4/23/10 REPORTS: NE/MO/AR/MS/TX

[Michael O'Keeffe]

Another fun chase day for us! We intercepted the cell that fired east of Beatrice and became the southern cell as it tracked east of Lincoln. After the sunset we decided to hang back and get lightning pictures north of Unadilla, NE and what do you know a wall cloud rapidly develops and a brief tornado touches down the funnel itself lasted several minutes before roping out however it was only fully condensed for less than 30 seconds. Below is a picture of the tornado complete with the storm above!

I had a nice zoomed shot of the tornado with the video camera and will get a few grabs tomorrow.

 

[John Farley]

I caught some warm front magic north of Warrenton, MO this evening. Saw two (probably) tornadoes near Hawk Point. I say probably because they were 2-3 minutes apart with no condensation in between times, but I was far enough away that I suppose it could have been one that lost the condensation for a couple minutes. But more likely two. Also a nice lowered area west or northwest of Warrenton around the time a tornado was reported in that area (but I was too far away and my view too much blocked by trees to tell if that was it), and a rotating wall cloud with multiple funnels rotating around one another between Warrenton and Truxton. The latter occurred in the exact same spot as a law enforcement report of a tornado, but the times don't match. However, at the reported time of the tornado there, that meso had occluded, so I doubt the time is right. Anyway, not sure if what I saw there was a tornado or not, but very possible. Here are a few pics; full report with video will follow in a couple days.

Lowering around 6:50 p.m., looking west from 2 or 3 miles north of Warrenton.

Rotating wall cloud with funnels rotating around one another, between Warrenton and Truxton at 7:11 p.m.

Tornado near Hawk Point, around 7:30 p.m.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

I also observed a brief tornado from a distance of about two miles this evening north of Unadilla, NE. Arrived on the storm just as the wall cloud suddenly wrapped itself up and produced. I could not verify ground contact, as the funnel extended below a row of trees from my perspective, but I feel pretty comfortable that it was likely in contact with the ground at the time. This was roughly 15 minutes before the tor-warning was issued on the cell. I'll have to pull vid caps tomorrow, as I don't have the right firewire with me. In the meantime, the lightning was stunning tonight.

 

[Rick Schmidt]

Did anyone report the tornado north of Unadilla yesterday? I did not see it in SPC storm reports. I was on the southern storm, just south of the tornadic cell, and I did not see it. I may have a very brief, small funnel from the southern cell, but it is too far away to tell for sure. From looking at my radar, the 2 cells almost seemed to merge, but they were still separated a bit.

 

[Rob H]

Did anyone report the tornado north of Unadilla yesterday? I did not see it in SPC storm reports. I was on the southern storm, just south of the tornadic cell, and I did not see it. I may have a very brief, small funnel from the southern cell, but it is too far away to tell for sure. From looking at my radar, the 2 cells almost seemed to merge, but they were still separated a bit.

James Seitz and I were on this band of 2-3 cells except we were too close to see exactly what they were doing at times because of trees. The two rear cells seemed to trade off in strength every so often, and at times both had wall clouds. We think we saw a brief funnel on the tornadic cell when radar was showing a couplet. We didn't make any reports because we simply had nothing visible to report on.

I'm still going through my stills and my video trying to piece together when things happened, but I'd be interested in knowing when this tornado was down. Michael, what time was your picture taken at?

This is the tornadic cell at 8:00pm CDT. According to the audio on my camcorder, we were seeing some tight rotation in the wall cloud at this time:

 

[Mike Peregrine]

James Seitz and I were on this band of 2-3 cells except we were too close to see exactly what they were doing at times because of trees. The two rear cells seemed to trade off in strength every so often, and at times both had wall clouds. We think we saw a brief funnel on the tornadic cell when radar was showing a couplet. We didn't make any reports because we simply had nothing visible to report on.

I'm still going through my stills and my video trying to piece together when things happened, but I'd be interested in knowing when this tornado was down. Michael, what time was your picture taken at?

I also couldn't make a report and don't intend to, because I couldn't/can't verify. Time code on the video is 8:05 pm. I was in a bad position for contrast, as you can tell. My eyes could make things out more clearly, but this is about as good as I can get ...

What you're seeing here is actually mainly wall cloud. The funnel I could visually make out attached to this was smaller and better defined. The downdraft from the southern storm was nearly coming in contact with the RFB of this one at the time this occurred. I'm guessing that's probably why it didn't hang out long. You can't see it here, but the attendant meso this was suspended from was perfectly rounded and very well formed. This was taken east and just south, looking north from highway 2.

It tried to reorganize further north once both cells appeared to merge and the tor-warning was issued, but while the base looked impressive after dark, it was outflowish and I actually chose to leave it behind as other chasers and tours were arriving.

The storm was svr-warned here, and my impression at the time was that it pulsed and briefly produced, then cycled. Hope this helps ...

 

[Danny Neal]

I can verify what Mike Peregrine saw. We were just SSW of Louisville, NE and I told Adam, "Hey that looks like a base...." We drove south and started seeing what looked to be scud underneath a rather high base. Well we went down in some valleys and about 3 minutes later it had reappeared as pretty tight lowering about 10 miles to our SW. I jokingly said it looked like a wall cloud with a funnel underneath but never payed THAT much attention to it. We started getting closer to it and again it had an impressive look to it but was getting wrapped up in rain (I figured it was just a cell merger) I didn't even take a picture of this feature, in hindsight I probably should have. We ended up letting the area pass west of us by 2 miles just at the time the tornado warning was issued. By then it was looking grungy and completely embedded in the rain. For a while we had the SAME view as Mikes picture only looking from NE to SW.... Certainly nothing we could report or discern unlike one Erin Wheeler

 

[Skip Talbot]

I sat in Auburn, NE all day before Danny Neal and Adam Lucio showed up to help kill time. We got suckered north by some towers that started to go up just north of us. We followed on 29 in IA stuck behind traffic in a one-lane closed construction zone. Why that lane is closed I have no idea, there is no work being done on it and its shut down for miles and miles. Well, we finally caught up to the cell just to see that it was anemic and dieing rapidly. Then we had initiation just west of where we had been sitting all day so we split up, and I raced down south catching tail end charlie east of Eagle, NE. It was a pretty storm, backlit with nice sunset shades.

If I didn't know better, I'd swear this rain shaft was a landspout. It looked like it had a debris cloud, tube of dust, and even a little pointed funnel at the top. Definitely one of the more convincing look-a-likes that I have seen:

 

[Jared Farrer]

Same thing happened to me basically. I was on the same two cells, approaching from the east on highway 2. The damn thing came out of nowhere. One secound that northern cell looked somewhat impressive but not. Then bam probable tornado. Not sure if it was on the ground but it looked very close. Couldnt have lasted more than a couple minutes. But I was a bit closer than some of the pics above. There were alot of hills in the way so I cant really confirm anything. Ill see if I have anything substantial to add later!

Hey O' Keeffe, if you can grab some time stamps, because I am curious of the exact times of that one, compared to the other one.

 

[Michael Stanga]

Here are a few Photos from yesterday near Omaha. Interesting storm environment and mostly structure shots. note the dying cell in later pictures. Not sure what to call that dangley crap, but ill call it "dangley crap" under the updraft base. Full Photos at http://www.thewxpage.com/042310chase.html

 

[John Farley]

MO chase report is now online

My full report is now online at:

http://www.johnefarley.com/chase42310.htm

There are lots of photos from throughout the life of the storm, and video of both the wall cloud between Warrenton and Truxton with multiple funnels rotating around it and the second of the two tornadoes that occurred near Hawk Point.

 

[Tyler Burg]

Chased with Chris Allington. We messed with the towers south of Omaha/over Omaha for a while, one briefly had a nice lowering but quickly died, they couldn't get going so we retreated west to intercept the storm everyone else was on. Didn't get on it until after dark, after it was tornado warned. Cored it and saw dimes, maybe quarters. Really a crappy day, managed a kinda cool shot with lightning.

 

[Brian Stertz]

Chased the supercells that passed east of Lincoln NE...and unfortunately they were timed at/after sunsetThis thanks to the mid level subsidence which was a bit more widespread and stronger capping than what the models showed. Here is a decent look I had from near Palmyra (near the Otoe/Lancaster Co. line). We did see the first wall cloud off to the north on the t-warned storm through the darkness and w/ help from lightning. It was moving away too fast to intercept.. so opted for the southern supercell. It spun pretty hard and seemed to lift head long into the cooler air north of the warm front and weakened. Chase #2 for the year went down as a more or less bust...had a few things that worked against good solid late April supercells.

 

[Terrence Cook]

Got distracted by the first towers and ended up being late to the show but I did manage some spectacular time lapse of the scene below.

 

[Adam Lucio]

Full account online:

Got on the storm with the magnificent wedge [haha] We noted the same funnel/tornado others saw but we were far and wrote it off in our minds as a funnel at most...so I'm not sure what to think of it...I didn't even bother to take any pictures at that point.

http://www.aerostorms.com/042310.php