Jesal Patel
Enthusiast
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
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
