tornado report NW of norfolk. its very interesting to watch the radar loop, because it looks like the tornado occured right on the triple point where 3 cells are dividing. it is now torwarned and that all i have.

 

[Jeff Miller]

Intercepting storms between Sioux City and Sloan....local walk in the woods...these storms have occasional lightning and gust front winds of around 45-55 MPH - and observed a non rotating wall cloud with the activity. Motion is pretty quick as well...hanging out here for now if anything else gets going we'll report it as it happens. no hail was observed.

In a nutshell, nothing special here, but good to get out and see convection since work keeps me from chasing a lot of the time.

 

[Josh Richardson]

Heading to Guthrie Center and planning to intercept the Cass Co. storm moving to the NE. Thats really out thats out there but this cell has jumped up about 10000 ft in the last 5 runs.

 

[Brandon Sullivan]

en route to kirksville mo... if that doesnt pan out, im headed for I 35 in IA

 

[Andy Rice]

observed a lowereing w of ia 25 near clearfield, ia around 420. it went back up after a few minutes

 

[rdale]

Interesting rotation near Jefferson, but TAMDAR soundings not showing much (if any) rotation.

http://skywatch.org/iowa.jpg

 

[Scott Lincoln]

The wind profiler just SW of Ames at Slater, IA, shows a little more directional shear than your TAMDAR sounding, but it is fairly minimal.

http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/upper/sla_wp.gif

I'm surprised that the storms further south in the better shear havent been showing more mini-supercell characteristics.

 

[Josh Richardson]

Interesting rotation near Jefferson, but TAMDAR soundings not showing much (if any) rotation.

http://skywatch.org/iowa.jpg

Pretty shelfy out here right now as I am on that cell currently. Did see a small snake like funnel at one point earlier but thats about it.

 

[Scott Lincoln]

Looks like maybe a tiny couplet coinciding with that swirl in the reflectivity SSW of Ogden, IA. Corresponds to a spike in the SW values as well.

 

[afischer]

TAMDAR winds can be horrendously "bad" (especially the descent soundings), so I'd use them with caution.

Just gave up the chase in SW IA where I observed a plethora of mushy, elevated, non-severe and electrically-challenged convection. Low-level CAPE and SRH certainly appeared supportive of tornadoes per OAX RAOB and SPC mesoanalyses, but no dice.

 

[Josh Richardson]

Were giving up on our chase now as well as everything is lined out and only shelf clouds out here now.

 

[rdale]

TAMDAR winds can be horrendously "bad" (especially the descent soundings), so I'd use them with caution.

They matched up other Iowa sites so I'm not too concerned, and close to what I'd expect. Two more flights in the past hour and nothing really changed. Little radar-shown rotation passed over one of KCCI's schoolnet with nothing notable.