5/25/06 REPORTS: MI / OH / IN / KY / TN / MO

[Jesal Patel]

First off, thanks to my friends Darin Brunin, Doug Mitchell, Owen Sheih, and Andy Ashley for collectively nowcasting for me back in Lawrence.

This was certainly an ironic end to my chasing trip. After having spent close to a week with a base in Lawrence, KS chasing in the plains and not seeing any supercells, who would have figured that coming back to Indiana would have gotten me close to a tornado. Waking up at nearly 5:00am, to get back to Indianapolis at a decent hour, I logged in to the SPC page to see that there was a moderate risk for southern Indiana. I wasn’t sure that this was worth chasing or not, so I figured I’d check data when I got to St. Louis. A little past noon, I arrived in St. Louis and picked up wifi outside a motel. I saw that that moderate box had been extended to cover most of Indiana, but shear profiles looked to be more supportive of rotating storms further south. Only having seen one supercell all year, I was desperate and decided to take I-64 to Louisville rather than head straight back to Indy.

Half way into Illinois, I noticed towers going up. By the time I got to the Illinois-Indiana border there was a well developed anvil to the north with an overshooting top. When I got a little east of Evansville, I started going north into the storm after getting news that the storm was strengthening and showing signs of rotation. I initially saw the updraft base of the storm in Petersburg, Indiana, but then jetted south and then back east as it was moving southeast towards me. It was EXTREMELY difficult to get any views of the horizon since this area is heavily wooded and very hilly. I felt that every time I got a peak of rotation, I had to move almost the same moment. I got a small clearing about half a mile south of Otwell, IN and witnessed strong rotation to my northwest which was very low to the ground. I never was convinced that I saw a tornado with my naked eye, but when reviewing the video I can make out contrast of what appears to be a cone tornado behind a curtain of rain. I quickly turned south and then back east to try and get a view of the rotation again. This proved to be somewhat of a mistake. I got caught up in some real nasty wind and debris and thankfully had a group of good nowcasters guide me out of it. Apparently I was very close to the center of rotation. After a nerve-racking 10 minutes I reached some calm in the town of Jasper and headed south to safety. Unfortunately I have very limited video and still photos since I was chasing on my own. Most the time I had one hand on my cell getting nowcasting and the other hand on the steering wheel. Either way, memories of this chase will be etched in my head for a long time. Being a relative newbie chaser, it was awesome to follow a storm from tower to supercell to tornado.

Here is a picture of mamatus after the storm passed:

For radar images of my position and a perspective from my nowcasters, check out this site:

http://www.storm3000.com/2006day5.html

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Severe storm(wind) entering Frankfort IN.

Stuck in traffic and very high winds in Frankfort.

Rest here: http://www.extremeinstability.com/06-5-25.htm

 

[Marc Austin]

I know this is a very late report, but I didn't have time to post anything during our storm chase trip from which we just returned last night. We chased with Jesper and his other storm chasing friends from Denmark on this day. In fact, we had not planned on chasing at all and were suprised to see that the chasers from Denmark had stayed in the same town we had the night before. My brother Paul called them up because he was anxious to get to know the chasers from Denmark. We met up and let them watch some of our video from past years then headed out for some lunch. They were planing on heading toward Dallas, TX where they would be departing on Sunday to go back to Denmark, and we were going to basically take the day off from chasing because most of the data we had received indicated yet another day of outflow-dominant storms and line segments, which can offer some impressive structure, but rarely tornadoes and we didn't want to drive all the way over to Indiana to chase in "unfavorable" tornadic conditions only to have to turn around and drive all the way back to the plains to set up for the next day. We had lunch and got to know our new Danish friends well. After lunch we decided to show the Denmark chasers our Threat Net and when we pulled it up, we couldn't believe the supercells that were ongoing in Indiana. We went over to the Super 8 for a quick data stop and found a very encouraging meso dicussion for southern IN/ western KY/ southern IL. So we decided if there was any shot a lone cell would fire off in western KY, we could reach it before dark. We told the guys from Denmark our decision and asked them if they were game to which they quickly responded "The Chase is on!" So it was off to Kentucky. We ended up seeing some amazing stuff. In fact we viewed a tornado from an overpass near Trimble, TN. power flashes and all. We even went the next day and viewed the damage caused by the tornado. I will have to post some video stills and perhaps a short video clip or two as time permits. So far, SPC does not show a tornado having gone through this area, even though we called it into the NWS as we watched it in the distance. The damage is convincing as well, with many trees completely twisted off and debris thrown in various directions. I was curious to know if anyone had a radar grab from around 11pm near the town of Trimble,TN and Reeves, TN. I think it would have been from the Jackson, TN radar station as it was near there. I would really like to view a radial velocity image of the storm around this time because that's when we saw the tornado. It was the most rewarding chase I have ever been on because we had the opportunity to chase with the guys from Denmark and witness their excitement as they viewed their first American twister. This is a day that I will always remember. I will post some pics soon.