5/22/08 REPORTS: KS/NE/CO/OK/TX

[Bryan Putnam]

Have a story similar to many others. Saw a small rope/cone tornado that lasted about 10 minutes south of Hoxie. After it dissipated I turned north on 23 and waited for the storm to reorganize. Pulled off the road and watched as a multi-vortex wedge developed just northwest of Hoxie. The tornado lasted approximately 15 minutes, transitioning from a wedge to a large cone to a classic tube before roping out. The inflow was intense! I'd estimate it was about a quarter mile wide at its largest.

 

[Evan Stubbart]

No longer a virgin. I finally got to see what I dreamed of since being a kid growing up in Hawaii. I left the Denver area at 11am MST and headed to Grainfield, KS. When I arrived there was reports coming from Gove, KS of rotation so I headed down 23 and then cut into some fields where I found about 30 chasers screaming down dirt roads which I joined all the way back to I70. So a brief touchdown but was real tough to see (not what I invissioned for my first Tor). I followed this storm north of I70 into the middle of nowhere onto mud roads that I almost got stuck in. Witnessed golfball size hail as I headed back to Grinnell, KS. When I got to Grinnell I headed East to intercept another storm. I didn't see any other chasers on I70 on this cell. I noticed a nice funnel with a brief touchdown just south of mile marker 92. The funnel then picked up and came back down right on the freeway about 100 yards in front of me causing a semi truck to flip which I tried to warn. I jumped out of my SUV and went to the aid of the semi driver and called 911 to report the Tor and semi accident. The driver was fine, but by the time I got back in my SUV the funnel was well north of me and looking great! I sat there and watched it head north until a couldn't see it anymore.
This was my first success and the worst part was that my camera was broken. I don't have any pics to remember this! I know other chasers were on this storm as I saw a bunch around Grainfield, KS. If anyone was on this storm and wouldn't mind sending me some pics- I'd be very grateful! My email is [email protected]

 

[Shane Adams]

Chad, Mick, Bridget Geaughan, and myself observed at least three tornadoes today in Trego county, KS, probably more. Staying in Hayes tonight, won't look at video until we return home from our two-day chase extravaganza. First one was a brief dust whirl with a snakey funnel above, second was >1 minute mini-stovepipe that brought up a lot of red dirt, and the third was a nice classic narrow cone, lasted about 2-3 minutes. Possible/probable second tornado in progress just south of the second stovepipe, won't be sure until video review.

Today was Bridget's first chase and tornadoes, realizing a childhood dream. It was a pleasure to be a part of it.

DOW guys...you don't own the road. It shouldn't take 30 seconds to make a left turn off the damn highway onto a dirt road. You were holding us (and other chasers) up on a major highway while you were screwing around trying to position your little convoy off the road. Also, what was the point of blasting by us then stopping half a mile later? Just to make sure you were all connected in your convoy? Pathetic.

 

[Eric Treece]

Just a quick report here. Chased with Griffin McLaughlin, Joe and Larry Spencer. Caught 3 tornados today..........1 north of Sequin that turned into the really nice Dresden tornado as we watched it scream off to the north from our position. We then headed over toward Hoxie and saw the last couple of minutes of the rope tornado south of town there. Then we watched the multiple vortex tornado that formed west of Hoxie and tear off to the north. Contrast was really bad on all of them except the rope tornado. All in all I am not going to complain. Wish the storm motion wasn't so much like an early April chase.

 

[Jason Persoff]

PREAMBLE: Challenging chase day indeed. When I think how insanely lucky I got today, I hardly feel that I deserved such success. It's funny how this chase doesn't feel "earned" (and I don't even know what I mean about this other than I abandoned my target, got way behind the storms from the get go, traversed I-70 back and forth between Colby and Wakeeney at least 4 times in indecision, etc.)...And yet...I am happy to report this all came together insanely.

SHORT: One spectacular elephant trunk tornado, one spectacular sunset, too numerous to count lightning shots along the dryline

LONG: Started the day in Sterling, CO. As I targeted Goodland to Colby, KS, I left in 57/57 degree mist. The winds at the sfc were gusting to 40mph out of the SSE. I was knocked completely out-of-whack when convection fired along the I-25 corridor prompting a watch, and what ended up being the most unbelievable tornado I've ever seen in the I-25 corridor. To my knowledge, this is the first wedge tornado ever filmed that far west along the front range (areas around Limon and Last Chance are usually where Tds get high enough to give a more favorable scenario). And to add to the weirdness, the wedge moved WNW...As the tornado watch went up in NE CO, I got unsettled and undecided. Ultimately, I trusted the dryline to hold the magic I wanted and abandoned CO only to watch TOR after TOR going up in Weld Cty, CO. I struggled hard with the decision, but made my way to I-70.

Shortly after getting to the CO/KS border, the entire dryline lit up as did the warm front. I was horrified. Suddenly I was starving in plenty and needed to figure out where the hell to go. This led to back-and-forth I-70 jaunt from Colby to Wakeeney several times. Ultimately, I finally noted that things on radar were becoming more clear. A cell firing in Gove had organized rapidly. I felt that I could intercept the RFD as the storm moved north over I-70. But the speeds were such that it was a race between me punching the RFD and the storm moving north off the highway.

As I broke out of the precip I was entreated to a conical funnel that moved rapidly northward, crossing from right to left across my windshield. This ended up putting down the tornado I have up on my website presently. Nice contrast, white elephant trunk zipped northward at >50mph and rapidly was beyond my hopes of tracking. See my website (http://stormdoctor.com/) for the pic.

Ultimately, I jogged back west to set up for the next in the train of storms. This time I was entreated to a spectacular sunset with the sun poking out behind rain curtains with backlit mammatus in gold and orange. Dropped my jaw.
Then, giving it one last go as a mesocyclone flew overhead in Quinter, KS, I attempted to chase recurringly TVS marked cells moving up east of Gove. That was a big F (for fail). And realized daylight was over and now I shot back on I-70 once again to capture the updrafts along the dryline. Spectacular dryline nighttime show with CCs and crawlers in a smorgasbord of plenty. It will take me most of the night to even begin to tease out which shots settle above the fray (they're all incredible). Ended the day in Quinter, KS, along I-70.

POSTAMBLE: G'night...pix in am. Wild day. Won't even begin to speculate about tomorrow's setup. What a wallop of storms today. Cringing a little at the damage count based on prelim reports.

 

[Jason Harris]

Great day of tornado-chasing in Kansas.

Just a quick post here. I had an awesome chase today because of the fact I chose to ride my scooter around Kansas on a high risk day. . . just kidding. I had a great time because I had excellent company: Bob Hartig and the two chaser-brothers Bill and Tom Oosteraan (Bill was driving and he navigated through a treacherous muddy road and got us up close with multiple tornadoes. Bob was running Radar and Tom was very involved as well.
We all had some trouble getting pics with the HP supercells: wet conditions and not much time with those rain-wrapped beasts. However, we encountered perhaps as many as 5 tornadoes. We saw two wedges, and here is a cone that immediately followed a wedge (literally a matter of seconds--no doubta manifestation from the same circulation, and perhaps, as Bob suggested, an intensification of part of that same wedge) in Decatur county to the East of Oberlin on Highway 89 (not the earlier Oberlin storm, which we saw a wedge for as well). We saw this tornado cross the road and got some intense wind from either rear flank downdraft or perhaps the outer circulation.
You'll hear more about our chase from the other folks soon. We'll be going at it again tomorrow.

Anyway, this was a picture that came out fine when I stepped briefly out of the car as this cone was coming up towards the road--came fast too. Best of luck to all for the next chase!

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I had an insane day! I saw an unreal number of storms not containing tornadoes! At least there weren't any chaser convergence issues...oh crap, yeah there was. That made it all the more fun! Then there was the time, at the motel, so intense I thought I was going to die. I'm edging the car into a tiny spot, at the end of a fascinating day, no room, but I make it. Get all may crap squeezed out and set by the wheel. I try to squeeze out, forget one thing. Go to sit back in, catch the top of the window under my ear lobe, just about ripping it off. I was shocked the whole bottom part wasn't detached. Not just that, but as that hit, it forced the other side of my head into the frame. I just about knocked myself out, and tore my ear off, but the tornadoes made it all worth it. Oh crap, that's right, didn't see any! This was a feat.

Watched the southern early sup get going somewhere(like I really care where exactly). I raced up 23 to Grainfield well ahead of it and watched it approach. It tried there. Then a freaking crapload of chasers liked the idea of that same little road just north of I70. What a cluster that became. Just happy to get out of that I head south for the new southern sup by Dighton. It looks to go right pretty good and I opt to head it off by going back to I70 then east to Wakeeney. (Funny Dick reports a tornado 2 north of Beeler after I posted Beeler as a target yesterday...weeee) I get to Wakeeney and see it going more left now, sigh. Back west some to Collyer. Too much in the core there so slipped back east.

As that storm moved west of Wakeeney it got very intense. Not sure what inflow was but there was this line of dust racing west. It was really damn hard to open my door there. Big mass of cloud rolling around as it moves north. Not sure you could call any of that thing a tornado, but I damn well wouldn't have wanted to been under it. By the time it's by another mess of chasers is there. DOW crew(and everyone else doing it)....c'mon...is it that hard to not park so near the on off ramps? It was tough to get back to the interstate with lines of cars parked and more coming by in the lane you needed to use. As annoying as that was, it wasn't as annoying as it was earlier. Too many people like to park right by the stop signs too. Makes a hair tough to go around you and see the highway(especially with teh billion others lining the shoulders on the bridges. Had a perfectly good gravel road that you'd only have to drive a block down to. So annoying.

Say screw teh day as crappers were all left to the south. Get to my room in Hays....just in time for one to organize and go through Wakeeney where I'd sat for almost an hour. Yippy.

Congrats to those that scored so many tubes. So far Dustin seems to take the cake....damn.

Edit: About the convergence crap. Maybe it's not so much the DOW crew, but everyone's tendancy to park right by others. When the DOW crew parks so near the on off ramps, it's like a magnet for all others to park near them in a line. I do not get why everyone wants to park right by others. It's easier to go by when there's not a big long line on one side, since then there's really never any opening to progress the other direction with cars coming towards you. If people just left a few gaps it'd be a lot better. A good example of this tendancy was earlier along I70. I was about the only car on this small road. Then a few showed up. I was parked mostly in the grass on the north side facing west. It was a skinny road. Then someone else stops, but they pull over on the south side facing east right next to me. I was like, yeah, that will help matters when everyone else gets here and are trying to go by us, they now have a skinny gap. Then right after that the next car to stop did so right behind me. I was like, what is so hard about leaving some room! Then after that it just got completely nasty. 4 way intersection with parked cars lining each direction AND cars going pretty much each direction too. Then add in those that love to park right at the stop sign, and well it's pretty impossible to get anywhere or turn around. I know I know, I need to stay home and help lol. Some aspects are just going to be there, but some make it so much worse than it needs to be.

On a plus, I can't say I noticed any crazy driving. Of course I leave the big big flocks as rapidly as I can, since it's just not fun feeling blocked in.

 

[Olivier Staiger]

WEDGE south of Oberlin, KS

long drive chase on unpaved roads ( thanks to 4x4 ;-) , finally caught a nice wedge south of Oberlin KS.

will also post a video clip on www.youtube.com/klipsigeneva

 

[Robert Balogh]

Saw a pretty elephant's trunk form just north of I-70 between Grinnell and Grainfield, Kansas

 

[Rich Thompson]

I chased with Ryan Jewell (leaving Norman at 8:45 am) and witnessed parts of 5 different supercells, three of which produced tornadoes in our view. We first intercepted a supercell S of Grainfield, with no tornadoes observed and outflow that was a little too cool. We sat in the same place and another storm moved by to our W, with a rain-free base, but precip encroaching from another storm to its SE. We let the second storm go, and later started to notice the stronger shear signatures with each as they moved well N of I-70. The third storm looked uninspiring on radar for quite a while as it moved N toward Grainfield. Just S of I-70, we noticed the ragged structure become more organized and a wall cloud develop with a funnel. This became a tornado near I-70 and continued N a few miles W of hwy 23 on the way to Hoxie. The tornado lasted from 5:36-5:51 according to my camera (only intermittent debris/condensation the first few minutes). We got tired of sitting in the rain from more storms to the south, so we left the Hoxie storm a couple of minutes after the tornado roped out. It was a tall rope tornado that was very pretty the last 5 minutes. It seemed rather odd to blow off the storm right after a tornado, and apparently it was odd because it produced several more!

Instead, we targeted the new cluster forming to our SE. We got ahead of the storm and looped back on old hwy 40 to near Collyer (just N of I-70). Here, we observed a few spinups to our distant SSW before a separate large wall cloud emerged from the murk to our SW. This wall cloud churned NNEwd toward us, and ended up passing very close to our W. A cone funnel formed within the intensely rotating wall cloud and passed maybe a 1/4 mi to our W at about 6:45 pm, while we got blasted by dirt and crop stubble on estimated 70 mph winds in the outer edge of the circulation. We were able to confirm it as a tornado based on several debris spinups, though shallow dust around us made it hard to see right at ground level in the peak of the wrap up. This meso looked capable of producing a fairly healthy tornado. We followed this storm up to just N of Hill City before giving up as the storm began to struggle with outflow.

The last target of the day was another storm moving toward Trego Center and Wakeeney. Ryan got us S of the core then we went W on dirt section roads to meet the storm at sunset. This storm developed a broad wall cloud to our SW and began to wrap a large hook to our S. After an intense barrage of very close LTGCGs, the rotation tightened into a pronounced funnel cloud and then a tornado with rapidly wrapping rain curtains as it crossed the road maybe 1/2 mi to our W (roughly 3 NW of Trego Center around 8:45 pm, I think). We saw Tim S. and part of the TWISTEX bunch drive pretty close to the tornado, which became engulfed in rain. The hook overtook us from the S/SW with more strong winds (~60 mph gusts?) and hail. We let the storm pass by and gave up on the chase at dark.

I guess we saw at least 3 tornadoes, and maybe 4 or 5. A fun chase, regardless of the specific numbers.

Rich T.

 

[Dick McGowan]

Derek Shaffer, Jordan Wrecke, Doug Mitchell, Eric B'Hymer and I saw a handful of spinups, and a couple of tornadoes, on several supercells, including one near dusk south of Wakeeney. Best lazy, video grab I can get. Time was 8:45 CDT and location was about ~5 miles south of Wakeeney looking west, it didn't last long. More pics later.

 

[Michael Carlson]

Caught the tornadoes south of Collyer, Kans. It was the first time that I had see two different tornadoes on the ground at one time. Working on getting a short video up on youtube.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Saw 3 tornadoes across Kansas today in the same general area. First being the rope/snake like tornado near Grainfield, second being the ground scraping wall cloud with dusty vorticies NW of Wakeeney about a mile away, and then the third being on the outside edge of the tornado south of WaKeeney around 8:30. Here are a couple pictures, video to follow shortly.

 

[Kevin Myatt]

Wow. Dancing supercell to supercell from west of Dighton up to the Wakeeney area then back south again, our 12-member Virginia Tech chase team bagged eight tornadoes today. The best was the cone at sundown south of WaKeeney (pictured above). With a narrow road and other chasers also trying to get back out on Highway 283, we got hooked by that one, and had 10-15 minutes of rather intense wind, rain and hail, none of it too big thankfully. Back in WaKeeney tonight.

For more on our 2008 chase trip, see my weather blog at Roanoke.com

Hope to have some video up on the blog sometime Friday.

 

[Willoughby Owen]

Amazing chase today! The highlight being a decision to abandon a rain-wrapped tornado north of Oberlin and turn east from there awaiting a big incoming hook echo. Soon a big wedge developed from the meso (same as Jason's above) and gave us a hell raising experience as it only just missed us by 90m/300 feet! An antenna got ripped off by the winds too to make the situation a bit more dangerous.