5/10/08 REPORTS: KS/OK/MO/AR/TX/MS/GA/AL

[Mikey Gribble]

That is a lot of states to put in the report thread title, so if I missed one mods please feel free to add it.
Well I planned on chasing southeast Oklahoma today, but I couldn't get out of town early enough this morning so I decided to chase SE Kansas instead. We headed out toward Eldorado and dropped South from there. We stayed ahead of the storm that fired near Wellington and decided to get on a storm that went up out ahead of this storm instead. The roads suck in this part of Kansas, but we did have a decent highway that ran E-W and we were only about 10 miles behind the storm so I figured we would catch it no problem. I was wrong. We could see the updraft base, but we just couldn't close the gap. We basically stayed about 10 miles behind the storm for an hour or so and then we hit a T in the highway and had to dive South farther. That was the straw that broke the camels back and the storms updraft base quickly moved out of sight. There was no catching back up after that so we called it a day. Obviously I was more than a little pissed off when I found out the storm produced numerous tornadoes over SE Kansas and SW Missouri. There wasn't anything we could do about it though. It was just going too damn fast. 60mph in the Ozarks isn't my idea of storm chasing in May. What can you do though...

Another grade A kick in the junk for me. Hopefully some of the Oklahoma guys will have some pictures for everybody because I don't.

 

[Mike Smith]

We've had an apparent long-track tornado from about 15 mi. west of Melrose, KS (about 5:15pm) to Picher, OK (5 reported dead) to near Neosho, MO. Three reported dead in southwest Missouri.

The Wellington storm weakened rapidly near Independence and there was an apparent energy transfer to the lead cluster. See: http://stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=16418 We could see the rotation increase on the southernmost cell at the time I made the post, but I knew there was no way to catch the storm from our location and we broke off the chase.

 

[sdienst]

Started the day in Sallisaw, OK and went after an early cell that eventually tracked into Fayetteville. After that I chased another round of convection near the AR/OK border and gave up on it when I saw the Cu field going up near McAlester. Raced that direction and got on the northernmost of the two supercells and witnessed a brief tornado near highway 2 about 3 miles NNW of Wilburton in Latimer Co. OK. Followed these storms into southeast Oklahoma and now I'm in DeQueen Arkansas where there is a bunch of power outages and trees down. I'll get a vid still up if its even worth it.

 

[Bill Schintler]

Chase in southeast OK

We observed a long rope funnel and 3/4 inch hail in McAlester, OK.
We witnessed a low-contrast cone tornado about 2 miles east of Daisy,
OK. The road network and trees are absolutely horrible in that area. More, including photos, to follow - bill

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

WOW! what a day. Got on the beast of a storm south of Little Rock, AR. Was very dark, and had extremely close lightning and a mean looking wall cloud. Got into some major hail and watched a funnel descend just 100 yards to our north! Had major inflow winds. The strongest I've EVER felt. Had no road options so got stuck behind the storm and lost the tornado just catching up to it as we got into Stuttgart, AR. Major damage in town, helped out a bit before considering the situation to dangerous and heading out of town. Video tomorrow.

 

[scott r currens]

My chase account as the same as Michael's as we were in the same areas almost the entire day.

There is significant damage to the town of Stuttgard, AR. I did not see anything that looked violent but it was at a minimum a large tornado that hit town. I am unable to leave town at the moment so I am just trying to stay out of the way, and help where I can. It is going to be a long night.

 

[Robert Rohloff]

I headed south out of Tulsa thinking the south east area would be the best set up. I should have stayed north and caught the KS/Ok/Mo storms. I was able to get down on the storm that produced a tornado near McAlester. I was down in Wilberton and shot a funnel that passed north and then east of the town. Tried to keep up but the roads....I should know not to go that far south and east, 15 mph curves and hills I could not keep up.

 

[Greg Ansel]

The one that got away...

We intercepted the cell in SE Kansas, but made the bad decision to go for the stronger, north-cell that split off and showed intially stronger rotation and shear. The southern cell redeveloped and we got clobbered by strong winds and hail. By the time we got out, the storm was already producing a tornado near Picher and we tried to catch up, but downed trees and powerlines kept diverting us and soon we lost it in the bad roads of SW MO. Ended up clearing downed trees off of a few roads and heading back to Joplin. Our chase partner Sean Wilson returned to Seneca to report on the damage and found out there were at least 14 deaths so far, very sad, and we will probably see more tomorrow.

 

[Ben Prusia]

Today for me could be summed up in a statement: "Couldn't get in front of it."

I targeted southeast Kansas today and left Gardner at 2:00PM. Headed south on US-75 as a storm started to fire in Cowley County. Eventually, the storms blobbed together and I tried to stay in front of it so I sped off to the east and then headed south on US-59 through Parsons. I headed west on US-160 through Altamont to intercept a storm that had a decent wall cloud and was starting to show some signs of rotation. The storm moved east and so did I. Though quite a distance away (few miles), I managed to photograph a tornado (white cone) that the storm dropped near Oswego (possibly the tornado near Hallowell, KS). I dropped south and then east on US-166 trying my best to intercept the new storm along the KS/OK state line, but as the rest of the day goes, I just couldn't get ahead of it or south of it...and the rest of the day was spent following the storm instead of staying ahead of it. Overall, a good chase, and had the storms moved 20MPH slower, it would have been a little more interesting chase.

I'll post a picture of this supposed "tornado" when I get back home to Gardner from Overland Park.

 

[Sheila_Ward]

WOW! what a day. Got on the beast of a storm south of Little Rock, AR. Was very dark, and had extremely close lightning and a mean looking wall cloud. Got into some major hail and watched a funnel descend just 100 yards to our north! Had major inflow winds. The strongest I've EVER felt. Had no road options so got stuck behind the storm and lost the tornado just catching up to it as we got into Stuttgart, AR. Major damage in town, helped out a bit before considering the situation to dangerous and heading out of town. Video tomorrow.

You could almost paste my name on this one too. Tracked this storm from South LR through England and Coy. Ran out of roads and had to play catch-up behind the storm on Hwy. 165. Finally stopped the chase about 8 miles west of Stuttgart.

Didn't have my dash cam on and missed the lightning bolt shot of the day just south of England. It struck a tower or something and stayed lit for about 5 seconds. Almost blinded me. Michael or Scott, did you guys catch that???

 

[Mike Peregrine]

My account is identical to Ben's, except that he was about 20 minutes in front of me ... that, and he got the tornado. I took the exact same route as he outlines, except that I didn't get the guts up to punch the core. I wish I would have, but the storm looked violent on radar and that held me back. This led to my staying just north of the core and hook, following behind the updraft for hours. Pretty exhausting chase, but I took the time on the way back to stop and take some photos that will give me something to do for a few days. I'll update with a few pics later.

Ended up being a pretty sad night -

EDIT - I've posted screen caps on my blog here. Actually, I think I'm mistaken above. Judging from Ben's photos, I think he was actually behind me and I caught the tornado he caught as well. I was looking from another angle, and simply not paying attention to it, as I was trying frantically to get ahead of the Picher storm.

 

[Michael Ratliff]

Well Ray Walker and I went out today with an initial target of paris texas. However we got about 9 miles south of Pauls valley and turned around and went north to I-40 and headed towards sallisaw. We sat there for a while and watched a nice elevated supercell form to our west and move overhead with nothing worth getting worked over about. We then decided to head south towards mena. However we of course got steered away once again and this time it was towards several intense tornadic supercells in Eastern Oklahoma. We intercepted our first cell North of Broken bow by about 7 to 9 miles and we ended up in a very large and intense rain wraped meso. W ended up being hit head on by a weak rain wraped tornado in wich intense vapor blasted us in a very compact tight rotation and voved rapidly of to the east across the road. Trees all around us were on the verge of snapping, however luckly they didnt and we were able to escape without injury. Then about 10mins later we witnesed a tornado crossing the highway 4 miles north of Broken bow. All in all this was a very good chase, given the terrain and road networks.

 

[Stuart Robinson]

I want to start by saying how sad I am to hear of the tremendous loss of life during today’s storms. (19 and counting)

I also want to say that I will NEVER ever chase down in South East Oklahoma again – it is impossible!

Started the Day from OKC where our initial target was Fort Smith, Arkansas. Observed three high based Cells to the North and West of Fort Smith before deciding to target new cell development that has formed on advancing dryline in Eastern Oklahoma – Sadly our intercept route took us through the dreaded Quachtia Forest and mountains of SE OK. Was able to position on the middle supercell perfectly – trouble is a damm mountain was in the was of the notch – not to worry decided to get the “tail end” supercell – near to Broken bow. 15mph curvy roads and racing forward motion of the supercell meant that we had to core punch North of Broken Bow in order to get a view of the meso – too late! Rain curtains moving North West across the road told us that the meso was danger close and a wind shift to the South West confirmed that the meso had crossed the road just to our south – after proceeding with caution the top half of a tornado was observed briefly (5 seconds) as it came out of the rain not 300 meters to our South on the left of the road. This was tornado confirmed as we shortly crossed a damage track (downed power poles / broken trees on Highway 259, 4 miles north of Broken bow.
Due to the roads / trees / mountains this was a frustrating chase which I wont bother with again in the future.

I got 0 pictures and 0 video of the tornado but it was observed by many who were with me.

 

[Robert Rohloff]

One hour

Things really went down hill fast in Oklahoma, many of us chose to chase south. The NWS Tulsa put out these two messages about a hour apart and you can see how quickly the development occured and at the same time.



FM: NWS TULSA OPERATIONS
RE: MESOSCALE UPDATE MESSAGE
RELEASED...456 PM CDT SAT MAY 10 2008

NEW CONVECTION IS DEVELOPING ACROSS EASTERN
OKLAHOMA NOW IN A ZONE OF LOW-LEVEL CONFLUENCE
THAT IS ACTING AS A WEAK DRY LINE. THE STORMS
ARE IN AN AXIS OF EXTREME INSTABILITY OF
SURFACE-BASED CAPE OF UP TO 4000 J/KG AND LIFTED
INDEX VALUES OF -13. DEEP-LAYER SHEAR IS STRONG
AND GIVEN THE WEAK L0W-LEVEL FORCING AND ORIENTATION
OF THE SHEAR...THE CELLS ARE EXPECTED TO BECOME
SUPERCELLS. HOWEVER WITH THEIR CURRENT MOTIONS...
STORM-RELATIVE HELICITES ARE ONLY NEAR 100 M2/S2.
ALSO HODOGRAPHS SHOW A WEAKNESS IN THE MID-LEVEL
STORM-RELATIVE FLOW...SO TORNADO POTENTIAL SEEMS
RATHER LIMITED AT THIS TIME...BUT CELLS THAT
CAN BECOME SUSTAINED WILL HAVE A VERY LARGE HAIL
POTENTIAL. THE CELLS ARE STILL FIGHTING SYNOPTIC
SCALE DOWNWARD MOTION IN THE WAKE OF THE EARLIER
ACTIVITY.

AT 4PM PRESSURE RISES AND SURFACE WIND GUSTS
INDICATE THE COLD FRONT IS BEGINNING ITS SURGE
AND AS IT REACHES THE BACK EDGE OF THE MOISTURE
A SQUALL LINE OF SOME EXTENT IS EXPECTED TO
FORM WITH ENHANCED WIND DAMAGE POTENTIAL.


TO: PUBLIC SAFETY AGENCIES
FM: NWS TULSA OPERATIONS
RE: MESOSCALE UPDATE MESSAGE
RELEASED...558 PM CDT SAT MAY 10 2008

DURING THE PAST HOUR A SIGNIFICANT TORNADO
OUTBREAK BEGAN ACROSS EASTERN OKLAHOMA.
THE EXTREME INSTABILITY HAS COMPENSATED
FOR THE LESS THAN IDEAL WIND PROFILES.

ALL OF THE ORGANIZED SUPERCELLS IN EASTERN
OKLAHOMA APPEARED TO HAVE PRODUCED TORNADOES
IN THE LAST HOUR...SOME REPORTS INDICATE
RATHER LARGE TORNADOES HAVE OCCURRED.

THE MOST FAVORABLE WIND FIELDS...WHICH
HAVE BEEN IN ARKANSAS AND EXTREME EASTERN
OKLAHOMA ARE BEGINNING TO OVERLAP THE
HIGHER INSTABILITY AS THE INSTABILITY
AXIS IS FORCED EAST AHEAD OF THE
WEAK DRY LINE. AS THIS PROCESS CONTINUES
AND WE MOVE TOWARD EVENING THE TORNADO
POTENTIAL WILL CONTINUE INTO ARKANSAS.

ALL INTERESTS AHEAD OF THESE SUPERCELLS
SHOULD SHOULD MOVE TO A HIGH STATE OF
READINESS.

 

[Adam Lucio]

The short version....We sat in forrest city, AR for several hours before heading to stuttgard, AR where we spent about another hour waiting for things to happen [i now learn i should have stayed there!]

We got lured out of stuttgard by the weak convection that went up west of Little Rock, hoping it would strengthen, it was moving into a better enviroment so we felt confident it would...and it did....only we found ourselves on one of the worst county roads ive ever driven on somewhere north of I-40 [Ill have to check up on that later]

The storm had low level movement in every direction, and rotation was starting to become apparent...well as the storm chasing gods would have it my air data card decided to stop working so we followed this storm as best we could blind for an hour on this horrible county road. We finally made it back to I-40 and once connection was restored Ill never forget the feeling of my jaw dropping to the floor when those 3 beastly tornadic sups popped up on radar.

We raced south in between 2 of them and managed to stay ahead of the southernmost one and intercept it near clarksdale, MS where we witnessed a series of powerflashes [i managed to get one on video,] there was a definite lowering above the flashes but i couldnt make out a full funnel. Then we found ourselves trapped as the cops had all the roads blocked in and out of town due to the damage, which from what weve witnessed were some large interstate signs blown down, large tree branches down and a pickup truck or SUV tossed on its side. Given the fact the power flashes occured in a series multiple times Matt submitted the report initially as a tornado....but some of the damage I saw might suggest straight line winds [or maybe a combination]. The storm had a hook, rotation and was T-warned at the time so it will be interesting to see what the storm survey concludes.

Not a bad day, not a fan of the night events since I have very little in the way of pictures and video to show for it...but exciting none-the-less.

Thoughts go out to the many victims.