Scroll down to the end of this long e-mail for image and video links if you don't want to read the account.
Absolutely incredible chase day with multiple large and violent tornadoes. I started in Hays, Kansas. My initial target was in northwestern Kansas near Colby. Storms were already firing just to the north of the Oakley to Colby area along a boundary that was intersecting the dryline. This boundary paralleled I-70. My secondary target was down south by Dodge City along the dryline where there was better instability but less shear. After missing the previous day’s tornadoes, I didn’t want to screw up. I headed west and met with Jason Persoff and Robert Balogh who were staying in Quinter. We caravanned west to Oakley (home of the world’s largest prairie dog) to check more data and make a final decision on the target. There was a massive chaser convergence at a truck stop. I am sure that makes the locals nervous! We waited and watched. It was nice to meet some chasers that I only know through posts on message boards. Elevated storms continued to fire to the north. We expected better storms to fire slightly south along the dryline and move northward. We then noticed a storm develop to the southeast in Lane County. We left Okaley and drove east to intercept the northward moving storm. Additional storms were forming to the south of Lane County. We arrived in the Quinter area and decided to wait for the storm’s arrival. The road network was poor. None of us wanted to attempt dirt roads that were muddy from the previous evening heavy rains. The storm to our south became tornado-warned. As it approached the town, we adjusted about a mile west. My XM satellite radar was slightly off compared to what I could see visually and what Jason saw using GR Level 3, a radar viewing program that uses a cell phone internet connection. At 4:32PM, a large cone tornado was visible to my south. I got amazing video as it approached I-70. I shifted west to allow the tornado to pass. It lifted as it crossed the interstate, then reformed as a brief trunk and wedge before moving northward and out of visible range. I didn’t see the wedge, but I may have been filming under it. We resisted the temptation to chase the storm northward over wet dirt roads or to head east to a paved road and backtrack toward the storm. It was very hard to let a known tornadic storm pass northward and not go after it. More storms were forming directly to the south. Another option was to head south and follow the storm northward. Again, we didn’t want to deal with muddy dirt roads. Getting stuck in the wrong place could be fatal with these storms. We did drive south of Quinter for about a mile, stopping at the end of a paved road. Soon, we saw rapid cloud motion swirling to the southwest. Again, my Threatnet XM satellite was off and placed the meso directly overhead rather than slightly west. I knew better due to visual observations and GR Level 3 that Jason was running. I drove up a low hill and could see a distant tornado from a farmer’s driveway. The cloud motion was incredible. The tornado, now a massive high-contrast wedge, approached my location and passed to the west. At times, I could see multiple vortices. The tornado was approaching I-70. I carefully made my way down gravel driveway, then north toward the interstate. The tornado, now becoming more of an “elephant-trunk”, was approaching the highway. I blasted west, stopping just before the tornado crossed the road at 6:30PM. Jason and Robert had stopped slightly east of my location. The tornado crossed the highway and briefly vanished. I headed west and could see a low-contrast tube to the north. Then a received a report from Robert that a car had been blown off the road. Both Robert Balogh and Jason Persoff, who are also physicians, stopped to render aid before EMS arrived. I called off the chase and circled around to see if they needed any help. By then, EMS had arrived. The car had been thrown way over into a ditch. The lone occupant had serious injuries and had to be extricated by EMS. I never saw the car as I passed the damage path, and I am still surprised someone was hit by the tornado. This tornado was highly visible for many miles and could be avoided. Jason said there were skid marks perpendicular to the road. Another storm was approaching from the south as the storms “trained.” This smaller storm also had a mesocyclone. I warned one of the fire officials. Jason, Robert and I headed back east and then watched a wall cloud pass near the interstate. I never saw a tornado. Another massive storm, much wider than the previous storms, was now approaching the area. This storm had an enormous hook echo and there were reports of a large tornado. We quickly drove east toward Hays to avoid the core. Tornado sirens were sounding in Hays as darkness arrived. We had our escape route ready. We first thought the town would take a direct hit. The meso shifted, and we took a slight jog west. We never saw anything due to rain and darkness. We didn’t want to risk going farther west. Charles Edwards with Cloud 9 Tours was approaching from the west on I-70. He had a better view and saw a large tornado blow a truck off the road. He gave me some radar updates, and we definitely didn’t want to go farther west. As it was dark, Jason, Robert and I ended the chase and drove to Russell, Kansas for the night. Robert was able to secure some of the last rooms at the Super 8.
This was the best storm chase that I have ever had with close views of multiple tornadoes. The town of Quinter escaped two close tornadic storms. My excitement is tempered by seeing that car and injured occupant due to the tornado.
Video links. Original video shot in high definition format.
Link to my video on CNN website. Shorter segment, better quality
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/weather/2008/05/24/vo.kansas.twister.aptn
My video on YouTube. Video is slightly lower quality but shows more scenes and is in the full wide-screen format.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Qk0uxK3tI
Video stills
Cone tornado approaching I-70 near Quinter at 4:32 PM
http://www.harkphoto.com/052308tornado432pm.jpg
Tornado lifted but funnel passed over I-70
http://www.harkphoto.com/052308crossroad.jpg
Views of the wedge tornado on the second storm
http://www.harkphoto.com/052308wedge1.jpg
http://www.harkphoto.com/052308wedge2.jpg
http://www.harkphoto.com/052308wedge3.jpg
Elephant trunk tornado from the second storm approaching I-70
http://www.harkphoto.com/052308trunk1.jpg
Crossing I-70
http://www.harkphoto.com/052308trunk2.jpg
http://www.harkphoto.com/052308trunk3.jpg
Photo
Photo of smashed car with injured occupant and rescue workers
http://www.harkphoto.com/may23damagedcarGoveCountyKS.jpg
Bill Hark
http://www.harkphoto.com
.
!
