Colin Davis
EF1
Basically the same as Pritchard, as he was in the passenger seat, but I went all stills, as usual, when I could. Also chased with Scott Kampas and Nate Williams.
Originally targeted South Haven, KS as per the 11z RUC, which we scoured while eating breakfast (and while I posted a paper for one of my classes) in TOP. As we drove south, it became clearer and clearer that OK was going to be the game, so we dropped further south to Blackwell, and then decided to head west to Enid to eat lunch and wait for the clearing, which was evident on vis as time passed.
After a lunch at Chili's in Enid, we noticed that the sun had come out and the atmosphere had QUICKLY destablized. We met Neal Rasmussen in a parking lot on the west side of Enid -- nice to meet someone with whom you've discussed weather and chasing for years, but never actually met -- and after a few minutes of talking and keeping our eye on the first returns almost immediately to our due west, we decided to shoot north and attempt an intercept, hoping that the storm would soon intersect the warm front and go nuts. Neal chose to remain in Enid a few more minutes, but I'm pretty sure later ended up on our cell with good results. The storm quickly gained a severe warning and, a few minutes later, a tornado warning.
We went west on US64, planning to get our first views of the storm near Nash, and later intercept just west of Jet. That's essentially what happened, and we watched it attempt to organize the first time about 10 miles west of Jet (we were approximately four miles west of Jet), and although nothing looked imminent, it began to take on the look of a storm that would eventually get the job done.
We broke back east, deciding to take SR 132 north out of Nash, all the way about 10 miles back to our east. We stopped about a tenth of a mile south of SR 11 and watched as the cell tried to get its act together, complete with a nice inflow tail directly over the highway.
It did, and we were treated to a beautiful, backlit (albeit brief) rope a couple of miles to our west. It never fully condensed, but kicked up enough dust to confidently call this a tornado. It lasted about 40 seconds (as per Pritchard’s video), and we made the quick decision (before most on 132, which would later prove to be crucial) to get further northeast and prepare for its next act.
It continued to exhibit several broad areas of rotation to the south of the road as we continued driving east to get ahead of it and look back. We didn’t have time. The storm, apparently, intersected the warm front and almost immediately got its act together, going from broad rotation to full-fledged tornado in no more than 30 seconds.
And then it got crazy.
We continued flying east on 11. With four of us in the car, it was much easier. Scott, Nate, and Andrew watched the tornado, and I had the extreme pleasure of driving through some serious chaser jackassery. It would appear most chasers had no clue that a significant tornado was bearing down on them (we were very near the outer circulation of the multivortex, and there were dozens of cars between us and the tornado), and people were pulling off the highway, trying to get back on, and switching lanes among other things, all without warning.
Many of those who were “pulled off” on the side were in fact out in the road, and those in front of us (not one car in particular) seemed to be forgetting that this strong tornado was bearing down at them at 50+mph, and that driving in its path with it less than 300 yards away at 35mph wouldn’t get the job done. I’m not surprised at all that many chasers sustained vehicle damage as a direct result of the tornado, and it’s no surprise about the tour group either. Good lord.
We dropped south on a county road (thank God it was paved; I believe this was Trenton Road) and escaped the immediate path of the tornado, and I
finally got a few stills of it.
When we were still in doubt as to our position in relation to the tornado, we dropped even further south to E0150 Rd., where we got more video and got blasted by the very strong RFD.
We allowed the tornado to pass to the northeast and watched as the circulation became much wider, but remained not fully condensed.
I made the decision that I’d rather drop south and either try to catch it (which I knew was next to impossible), or catch the next returns to our south, than get back on Highway 11 and try to trail it. Glad we did the former, after hearing about the experience of Weberpal, et al. Besides, by that point the next supercell had formed to our south, and it seemed like it may become the new dominant cell (since the northern storm was passing into 64/60 air on the other side of the front) and was potentially catchable.
But we didn’t catch it. We were forced to drive south on I-35 and wait for the core to go by, since GRL3 was indicating 4” hail in the core. We timed it as well as possible but weren’t able to see the meso from the west (jealously guarded by rain and hail), but we were glad we made the play we did when we saw what appeared to be baseballs and larger sitting on the ground for no more than a minute or two. We tried playing catch-up with it to no avail, but we rejoined the weakened cell just east of Ponca City on 60 (great road network in this area…baha), which teased us with one final effort. A broad area of rotation in the area of interest tightened up JUST north of the road and did its best, but couldn’t finish the job.
As we plotted our route home to Illinois, in a “What the hell?” moment, we noticed a new tornado warning about 30 miles to our west. Now about 10 miles northeast of Pawhuska and 11 hours from home, we decided to intercept near Herd. The area of interest was visible, but a cell to its immediate south merged with it and cut off the inflow, otherwise we may have had a show all to ourselves, albeit not in good terrain.
After one final tease near (I think) Caney, KS, (which again got killed by cut-off inflow), we packed it up and finally headed home. We stopped and ate in Coffeyville, before making the 9-hour trek back to Canton, where we arrived about 6am.
After Wakita, it was a very frustrating day. But that definitely made the frustration worthwhile.
Originally targeted South Haven, KS as per the 11z RUC, which we scoured while eating breakfast (and while I posted a paper for one of my classes) in TOP. As we drove south, it became clearer and clearer that OK was going to be the game, so we dropped further south to Blackwell, and then decided to head west to Enid to eat lunch and wait for the clearing, which was evident on vis as time passed.
After a lunch at Chili's in Enid, we noticed that the sun had come out and the atmosphere had QUICKLY destablized. We met Neal Rasmussen in a parking lot on the west side of Enid -- nice to meet someone with whom you've discussed weather and chasing for years, but never actually met -- and after a few minutes of talking and keeping our eye on the first returns almost immediately to our due west, we decided to shoot north and attempt an intercept, hoping that the storm would soon intersect the warm front and go nuts. Neal chose to remain in Enid a few more minutes, but I'm pretty sure later ended up on our cell with good results. The storm quickly gained a severe warning and, a few minutes later, a tornado warning.
We went west on US64, planning to get our first views of the storm near Nash, and later intercept just west of Jet. That's essentially what happened, and we watched it attempt to organize the first time about 10 miles west of Jet (we were approximately four miles west of Jet), and although nothing looked imminent, it began to take on the look of a storm that would eventually get the job done.
We broke back east, deciding to take SR 132 north out of Nash, all the way about 10 miles back to our east. We stopped about a tenth of a mile south of SR 11 and watched as the cell tried to get its act together, complete with a nice inflow tail directly over the highway.
It did, and we were treated to a beautiful, backlit (albeit brief) rope a couple of miles to our west. It never fully condensed, but kicked up enough dust to confidently call this a tornado. It lasted about 40 seconds (as per Pritchard’s video), and we made the quick decision (before most on 132, which would later prove to be crucial) to get further northeast and prepare for its next act.
It continued to exhibit several broad areas of rotation to the south of the road as we continued driving east to get ahead of it and look back. We didn’t have time. The storm, apparently, intersected the warm front and almost immediately got its act together, going from broad rotation to full-fledged tornado in no more than 30 seconds.
And then it got crazy.
We continued flying east on 11. With four of us in the car, it was much easier. Scott, Nate, and Andrew watched the tornado, and I had the extreme pleasure of driving through some serious chaser jackassery. It would appear most chasers had no clue that a significant tornado was bearing down on them (we were very near the outer circulation of the multivortex, and there were dozens of cars between us and the tornado), and people were pulling off the highway, trying to get back on, and switching lanes among other things, all without warning.
Many of those who were “pulled off” on the side were in fact out in the road, and those in front of us (not one car in particular) seemed to be forgetting that this strong tornado was bearing down at them at 50+mph, and that driving in its path with it less than 300 yards away at 35mph wouldn’t get the job done. I’m not surprised at all that many chasers sustained vehicle damage as a direct result of the tornado, and it’s no surprise about the tour group either. Good lord.
We dropped south on a county road (thank God it was paved; I believe this was Trenton Road) and escaped the immediate path of the tornado, and I
finally got a few stills of it.
When we were still in doubt as to our position in relation to the tornado, we dropped even further south to E0150 Rd., where we got more video and got blasted by the very strong RFD.
We allowed the tornado to pass to the northeast and watched as the circulation became much wider, but remained not fully condensed.
I made the decision that I’d rather drop south and either try to catch it (which I knew was next to impossible), or catch the next returns to our south, than get back on Highway 11 and try to trail it. Glad we did the former, after hearing about the experience of Weberpal, et al. Besides, by that point the next supercell had formed to our south, and it seemed like it may become the new dominant cell (since the northern storm was passing into 64/60 air on the other side of the front) and was potentially catchable.
But we didn’t catch it. We were forced to drive south on I-35 and wait for the core to go by, since GRL3 was indicating 4” hail in the core. We timed it as well as possible but weren’t able to see the meso from the west (jealously guarded by rain and hail), but we were glad we made the play we did when we saw what appeared to be baseballs and larger sitting on the ground for no more than a minute or two. We tried playing catch-up with it to no avail, but we rejoined the weakened cell just east of Ponca City on 60 (great road network in this area…baha), which teased us with one final effort. A broad area of rotation in the area of interest tightened up JUST north of the road and did its best, but couldn’t finish the job.
As we plotted our route home to Illinois, in a “What the hell?” moment, we noticed a new tornado warning about 30 miles to our west. Now about 10 miles northeast of Pawhuska and 11 hours from home, we decided to intercept near Herd. The area of interest was visible, but a cell to its immediate south merged with it and cut off the inflow, otherwise we may have had a show all to ourselves, albeit not in good terrain.
After one final tease near (I think) Caney, KS, (which again got killed by cut-off inflow), we packed it up and finally headed home. We stopped and ate in Coffeyville, before making the 9-hour trek back to Canton, where we arrived about 6am.
After Wakita, it was a very frustrating day. But that definitely made the frustration worthwhile.
Last edited by a moderator:
) we get on the supercell storm which is developing west of Perry. Already a storm has formed to our north almost to KS and is showing a 'debris ball' on reflectivity. We are torn between the two but with fast storm motions decide we may be too late to the northern cell and both of us are confident of the cell now to our nw. We get to Perry and start to take 77 / 164 but already appears we will be behind with fast storm movement. Instead we blast north idea being to take 64 west which runs to Enid. By the time we arrive at 64 it would have been the perfect west road to see the storm flank and wallcloud development; however Gene misses the turn and I forgot to notice as well. It is then I realize we are driving straight into the path of the core as we attempt to reach hwy 15 overpass. I did want to find a turn around but there were none. The middle of the highway had those metal collision cables and poles stretched and dividing N/S with no breaks. It was also a construction zone. I was a bit apprehensive because I still had my new (mostly undented SX4) and really didn't want to dent it because I'm planning on getting an old Jeep Cherokee to chase and want to save the SX4. Also I was aware of the explosive development, extreme instability, and very fast storm movement and wondered if I was about to be run over first by the hail, and then perhaps later by the tornado. I hate being on roads with no turn arounds or exits. Finally I reach the hwy 15 overpass and pull up alongside Gene with his happily dented Jeep Liberty and his giant hail guard hanging over the windshield (must be nice). To the west is an obviously heavy precip region which also contains a very dark (almost black) structure that appears to be the right side of a V shape, and it goes almost to ground where it then dissapears in precipitation. Yes, it occurred to me it could be a rain wrapped tornado - right there. In retrospect Gene ponders the feature as well...though I am not sure it corresponds to any rotation couplet on radar. Not sure exactly what it was. Anyway, I decide to bail south, and Gene decides to ride it out in his position. Turns out later I learn that he didn't have gps position in his GR3 and was only using Street Altlas gps to orient himself to the storm. He thought he was in position for the storms flank as it moved ne, but the storm actually had more of an easterly movement. As I bailed south trying to break to the flank area though the construction zone I thought any second the giant baseballs (or worse) were about to hit. I did get some smaller hail - largest probably quarter but not too bad. It was heavy precip. Anyway I broke and had a perfect view of the wallcloud. This storm had tremendous inflow. As I watched a classic cone funnel shape emerged and began to work it's way up to halfway to the ground. I thought "This is it!", but then it didn't. That funnel changed, the wallcloud morphed a bit, next came the RFD which screwed it all up and the whole wallcloud / inflow interface region passed over I35 to my north and on to the east toward Red Rock - not but a few miles away. I watched but it did not appear to do anything. I saw no tornado development. I wanted to follow the storm east and northeast but there were NO darn roads! I realized my first road was about 4 miles to my south but it was turnpike! I hate turnpikes because you never know when they will have exits. Hwy 77 ran next to I35 but I didn't think the turnpike would have an exit so then I passed it and headed for Perry. Then I realized Perry was 10 or 15 miles away and my storm would be long gone by then cause it was moving so fast. I whipped it back around and did the turnpike anyway. I find there is an exit to hwy 77 but I wait in line many minutes in traffic to pay the toll and exit. I go north and work east all the way to hwy 177 east of Red Rock but the storm is long gone!
