4/23/07 REPORTS: TX / OK / KS / CO

[Jerry Funfsinn]

This is a screen capture I took prior to heading north and then east (through the core) through Sitka, KS to get on a better road and view before dark.

Looking SW the video shows the first (windmill) tornado and the second shot is the development that was over me as I watched the first rope out. I glanced over my shoulder to see a debris cloud in field next to me and rushed east to get out of the way.

Link to video here

Jerry Funfsinn
CreativeJetstream.com

 

[Ray Walker]

Had an awsome chase yesterday. 4/23/07 Me and a buddy of mine, Mike potter chased the Laverne Ok supercell. We intercepted this storm just to the SW of Laverne and followed it all the way to protection Ks. We saw at least 6 tornadoes with this storm. all were breif except for the very nice small cone tornado that had insane drill bit action at ground level. We were watching a Violently rotating wall cloud dirtectly over us on the north side of HWY 160 when Mike told me to look to the west and we watched a nice cone come out of some rain and hail about 2 or three miles to our west. The tornado then crossed the HWY infront of us and we pulled over and got some insane video of this thing just churning up the feilds. We think that right after it crossed the HWY it hit a House or barn because we saw debris start flying.
All in all one of my best chase days ever.

 

[jason kissam]

I chased starting in Monument colorado (el paso county) along hwy 83 in Douglas county colorado, witnessed a brief lowering in the cloud base. after that ran into several hail shafts (nickel size) along hwy 86 going east to limon. Reached limon Still active systems to the east. total trip around 200 miles:

Some of my photos
This started to lower in douglas county off of black forest road and walker road. nothing came of it.


Some awesome coloring to this mammatus section also on walker road


My chase partner Marcelo was tracking the fort morgan storm. and he sent me great pictures of that storm as it was tornado warned. these are marcelo's pics

 

[Brian Stertz]

Rich and Ryan Thies and I followed the Lipscomb Co. TX supercell northward and caught the zany tornado show in/around the Protection KS area (Comanche Co.)...which was beyond words. The structure of that supercell was jaw dropping as we viewed it from the east of Protection. For the first time in my chase career, I caught 3 tornadoes on the ground at the same time. Pics to follow...returned last night from a bust in C.Kansas.

 

[Adam Atkins]

Put together a clip of the Protection, KS storm. Kiel Ortega and I targeted Perryton, TX. We liked the full insolation north of the cirrus canopy, Monday, and the cap weakened substantially to initiate a cluster of storms on the pre-dryline confluence boundary in the E Texas panhandle. We were between the LP near Borger, TX and the explosive updraft of the tornadic storm and the decision to head east was a no-brainer. I haven't seen as impressive an updraft or backsheared anvil since the Pierce City, MO storm on May 4, 2003. Great chase with triplet mesocyclones, and I've also heard the term multiple vortex mesocyclone used. Storm didn't start producing for nearly an hour and a half after we got on it, but in a span of 25 minutes we saw 6 tornadoes. Here's the vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFS3pM_be7E

 

[Brett Roberts]

Myself, Brandon Lawson, and Bryan Putnam got an early start and arrived in Shamrock by 2:00, a good while before the big crowd gathered at the Best Western. We spent the better part of the next few hours waiting for initiation to the west or southwest on the Caprock, ignoring the initial storm that developed right over our heads early in the afternoon. Eventually, some folks began to take off for it after it'd already moved a ways off (up towards Gage) and become more impressive on radar, as everything going up in the TX Panhandle was quickly dying out. Well, obviously they made the right choice given what it went on to produce. We hesitated, briefly started to shoot north on US-83, then decided to turn around when we hit road construction only a few minutes outside Shamrock - I already had my doubts that we'd ever catch up to the storm until it was about dark, and this just seemed like a bad omen.

After this, we decided to head west a bit in the hopes that some of the struggling updrafts out that way might get their act together. Stopped in McLean for data, and immediately noticed the cell crossing I-40 south of Panhandle looking quite nice, so we shot northwest to Pampa, hearing it become t-warned en route. We arrived to find the very slender LP cell many have already mentioned, which was visually impressive, but at the same time didn't look to have any discernable low-level rotation or chance of producing a tornado. It was pretty remarkable (in a crushing way) to watch it crap out so quickly in low-mid 60s dews, on a hyped MDT-risk day, in which the primary concern was initiation, rather than tornado-producing ability once any storms did fire. Made for some nice photo ops though, which are posted below. Even knowing it's only April, I can't help but feel a little down about missing the tornadic action on all three of the big days the past week has had to offer (4/21, 4/23, 4/24).

 

[Mikey Gribble]

Here is a link to some of my video of one of the tornadoes on the Protection Kansas storm. It would have been nice if CNN credited me, but whatever.
http://www.cnn.com/video/partners/c...ideo/weather/2007/04/24/vo.kansas.tornado.cnn

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Some images from Bucklin KS looking se at the Protection storm:

 

[Randy Denzer]

Shane Motley and myself drove 450 miles with the Texas A&M team in tow to get to the cell as it crossed I-40 just east of Amarillo. We saw the Tornado warning get issued and we thought we may be ready for a big score until we actually saw it. Very pretty cell at it's peak but it sorta fell sideways and died!!

Go to: www.mcwar.org to see Shanes cool time lapse of the cell. The video is posted on youtube link on the front page.

 

[Ray Walker]

After reveiwing video I have concluded that me and my budy Mike potter saw at least 8 tornadoes with the tornadic supercell from just north of laverne Oklahoma all the way up to protection Kansas.

 

[Patrick Martin]

Left my house at 4:30 after making a quick turnaround for equipment and gas. Headed to Ft. Morgan to play the convergence boundary that had set up across eastern Adams & Arapahoe + western Morgan counties. Stopped for a look at radar off I-76 and exit 80 at the Days Inn in Ft. Morgan. Storm was 10 miles to my north and tor warned. Could see something of a lowering from my vantage on the south side of I-76.

I then moved northeast on I-76 with the intention of going to Brush. There was a lot of rising scud to my north, and I bailed off the highway at the next exit, I believe it was Double Bridge Rd. I followed it for 5 miles north until it went to dirt and found a vantage point on a rise. There was rising motion/scud, and some rotation in the base. It seemed to try, but appeared to be going outflow dominant and getting seeded by the storm moving up from the south. Observed it for 30 minutes before heading back to home at 7pm as I was on a timetable and had a commitment back in Denver. Roundtrip 175 miles. Not a prolific chase by any means, but a lot of fun after work. A couple more pics.

 

[scott r currens]

The following link contains video of the three simultaneous tornadoes near Protection, KS. I need more camcorders. LOL
http://www.violentplains.com/video/ScottCurrens20070423b.wmv

 

[Amos Magliocco]

EricN, Robert Hall and I chased the Pampa-vicinity LP that Brett posted above. It was a great looking LP for a while that threatened to turn classic when the base widened, but it shrunk when the precip disappeared and the defined striations faded. We watched it vanish into nothing and hung out with Ken McAllister at Sonic afterwards.

I should have imagery of this storm on my website by the end of the weekend.

 

[Brandon Smith]

Me, Alex Lamers, Sam Dienst and several others were also on the LP supercell in Pampa. Having not left Norman until 3:30, we reached Shamrock just as the storm started getting it's act together when crossing I-40. We approached from the SE side of Pampa, stopping to take some shots of the amazing structure. Unfortunately, our view was partially blocked by a low cloud bank, which we believe to be from the supercell structure that was getting sheared away. It looked like for a few times there it was going to possibly produce a funnel cloud but couldn't quite get there. As everyone has stated, the storm then quickly dissipated and was nothing but a small cloud of storm debris in a matter of 30 minutes. Here are my photos from the day.

 

[Jonathan Merage]

What a day! Intercepted the Ashland and Protection tornadoes with Sean Mullins. We also observed the impressive triple meso structure with the three touchdowns Scott's video & other reports confirmed. Initially, I wasn't sure if the storm actually had three separate rotations on the ground at once, since we stayed just west of the huge precip core that produced the famous drill bit. We're glad we did, as the tornado emerged from the base out of near-zero visibility and 2.75" hail, according to GR3. The tornado had a north-northwesterly track that took it directly across our field of view giving us an amazing perspective on the base & bringing it within a couple miles of our location.

The first tornado, reported near Ashland, KS.

Drill bit approaching Protection.

Zoom-in of the base. Trees & other debris flying in the circulation.