4/26/09 Reports: TX/OK/KS/NE/IA

[Kiel Ortega]

Started the day off in Elk City watching a storm down north of Altus on radar. We debated and debated whether to go or not and about 3 min before the tornado warning was issued for it, we took off. This proved to be a fairly good exercise in wasting gas as we ended up looping back to the same Love's in Elk City. Where we waited some more and finally took off after the storms getting going around Wheeler and Allison, TX. So...

I had a similar experience as all those who have posted about Roll. We were traveling north to catch back up to the storm and caught the rope stage of the first tornado. As we got over the hills north of Roll, I noticed this tornado was snaking back to a large, barrel low-level meso to our NW. We parked just south of the bridge over the river and the first vortex from this meso (well, really at this point it was a tornado) touch down on the eastern side. It was white and very quick. The overall cloud motion continued to intensify and just before a few vorticies touched down and the then the large, main vortex touched down. This was more or less due north of where we were sitting and either right at the Hwy 283 or just to its east (a little less than a mile up the road from the end of the bridge). We continued north and turned down the road where the mobile home that Tim reported on was hit (we could see it from our position up on the hill; and we would have continued down there to assist, but passed an EM--who warned us of the debris--who was leaving the area on our way in and figured if he wasn't really needed down there, then neither were we). From on top of this hill, we continued to watch the tornado until the wind and rain became too much. We continued on to Vici (sitting in RFD several miles west of Vici) and let this initial storm go and trekked back to the south to watch the new storms to the southwest. We followed the main one of these northeast before ditching it at Orienta and heading home. Treated to a great light show on the way home; in fact, as we entered Norman a bolt hit somewhere around 24th East and Boyd setting off an awesome power flash (lasted several seconds).

 

[Jerry Funfsinn]

Crawford/Roll Oklahoma Tornado

Initially intercepted a nice white elephant trunk tornado about 1 mile west of Crawford Oklahoma ( north of Roll ) at 4:29 pm on SR 33. I then moved north and east as this tornado roped out noticing an even bigger circulation forming near the Canadian river. As I crossed the river at 4:40 pm the circulation grew into an incredible tornado as it moved north east through the hill country.

Video of can be found on my video page.

 

[David Hoadley]

I followed almost the exact same route as Mike Hollingshead. Starting from Clinton, the mix of cells coming up rapidly from the south chased me out of town. I then watched the tornado-warned storm come up from Retrop, then went severe over Clinton, and THEN became a big outflow dominant storm north of town with a very linear base. Assuming it had just stabilized everything for a considerable distance and that tornadic activity would now be farther NE, I heard about the new watch box across southern Oklahoma and charged south. Also went to Frederick and then to the briefly severe cell near Altus but it didn't last. Not many tornadoes this day for a High Risk.

 

[sdienst]

Not much to add report wise as we pretty much followed along with Kiel throughout the day and he covered things fairly well. I finally broke my western Oklahoma tornado-less streak today. Here are a few video grabs from the larger tornado...

 

[Skip Talbot]

Craptastic day. Caravanned with Mike Brady, Brandon Sullivan, Jesse Risley and co. Headed out in the morning towards that cell south of Clinton. It had a decent looking base for a bit but that was about it. We followed it north of Clinton before we intercepted another unwarned storm north of Arapaho. It never organized. We dropped back down to 40 to catch new initation coming off the dryline in SW OK. I probably should have headed to my original target of Woodward. The new cells coming out of SW OK died and we wound up racing north to the line of cells that were already done producing in NW OK. We intercepted tail end charlie and noted a base with condensation. There was a brief funnel in there that the others in the caravan saw, but I missed it fumbling with my camera. Everything stayed outflow dominant from that point on with no new initation. Downer day. I'm not impressed with northwest OK either. The roads suck and there were a lot more hills and trees than I expected.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

Congrats on the excellent baggage this weekend ... W O W ...

Chasing is full of irony that you just have to laugh at sometimes. Drove to Woodward, OK to have a tornado occur practically next door to my house on Saturday. Stayed in and drove all around Roger Mills county all weekend, choosing to leave for a new target on Sunday ... and well, we know the rest. We just have to laugh about it. Here's a pic of the Jackson/Tillman/Kiowa county storm at its best yesterday. There was a long rope funnel that extended about halfway down for a bit.

Had plenty of time to talk about it on the drive home ... seemed like the storm was ingesting too much of its own outflow. It cycled like crazy and just as you would think it was about to get its act together, it would fall apart. Inflow was terribly problematic. We noticed that every time the storm was cycling stronger the inflow would kick up a notch. It was only being fed periodically, even though wind profilers just to the southeast kept telling us it should have 30 kt winds at the surface carrying 64 degree TDs into the thing. Pretty interesting ...

Thanks very much to my partners today ... Scott Currens, Amos Magliocco, Scott Eubanks and Dave Fick. Enjoyed your company as always, and I appreciate you making my only real shot at a beyond-local chase this year fun.

 

[Joshua Nall]

2 tornadoes

Witnessed two tornadoes Near Crawford and Roll Oklahoma. After fooling with the cells that fired early, I initially targeted the lone cell that fired over around Mclean, TX. A few other cells then fired a little to the SW of it and moved to the NW of Wheeler that looked more promising, so my attention turned to these. I lost internet on the backroads NE of Wheeler, so I headed up to hwy 33 and over to near Crawford to wait where I thought the action would cross. Golfball hail started to fall, I could see rising scud and rotation to my S, chasers popped up everywhere.

As this was my first time in the midst of so many chasers, and tornadoes, it was a bit stressful… hard to find a place to pull over. The first tornado appeared to touch down just as it crossed hwy 33 and then skipped along for a bit, before roping out. It was on the outskirts of a much larger area of rotation/wall cloud that the second, more impressive tornado formed under. I watched this tornado tear through a field for a while then waited on the next cell. This cell produced a very well defined thin funnel well away from the main area of rising scud, where I was looking for something to form.

Two beautiful tornadoes and an interesting funnel, this was an awesome experience for me. I then headed S and photograph the setting sun and mammatus filled sky.

Mr. Brian Emfinger, you have to watch that 25 mph speed limit in Geary. I got pulled over there the night before, after doing some lightning photography There aren’t too many towns with a 25 mph speed limit…. saw the sign but figured it was for a school or something (when children are present). I was going 37 by my speedometer, which was close to what I figured the speed limit was, 35mph. I should not assume I guess and just follow the signs next time. No ticket, just a warning.

 

[Matthew Crowther]

Missed the first Roger Mills tornado, caught the second larger one.

Video up at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAOemlGlLL4

 

[Brian Stertz]

Just waking up from a long...somewhat frustrating...and partially rewarding chase on Sunday with Rich & Ryan Thies. Started the day in Elk City OK. Saw a pretty amazing bullseye setting up by Laverne OK so decided to head up early just in case of some of the morning storms were going to "get after it". So headed through Packsaddle on the way up and headed up to Pratt where we had our pre-chase lunch...just about the time the tornado warnings started happening to the southwest. Got out to the T-warned supercell out by Wellsford and it looked like a cold blown-out deal so that brought some frowns. Especially when the cold pool got deeper and deeper. Made the decision after meet up with Jeff & Terry that we'll head back down into NW OK and catch some of the stuff brewing down that way. Instead of the cold pool kind of getting less as we got south, it actually got deeper and meant certain problems later. The temps dropped down to around 50 as the heavy rain & hailcores unloaded across NE Texas Panhandle & NW OK.

Then the chase finally got into higher gear . Got a call from Jeff that a more or less tail end charlie supercell was beginning to rotate hard and that he thought it would drop a tornado soon. We were up by Sharon in S. Woodward Co. at the time and thought we had better get in position around the small town of Harmon and stay up where the better road network was located...versus trying a one-shot deal by blasting down to the South Canadian River Valley . The whole thinking was that if it was just getting organized enough and maybe drop a tornado, surely it would get only stronger as it moved right at us. So we held our ground between Harmon and Vici....and waited...and waited. It was very easy to see the
circulation after a few mins. and could not see anything on the ground. The wall cloud area was changing shape very quickly so we knew it still was rotating hard. We saw more and more chasers showing up around us at this point. Must have been right next to Don and his chase group btw.

We had the circulation come directly at us....like we were on the railroad track and here comes the locomotive. At first I thought the strong circulation was going to be on the far southeast side of the updraft, but as it got to point blank range, it got more and more apparent that it had tucked into what was looking like a bowhead circulation with a COLD looking downdraft/core behind it. Sure enough, it showed it's open face for just a few mins. and got a glimpse of a developing funnel. Then these thick fugly rain curtains swirled around and hid the apparent developing tornado. We were within a minute or two of getting either a direct hit from the developing new "tornado", or getting blasted by the very strong RFD. We were next to a small herd of cattle and they grew very restless and started to bawl as the circulation wrapped up tight and approached quickly. Knew this meant trouble. We hopped in the car real fast...headed east and avoided having the apparent tornado go over the top of us. We did get into the very strong RFD with all kinds of vegetation debris coming off the fields with a few tree branches slamming into the right side of the car. Got into a slow rolling caravan of chasers with great uncertainty if the tornado was moving down the road behind us. The RFD eased up some as we got east so breathed a sigh of relief. However, the chase seemed to completely end at that point as the circulation got deeper into the cold air and gunged out. We watched with increased disappointment as the second circulation took the exact heading but was seriously behind the cold outflow boundary so knew that was finis for this chase.

Got to dinner at Chilis with Jeff & Terry and were excited to see that they had kept the HIGH risk intact for the night-time outlook. I was thinking that maybe there was some hope for an all-night wild chase. However, after looking at the parameters, it looked like it was time to head home. The dryline was retreating, and all the hopes were gone when the complex of storms gobbled up everything and outflow trashed any remaining hopes.

I hope to have some photos from the chase later today to post....

 

[B Doss]

Late start kept me off the action in Roll, OK. I targeted a cell that began in Guthrie, TX. Followed to Vernon where I watched a large barrel meso occlude as two touchdowns were reported, crossed the red river and caught back up in Tipton where we followed to Snyder, OK. There the storm went nuts, observed a scuddy wallcloud with crazy rotation and several needles spinning off. Followed through the hills and watched it interact with the mountains, then on to see a very ominous white and solid meso emerge from the rain over Carnegie, OK with nice RFD cut and funnels under the new base passing over town. Headed home through Lawton and encountered some severe wind and rain that required us to seek the shelter of an overpass. And that was a rap, I'd say it was the best chase I've had so far this year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OncpCjB4bcg Snyder, OK

 

[Dan Robinson]

Awoke in Elk City. Since it was close, jumped on the tornado-warned storm to the south and followed it to Clinton, where I finally gave up on it. Went west to Sayre into clearer skies and waited. Had a choice, either north or south. Hate having to make those choices - seems that you know you're done for at that point. Waited and waited to make that call. At 4PM I figured I needed to make my choice, I chose south. Caught the storm SE of Altus and watched it slowly cross/backbuild around Snyder. Didn't want to deal with the winding roads, so just went E to Lawton and then N to re-join the storm at Carnegie. Same story as everyone else who chose the southern option.

By Binger, the day was done - for tornadoes at least. Went on up to the OKC tower farm, which always delivers some nice consolation prizes at the least and some bust-breaking shots at the best. Had the latter this time! A few quick photos here:

http://stormhighway.com/blog/april2609b.shtml

 

[Darin Brunin]

Dick McGowan, Jordan Wrecke, Charley Kelly, and I were on the tornadoes around Roll yesterday as well. We intercepted the first tornado at close range and then went up 283(viewing the larger tornado) until we ran out of road options like pretty much everyone else.

We will have more photos and videos up later today but here is one for now of the first tornado.

Shot taken at 10mm so the distance we were to the tornado is deceiving in this photo.

 

[Jay McCoy]

Prety well same story as everybody else. Started in Amarillo and targeted Shamrock as our starting point for the day. Jeff Bernard and I got on the Wheeler county storm almost at initiation and worked alot of back roads to stay with it all the way through allison and over to Roll and the beautiful tornados it produced. Worked our way up through Vici and northeast then gave up and ate a nice dinner at a great little cafe in Seiling before heading home. Great weekend chasing with multiple friends and meeting a few new ones plus a number of folks I knew from ST but had never met. This weekend is what chasing is all about.

 

[Paul Redmond]

Bust and a late comeback

Well my day started off poorly. I drove north from San Antonio, and about two hours into my chase my laptop just died. It would not recognize the power cord and drained the battery. So I had to drive back to San Antonio and "borrow" my work laptop. By the time I got my aircard working on the new laptop the day seemed to be pretty much over until I noticed a cluster of supercells west of sutton and Crockette in a tornado box. Figuring I had nothing to loose, I blasted west on I-10 to Junction. After assessing the situation, I headed a little further west to the Sutton/Kerr county line and parked. I was parked between two supercells seemingly doing a drunken sailor dance as they were appear verge and then vear.

Sadly this was after sunset. But in the diminishing light conditions I did video some good storm structures and several lightning lit wall clouds. Both storms had tornado warnings on them, but to the best of my knowledge neither of them ever actually tubed. Still is was worth the trip and a major comeback after a seemingly fatal equipment bust.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

We were on the storm in west central Oklahoma that produced the tornadoes.

Well I was dead tired after chasing Saturday night. I set the alarm for 6am the next morning so I could get up and do my forecasting, but I snoozed it until 9:30. Ryan Shirk came over and I spent about an hour getting ready and loading the car. I knew the general area I wanted to head towards so I told Ryan just to head west and I'd do my forecasting in the car. I wasn't sure when we got to Pratt if we should drop south there or go further west first, so I forecasted and debated with myself for another twenty minutes. Finally we decided to head for the area by Fairview Oklahoma (south of woodward area). We got on the same storm that everybody else did, but unfortunately we came in on it from the north side and had the brilliant idea of waiting on it to come to us instead of going down to the next highway and intercepting it in Roll. I think we were too late anyway. So unfortunately we missed the two tornadoes. We did see a good wall cloud and lowering once it got north of the highway that runs east-west through Vici.

I feel good because I know I got the forecast right and we were definitely on the best storm of the day, but the fundamental problem yesterday was that I got lazy and it cost us big time. That has been my problem for the last couple years. I have got to change that around and get my old sense of urgency and motivation back if I want to be a good chaser. There was no excuse for me not leaving Wichita until like 11:30 or whatever time it was. That extra two hours of sleep cost me two good tornadoes. Not a very good trade off IMO.

Well that's strike one. I'll work double hard on the next chase lol. BTW got to see Reed's new big red monstrosity. I didn't get a good view because I watching the storm and just noticed it when it drove in front of me. I also saw the TIV and it was the original one, so maybe Sean is back to using the original model this year.
I'd say congratulations to all of you who got those tornadoes, but I'm not happy for you lol. If I don't get to see a tornado then I don't anybody else seeing it either j/k.

We completely lost data from our verizon aircard AGAIN once we got west of Enid. Verizon has zero coverage for data down there. Are there any other verizon data holes like that anybody is aware of and can give me heads up on so I can line up a nowcaster if I need one. Also, which network would be a good back up secondary aircard. Would you go AT&T or Sprint? I'm talking just for data, not phone service.