5/13/09 DISC: MO/IA/IL/KS/OK

[Jim Saueressig]

I was out on this cell after it came through Emporia. I never seen any funnels or tornadoes but there was plenty of rotation in the scud and about. They sounded the sirens in New Strawn for a very brief funnel that would have been pretty much over my head as I was repositioning and then they started getting reports from the public of a tornado East of New Strawn a few minutes later. I went and got on the SE side of it and never seen a thing. I just found this video from the report that came in to the SO but I cannot identify the area. I threw a few pictures on my flickr but I am curious whether anyone else was actually in the area for this?

Edit: Who was the chaser that almost backed over Darin Brunin as they were being over taken by the tornado in Missouri? Made a nice news (13) video. LOL

 

[Bill Hark]

That was some amazing video by Bart Comstock. I am glad that he is allright. I also saw some wild video from "Tornado Tim" on The Weather Channel last night with flying horizontal debris near Kirksville, MO. Apparently Tim's map was off and he got trapped.

I am glad everyone is allright considering some close calls. I guess visibility was poor.

Bill Hark

 

[Jason Persoff]

Who's tornado Tim? Marshall??

 

[Chad Cowan]

The worst tornado chasing clip I have ever seen:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=116046000048&ref=share

I honestly can't think of anything he could have done worse. Really lucky that he didn't kill someone, I'm not too worried about his well-being. To top it off, this soul-patch wearin, Camaro drivin guy uploaded it for free to CNN's iReport who promptly (as they should) licensed it out to their affiliates. And.... flame away.

EDIT: He took down the video... probably a good idea from a legal standpoint.

 

[Brandon Sullivan]

it was interesting to see the kirksville storm totally kill the one to the south. which IMO is not as common as the south cell robbing a northern one.. There was also a storm that fired right ahead of the kirksville storm..

i wonder if any of this could have set up a boundary that helped at all..

I was just in awe of the awesome wall cloud and great structure! Glad I was out there!

Great job to everyone who got up close and personal.. Our timing wouldnt really allow it, we had a tree line up ahead, that if we passed, we would be way too close, but had obscured video to stay back.. tough call...

TVN's Reed Timmer apparently got footage and radar scans from inside the kirksville tornado! I cant wait to see..

Another thing.. This is a HUUGE reason why Kirksville needs a radar, storm was on outer ring of every radar, and looked crummy on velocity...

 

[joel ewing]

Jason, "Tornado Tim" as he calls himself, is a chaser I believe out of Colorado. I've never met him. Obviously, he's NOT Tim Marshall....and his moniker is one that has always kinda chapped me...simply out of total respect to Tim Marshall.
In addition to him almost getting killed yesterday, the same thing happened to him on a storm that I was on near O'Neill Nebraska on 6-9-03. He was pinned with a huge dusty barrel right next to him. I've seen vid of this. This is one chaser that is chasing his third strike.
He does keep up a nice web site.

 

[Derrick Herndon]

So what are the chances that the law could go after this guy? I have to agree this is about the most irresponsible "chaser" I have seen. People like this that give us all a bad name.

The worst tornado chasing clip I have ever seen:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=116046000048&ref=share

I honestly can't think of anything he could have done worse. Really lucky that he didn't kill someone, I'm not too worried about his well-being. To top it off, this soul-patch wearin, Camaro drivin guy uploaded it for free to CNN's iReport who promptly (as they should) licensed it out to their affiliates. And.... flame away.

 

[Eric Flescher]

Tornado near Novinger, MO

What a day !
Target 5/13/09 : from Columbia to Kirksville - East or West
Team: Eric Flescher, James Seitz, Uday Verma

We went with our initial target after looking over forecasts etc. We headed further North from Columbia and decided to go even further North after stopping in Macon. We has lost a little time getting to Kirksville. We were in the McDonalds in Kirksville admiring some of the towers that were dissipating and wondering whether we were late and whether anything would now happen. We were inside the tornado watch area box. We saw some signs of promise but nothing outstanding as we waited.

Around 5:44, we heard that a trained spotter had seen a funnel near Novinger. We headed down the Highway 6 West towards Novinger.
We could see that this "funnel" was now a tornado as we peered through the road view between the trees as we headed West on HWy 6. It possibly just crossed the Highway but was now North of the Highway 6.
We stopped on a hill to get our best overlook as the tornado was headed East and fast. We positioned ourselves on the top of nice hill. We headed North past a home on the corner (I can't quite make out the street number) and stopped a few hundred yards north to get the best view as the tornado headed straight for us.
It was under a mile(?) a way from us and we had a ringside seat. It changed shape several time, then widened considerably. We had a real good look at for several minutes as I took the video ( I did not have enough time to get out my and Uday and James took photos. It was still heading for us and it was a getting a little too close.
This dangerous storm must have been only a few hundred yards away from us and was getting too close. We headed back South on the road on to HWY 6 East .
We stopped further East where there now chasers. We took shows of the tornado that was rainwrapped and heading just North of highway 6 took more video and pictures and sped into Kirksville.
We did not stay in Kirksville (where there was a lot of damage a little later) and tried to catch some more cells with rotation further East. We broke off and headed South toward Columbia and back to Kansas City, watching some nice lightning along the way.
I am writing this fast to get our account out now. James, Uday and I will write more later with photos etc. The video, more screen snaps, photos and account information on my Storm Satori blog later today.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

The worst tornado chasing clip I have ever seen:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=116046000048&ref=share

I honestly can't think of anything he could have done worse. Really lucky that he didn't kill someone, I'm not too worried about his well-being. To top it off, this soul-patch wearin, Camaro drivin guy uploaded it for free to CNN's iReport who promptly (as they should) licensed it out to their affiliates. And.... flame away.

What is the gist of it, for those of us that don't have a facebook login.

 

[Brandon Goforth]

More and more people trying their "best" to kill themselves.

Only "bad" luck has delayed success to this point in time.

Indeed, that was ridiculously STUPID. That guy deserves a good a** kickin...I could care less if he kills himself, but weaving in and out of traffic at 115 mph puts everyone on that road at risk. What if you get hit by high winds, what if you have a blow out, anything could happen to turn that deadly fast. If ANYONE sees this kind of behavior on the road, seriously try to get it on film and get the license plate numbers if possible, then turn them in...tornado or no tornado, there is NO excuse for this behavior out there, especially when it's his choice to be there to begin with...we have to be getting really close to the point of seeing chaser fatalities...this kind of crap puts all of the responsible people at risk...he deserves a baseball bat to the head.

 

[Brandon Goforth]

What is the gist of it, for those of us that don't have a facebook login.

Basically he records himself driving 115 mph, weaving in and out of traffic, to get to a developing tornado...and then he drives into the tornado...brilliant.

 

[Jason Boggs]

The worst tornado chasing clip I have ever seen:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=116046000048&ref=share

I honestly can't think of anything he could have done worse. Really lucky that he didn't kill someone, I'm not too worried about his well-being. To top it off, this soul-patch wearin, Camaro drivin guy uploaded it for free to CNN's iReport who promptly (as they should) licensed it out to their affiliates. And.... flame away.

This guy isn't a chaser. He's a retard with a fast car and a video camera.

 

[Andrew Stoller]

What is the gist of it, for those of us that don't have a facebook login.

The dude passes a bunch of cars doing about 115 mph in his Camaro SS to catch up to the Kirksville tornado, then proceeds to get caught in the edge of the tornado/almost in it while saying his Camaro is faster then the tornado.

What a genius.

 

[Andrew Butler]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5wmIP043Cc

Records his speed, then his face. Oh hai mister sheriff.

 

[Jacob Ferden]

The worst tornado chasing clip I have ever seen:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=116046000048&ref=share

I honestly can't think of anything he could have done worse. Really lucky that he didn't kill someone, I'm not too worried about his well-being. To top it off, this soul-patch wearin, Camaro drivin guy uploaded it for free to CNN's iReport who promptly (as they should) licensed it out to their affiliates. And.... flame away.

People wonder why some chasers express their opinions so strongly about the actions of others. How could anyone not be outraged to see this...i hesitate to use the word...person...endanger the lives of not one, not two, but DOZENS of people on the road yesterday. It's been building and building, but I think it can be said now: Someone will be killed soon...very soon. I just hope to god I'm not on the road when it happens...