I am posting this for Jason Persoff who caught some beautiful tornadoes on May 24. Below is his account:
Those of you who know me know that I wear a strong cologne: Subsidence, by Calvin Klein. Well...not really...but I have become less and less a tornado chaser over recent years, and increasingly more a storm structure connoisseur. Not entirely by choice, mind you...but the ridge over the Plains during my chasecation annually has made things difficult in recent years.
I don't bemoan this (I do indeed relish storm structure), but the fact that the last tornado that I had successfully chased that had: a) a condensation funnel all the way to the ground, B) lasted greater than 30 seconds, and c) took place BEFORE sunset was in Garden City, KS on May 23, 1997. I have caught many spinups, many gorgeous mesos, several after-dark tornadoes, the occasional multivortex tornado lasting for few moments (Vernon, TX, 2002), but have missed catching many of the spectacular sights I've longed to feel and experience again.
It didn't help that Jim Leonard and I chased on Saturday and missed the gorgeous tornado west of Beaver City, NE, by minutes and played catch up in the RFD all day that day.
Yesterday, however, was spectacular. I started the day in Beatrice. I about fell over when the SPC issued a PDS Tor Watch from 11:30am to 10:00pm (that officially is the longest issued watch I have ever seen, and PDS on top of that...wow). As elevated convection fired to my SE, I started to get happy feet, and almost chased those storms. But, talking things over with Tim Vasquez, there was an area of convergence in a beautiful cu field to the west. When the cap broke, these storms rapidly developed with front flank anvils that were crisp and flat enough seemingly etching white into the blue sky.
I moved west. I was able to catch up with the base of the southern most storm in Thayer County and filmed the first two tornadoes of the day. Two were on the ground simultaneously: one on the occluded north meso, and one on the developing southern meso. The southern meso began to put down highly contrasted, photogenic tornadoes cyclically.
http://members.csinet.net/jasonirma/5.24.2...04/Tornado1.jpg
Then another meso south of it began to put down tornadoes. Eventually there were 3 tornadoes on the ground simultaneously (I caught those on video, but didn't have good positioning for stills at that time). Eric Nguyen and I ended up on the same Bob's Road and filmed the tornadoes as they continued to cycle.
Eventually, on the KS/NE border, a beautiful white rope tornado formed (with hellish RFD hail that dented my car and cracked my windshield
). The tornado was beautiful and I watched it rope out with awe. Some of the photos weren't all that I would have liked, but the RFD was intense.
http://members.csinet.net/jasonirma/5.24.2...hiteTornado.jpg
http://members.csinet.net/jasonirma/5.24.2...iteTornado2.jpg
http://members.csinet.net/jasonirma/5.24.2004/Rope.jpg
http://members.csinet.net/jasonirma/5.24.2....2004/Rope2.jpg
Heading south, meso after meso formed, each with tornadoes. I lost track at 10 separate tornadoes on this cell and I still haven't fully analyzed the video.
Getting south into N KS, the town of Belleville (?) was under the gun with this beauty.
http://members.csinet.net/jasonirma/5.24.2...04/Tornado3.jpg
I continued to head south constantly getting battered by intermittent hail and continuous ponding of road water. Eventually this cell died an unceremonious death as it got undercut.
I then saw cells firing to the south over Topeka and caught most of the action there too.
I have many more photos and vid caps to get, but overall, this was an incredible day.
Thank you to Tim Vasquez for safely circumnavigating me out of a hail core during a very dangerous situation (his ability to pinpoint the location of mesos real-time allowed me to make choices in direction that proved potentially life saving--huge thanks). The nowcasting was absolutely fabulous--as usual.
Wooohooo
.
Finally.
Jason
Jason Persoff, M.D.
Mayo Clinic Jacksonville
KB0YJW
904-343-4325