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

[Rick Schmidt]

Here are 2 captures from the video I took of the tornado near Wichita Sunday evening. ( I have to get a dash mount!)---Rick Schmidt

 

[Chris C Sanner]

Just like at least half of everyone else, caught the two tornadoes near Roll. We (myself and Brandon Goforth) targeted Arnett, OK originally and arrived there in the very early afternoon and played with the first development in the extreme Eastern TX Panhandle before seeing it was an HP mess and was lining out quickly. After a short bit of deliberation (a radar check) we rolled (pun?) south to setup near Roll and wait on the storm to close in on us. That move obviously paid off and we caught both Tornadoes. Here are a couple pics...tornado one is blurry for a reason

 

[Justin Avery]

tornado #1

Targetted south central Kansas. Caught the tornado producer supercell near Wichita as it arrived at Conway Springs. Followed it north on 49 as it touched down multiple times. After 3 years of chasing this was my first tornado!! After the storm absorbed back into the linear system we hunkered down in Wichita. Here is the youtube link to my video. Realized when I got home that I had it set on autofocus. Regardless I still haven't stopped smiling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCl08kaY1vQ&feature=channel_page

 

[terra seright]

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.

....

Errrm, yeah, sorry guys, we were the front vehicle in that slow moving convoy--I intend to post video of why we were moving so slowly. We had absolutely NO visibility at that point. Once the curtain closed on that tornado, we got rolling, and were going pretty fast but then...wow. I have NEVER been in such conditions. We could only see about 10 feet in front of the truck, and the hills and curves were choking off our chance at going more than 20-30 MPH for a bit. When we found a spot, we moved out of everyone's way, to let a larger vehicle take the lead...then visibility returned, LOL, Murphy's Law strikes again.

We saw many funnels on that trip, but that part was the most exciting of all. Our team learned a few lessons that go around:

Our other driver learned not to allow his gas gage to get below half a tank. I learned that the radar image is between 4 and 7 minutes behind. We all learned to get out there earlier, since we all left between 11 and 12 from AMA.

YOU all need to learn that ALLTEL is WAAY better! Our signal was great until we got into the thick of the cell that nearly trapped us. I learned that I need to keep minimal windows open on the lappy, though, as it slowed the load of our radar images. I had spotter network up for mapping purposes (we're getting a Garmin this week tho), the radar, and another radar from channel 4 in AMA which says A LOT but has NO legend sheeeeeeeesh. I forgot I had that on, which didn't help our situation.

OH, Yeah, those cattle were going OFF!

I think our little convoy was awesome, though. It was cool being there, with all of you.

Our group had a blast, it was an exciting storm! No tornado pix, but we got some other awesome shots, such as the one from Vici at that little gas station...

Will post later, that Man of mine has to fly off to DC tomorrow and we're trying to get him ready.

Not bad for our first run as trained spotters.

 

[Jordan Hartley]

Yesterday was the most frustraiting yet sucessful chase yet. I wasnt able to leave home until 3pm. Had to drive to Derby to pick up Steven Rich and during the pickup noticed the first tornado warned storms updraft base as it entered sedgewick county. As we left his house the updraft just happened to be passing directly overhead. Although it was alot like an HP base or shelf cloud where the updraft portion was along the front of the precip and that I saw no rotation we needed to head north on Rock Rd to US 54 anyways so we began following the storm NE. 5 Minutes after leaving his house out of no where the storm goes tornado warned which helped get our blood working. Followed it NE to N of Andover before giving up on the storm. We didnt want to chase it all the way to KC nor give up our target of Medicine Lodge, Ks. After giving up made it back to 54 and went west. As we came apon Goddard about an hour before the madness began we noticed a large lowering apear and dominate the western sky in a matter of 5 minutes. Intersting as it wasnt associated to any storm in the area so it was strange. This happened in the exact area of where the sup that produced travelled in. Stopped in Kingman at the Copa motel for some Wifi and paid the nice pretty lady at the desk $5 for the login info which she slipped right in her pocket which ended up making the day. Pulled up the radar out of ICT and noticed an isolated cell out aheadof the squall line crossing the OK/KS border in Harper county which at the time was showing a hook. So we went back east on 54 then went south through Cheney and intercepted the storm as it began entering sedgewick county. Structure looked outstanding with a healthy RFD poking through. Observed a large cone tornado within 1/4 of a mile as it passed us to the west. Followed it north and saw the same circulation form a rope tornado after the original tornado had disapated. Followed north of K-96 N of maize before it kicked on its rocket boosters and took off at 60 mph. From there we couldnt keep up so we made it to around sedgewick before giving up. Jumped on I-135 and headed for home which proved to be one of the most exciting parts of the chase where we ran into very high winds and even had a cg strike within 100 yrds of the highway near I-135 I-235 K254 interchange. Very awesome day but not a good day for my equipment. Thought I had charged the camera only to find out it hadnt charged after my first 5 pics. Night before my 2yrd old poured a bottle of bubbles on my new laptop while I was at work so I was left with steves laptop which could only pick up wifi at certain locations so was blind the entire chase. I was so horribly unprepaired for this event yet hit the big one. Ive been calling this event since last year. It had been many years since the last tornado in sedgewick co and I knew it was only a matter of time. For as large as this tornado was im just glad it didnt do any significant damage as it could have had it hit a more populated area. Pics of wall cloud coming as soon as I can get them up at inlaws using there pc.

 

[Jordan Hartley]

Yesterday was the most frustraiting yet sucessful chase yet. I wasnt able to leave home until 3pm. Had to drive to Derby to pick up Steven Rich and during the pickup noticed the first tornado warned storms updraft base as it entered sedgewick county. As we left his house the updraft just happened to be passing directly overhead. Although it was alot like an HP base or shelf cloud where the updraft portion was along the front of the precip and that I saw no rotation we needed to head north on Rock Rd to US 54 anyways so we began following the storm NE. 5 Minutes after leaving his house out of no where the storm goes tornado warned which helped get our blood working. Followed it NE to N of Andover before giving up on the storm. We didnt want to chase it all the way to KC nor give up our target of Medicine Lodge, Ks. After giving up made it back to 54 and went west. As we came apon Goddard about an hour before the madness began we noticed a large lowering apear and dominate the western sky in a matter of 5 minutes. We went right under it which was cool since it had rising motion. Intersting as it wasnt associated to any storm in the area so it was strange. This happened in the exact area of where the sup that produced travelled in. Stopped in Kingman at the Copa motel for some Wifi and paid the nice pretty lady at the desk $5 for the login info which she slipped right in her pocket which ended up making the day. Pulled up the radar out of ICT and noticed an isolated cell out ahead of the squall line crossing the OK/KS border in Harper county which at the time was showing a hook. So we went back east on 54 then went south through Cheney and intercepted the storm as it began entering sedgewick county. Structure looked outstanding with a healthy RFD poking through. Observed a large cone tornado within 1/2 of a mile as it passed us to the west. Followed it north and saw the same circulation form a rope tornado after the original tornado had disapated. Followed north of K-96 N of maize before it kicked on its rocket boosters and took off at 60 mph. From there we couldnt keep up so we made it to around sedgewick before giving up. Jumped on I-135 and headed for home which proved to be one of the most exciting parts of the chase where we ran into very high winds and even had a cg strike within 100 yrds of the highway near I-135 I-235 K254 interchange. Very awesome day but not a good day for my equipment. Thought I had charged the camera only to find out it hadnt charged after my first 5 pics. Night before my 2yrd old poured a bottle of bubbles on my new laptop while I was at work so I was left with steves laptop which could only pick up wifi at certain locations so was blind the entire chase. I was so horribly unprepaired for this event yet hit the big one. Ive been calling this event since last year. It had been many years since the last tornado in sedgewick co and I knew it was only a matter of time. For as large as this tornado was im just glad it didnt do any significant damage as it could have had it hit a more populated area. Pics of wall cloud coming as soon as I can get them up at inlaws using their pc.

 

[Steve Miller TX]

I made a regrettable decision breaking off the Roger Mills county storm prior to the tornado fest and gambled on the new southern cells firing up coming out of Wheeler county. After all, it was a "high risk", right? ;-) Persistant lack of radar data and the Canadian River valley helped in that bad decision, but lay most of the blame on myself. That's the way it goes though.

I did stop and offer aid where the tornado destroyed a trailer house at 287 and county road E0070 just north of the river....north of Roll. None was needed, so I snapped some shots and a little video before heading my way back home.

The trailer home was sitting off frame just to the right of the image. The remaining frame (in the last pic below) is in the far left of the image.

 

[Adam Lucio]

Mostly posting this report so those who blew it dont feel theyre alone.

Woke up Clinton and decided to head west before dropping south for the first interesting storm that went up. Met up with Skip, Mike, Brandon and several others. Storm started to look good and we witnessed a wall cloud before it began to take on a shelfish appearance. Ditched that and then sat in Sayre waiting for the dryline to wake up.

Decided to go for the storms that went up near the triple point...and this is where we made the fatal error of going west out of sweetwater instead of north. Headed into texas and got on the storm BEHIND the one that produced the Roll tornadoes. The storm we were on really began to organize and gave us and only us a fantastic view of a wall cloud before deciding it didnt want to produce. We followed it through all the same exact towns and areas everyone got their tornado pictures from. owch. We did witness a nice rope funnel that I thought would reach it but it never did along with many other chasers.

Got cored a couple times with hail up to quarter size. The whole mess began to line out and we decided to make a run for the 2 isolated sups that had been going in SW Oklahoma for hours despite a lack of reports. Once we get close they too decide they want to line out and die just like everything.

I would post pics of the wall clouds and the funnels...but with such awesome tornado photos in this thread whats the point.

Congrats to everyone who bagged.

I dont feel too sour though, the day overall was a huge bust forecast wise. Had storms gone up like we thought. We could have redeemed ourselves Im sure...thats the way it is in this game.

 

[AndyGabrielson]

Chased with Tyler Constantini and Jordan Hamilton (in seperate cars) intercepted the cell near Roll, OK that produced several tornadoes...

 

[B Doss]

There were a lot of power flashes in Carnegie. That funnel looks that it's about half way to the ground, do you think it touched down?

That funnel east of Snyder extended briefly. You could see the "sucking" action at the distal end of it, but I don't think there was ever any ground circulation. It was the same cell that later affected Carnegie, OK. I caught up with it around the mountains and arrived in time to see a large white meso emerging from the rain just to the west and slightly northwest of edge of Carnegie, quite literally almost extending to the treetops. I did not witness a tornado but am not surprised to hear that power flashes were reported near or in the town. A narrow cut of downdraft, which cold also explain the power flashes, and a large base just to the south of it quickly formed a darker cone funnel but it shortly dissipated over the town.

 

[JR Hehnly]

There were a lot of power flashes in Carnegie. That funnel looks that it's about half way to the ground, do you think it touched down?

Chris,

The power flashes persisted over a minute and were all from the same location. I had a clear view of the power flashes and the cloud base above them, and there was no lowering or funnel where they were happening.

 

[Tony Laubach]

The TWISTEX crew and myself intercepted the two beautiful tornadoes north of Roll, OK. These intercepts mark two very special occasions for me..

1. The first tornadoes I had seen since my Lasik, thus I was able to see tornadoes without the aid of glasses for the first time in my life. That was pretty neat.

2. I was able to mark the 18th anniversary of the 1991 Andover, Kansas tornado event with a couple of my own. Andover was the storm that sparked my severe weather obsession and it was cool to not only finally chase on this date, but to score a couple of tornadoes.

http://www.tornadoeskick.com/index.php/logs/2009-season/284-20090426.html

 

[Bill Doms]

Iowa wasn't as exciting as areas further to the south. Botched my plan of getting east sooner in the day and missed the Linn county cell but settle for the torn warned cell in Black Hawk county. Hard part was trying to get ahead of the linear mess and into the clean air where the discreet cells were popping up. The Black Hawk cell had a huge barrel shaped meso as it approached Waterloo just in front of the line. From our location in Raymond, IA we couldn't get a very good view due to blinding rain until it moved to the north/notheast. The cell puked just as it cleared the Waterloo area and got eaten by the linear mess which was rapidly advancing east. Headed east on 20 and played with the shelf a bit before calling it a day. More pics HERE.

 

[Brian Stertz]

Pics from between Harmon & Vici OK

No problemo Terra....viz was pretty nasty and couple that with a blasting cross wind and it was not a fun cruise through the ole' Oklahoma carwash. Here are a couple of my better pics of the approaching meso and then cone funnel...which abruptly got lost in the heavy duty rain curtains...and gave our chase crew some brief nervous times.

 

[Connor McCrorey]

Video up of tornado #1. I just wasn't in position for this one, and for some reason I forgot how to take a good video this weekend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luXEe2QecnE