5/29/08 REPORTS: KS/NE/SD/IA/WY

[Michael O'Keeffe]

Had an incredible day in NC Kansas witnessing at least one very large wedge tornado and possibly more. My dad, sister, and I didn't leave until 4pm from KC either and was lucky enough to make it. It was rewarding to have my sister see her first tornado that was a massive wedge just west of Beloit. The structure was easily the most incredible I've ever seen! Will have video and pics up tomorrow morning.

 

[Damon Scott Hynes]

Got to Kearney with seconds to spare:

Lousy contrast, sorry. Vid shows power flashes all over the place. Also saw a trampoline go a-flyin'. Full report later, my daughter is flying MSP-OMA tonight, she might make it in about 3AM

 

[Mike Peregrine]

Michael is correct ... this was storm-of-the-year material. After a long afternoon in Nebraska, we decided to book south to position in front of developing storms in Kansas. Came south on 281 out of Hastings, originally hoping to intercept a good couplet on a cell heading closer to highway 36, but then decided to core those in favor of a much better looking cell to the southwest. Went east on a road to the north of Osborne, Kansas and then south out of Cawker City. We saw the first tornado to our west, between our position and Osborne. We had time to achieve an ideal location just north of the tornado as it went on to produce multiple vortices over an extended period of time. My video is 30 minutes of vortex after vortex. We were right about 1/4 mile north of the tornado, which put us in a great high contrast location as it tore through trees and produced an audible roar. At one point as a vortex is spinning through a grove of trees, I zoomed up on the ground contact just as a bolt of lightning strikes right in front of the camera, beading up and producing the loudest crack. We laughed our butts off because we must have jumped a foot. At this point the TIVs caught up to us to try to move into position, we decided to move north with the tornado near Elder (can't quite remember the name of that little town). The tornado was a large and dusty wedge at this point, though it didn't appear particularly strong or intense. Really hard to judge. Suddenly an anticyclonic vortex spun up over the road in front of us and we literally drove through the thing. Slammed the car pretty good and gave us another jolt. Laughed through the situation and made it up north of town, trying to dodge damage, which wasn't easy. Moved north of town, where we barely missed some downed polls, only to pull off on a side road and slide in a muddy ditch. Stuck in Osborne tonight in a motel, waiting for rescue tomorrow.

We don't mind. It was worth it. The motions in the video are easily the most impressive either of us have seen in recent years. Big thanks to Scott Currens, Amos Magliocco and others for terrific navigation, decision-making and for not giving up ... and also thanks to channel 4 out of KC for carrying our sorry butts to a motel. Appreciate it, Don -

 

[Mikey Gribble]

Kind of a let down today to be honest. I was hoping for a wedge fest and that didn't happen. We were on the Kearney storm and I can't be positive that we saw any tornadoes, but I am pretty sure we saw two. The first tornado was North of Holdrege. It was very tough to see due to dust obscuring the view, but for a few seconds at a time you could make out the funnel and ground circulation. I saw that there was a tornado reported there at that time, so hopefully somebody from stormtrack was closer and can post a pic to confirm this tornado. Number two was near Kearney where we saw multiple power flashes. We couldn't really make out a tornado though, so again hopefully somebody will confirm that one too (looks like Damon did). I tried to call in the power flashes and I didn't have the NWS number so I just called 911. I told the dispatcher that I was a storm chaser and there were multiple power flashes near town. She said, "so what is your point" and I told her that that was a pretty good indication that there was a tornado in there, but you couldn't see because of all the dust and rain (at least from our angle) and then the ***** made some smart ass comment and hung up on me. I couldn't believe it. All I was trying to do was to give them a heads up that there may be a rain wrapped tornado and she lips off to me and hangs up. That is beyond ridiculous IMO. Next time I'll just let them figure it out for themselves when there is a tornado.
That was one sloppy storm. Visibility was god awful between the dust and rain wrapping. I had high hopes for today, so I'm not really happy with the results. I guess I shouldn't be upset since we got a tornado, but it really wasn't anything more than a stat padder IMO.

 

[Nick Hartley]

5/29/08 Reports: SD/NE/KS/IA

Ed Ballou and I started the day off by Crofton, NE, I think. After running into Aaron Kennedy and his crew, we watched multiple storms attempt to fire off but die due to capping. Intiatially thought storms would fire along US81 from Yankton on south, but surprised by early intiation by Bird City. Moved northwest of Yankton just as storms were firing in Bon Homme County. Witnessed multiple wall clouds during chase, we didn't see multiple vortices tornado as reported but then again we got fairly close to the storm at times. Treated to a beautiful sunset on the way home. Unfortunately my camera sucks a little bit, guess it is time to invest in a new one.

 

[Colin Davis]

Scott Kampas, Garry Wellman and I chased with Amos Magliocco and others much of the day and were rewarded with views (albeit short and low-contrast) of the Kearney tornado and, after screwing around with 2 other cells, finally blasted south just in time to view the Beloit tornado in its near entirety.

As others have said, this tornado will be one to remember. When we came upon it, it had apparently been on the ground for 2 or 3 minutes as a large cone (Mark Sefried and Darin Kaiser were the two that alerted us to its existence behind the rain...congrats to these two for being on it for its whole life span), but soon roped out gracefully and disappeared entirely. We closed in to just tornado-side of the DOW, and watched as a "new" tornado spawned from the same wall cloud and meso, this time emerging as a multi-vortex dust bowl. As the tornado expanded and intensified, it came to well within 200 yards of our location, and Garry got incredible video of the event. As we bailed to beat it to our next viewing location, it crossed the road behind us, spun into the field about 3/4 a mile to our north, taking on a classic stovepipe shape before expanding to a large dust bowl beneath a classic cone. We filmed it until we lost it in the rain (and fading light), and called it a night.

More detailed account (with photos/caps) to follow in the next several days. Congrats to all who had success today, including the DOW/TIV crews, who could not have been more successful in the Beloit tornado(es) if they had Miss Cleo aboard their caravan.

And thanks to Scott, Garry, Amos, and all the others along the way for an enjoyable day.

 

[Josh Murfield]

We got a really late start out of Lincoln, headed west on I-80 towards Aurora. By the time we got to York the TOR warning was issued for the Aurora-York corridor. Lacking any equipment besides Accu-Weather radar on the cell phone and a NOAA radio, we decided to try to get as close as we could to the storm and then head south to get a decent angle- turns out that came back to bite us as we drove right into the teeth of it with almost zero visibility just a half mile east of the Hampton exit. Made a U-turn and was able to get back out ahead of the storm, (though I really worried about all the trucks that continued west into that thing- many of which ended up getting blown over shortly after according to the local news) and then watched from the south as it approached and passed York. According to the radio reports there was a tornado on the ground all of that distance between Aurora and York, and as was mentioned by others I can't really tell if we saw it- this thing was so rain wrapped the only thing I can say I saw for certain was a wall cloud and a couple of pathetic funnels later on as the storm was headed up towards the Seward area. Kind of a disappointing day for us.

 

[Jason Branz]

Days like this make me wonder if I could chase my way out of a paper bag. I got to Kearney around 1 pm, checked some satellite and sfc obs, then headed down toward the storms moving into Frontier Co NE. After a speed reminder by the NHP, I continued west toward Elmwood, then a little farther NW on Hwy 23. The storm looked fantastic, with a huge wall cloud and deep green hail core. Well, I badly underestimated the storm speed, so it left me behind pretty quickly. After making some bad navigational decisions trying to catch up, I bailed south toward the KS storms, but didn't bail soon enough and was cut off by the core of the northernmost KS storm. Didn't feel like dealing with the possible baseballs, so I cut my losses and headed to Hastings for the night.

At least I got some good lightning shots.

 

[Paul Knightley]

Saw the tornado at Kearney and unfortunately the damage to the south of the town....carried east along the interstate (Kearney is 2 miles north of the interstate)...saw power flashes too.

Stayed ahead of the RFD (just!) past York - occasionally looked like a large tornado on the north side of the RFD but not certain. Now in Lincoln watching some lightning.

A bit annoyed that we'd driven through N KS earlier, and had thought about that area, but we saw a pretty awesome storm nonetheless. Got very windy in Lincoln this evening, with a severe storm rolling through as we ate dinner.

 

[Bryan Putnam]

Wow, how a day can quickly turn around! After spending hours trying to play catch up to the Kearney storm because i had gotten behind it to begin with, I flew south just in time to catch the Osbourne to Beloit tornadofest. I'm not sure how many came down in the end because there were certainly a lot! It started with a rope that immediately tossed around a good bit of dirt when it hit the ground. Watched as the wall cloud organized and expanded in size before putting down at least a couple more decent sized tornadoes. As others mentioned, it eventually became a wedge like circulation. A dust cloud rotated at the ground while multiple vortices took their turns forming and spinning around it. Got stuck in the town of Glen Elder where an apparent tornado knocked down trees and power lines. Fortunately it appears most of structures in the town were ok, I don't know about anything outside of the town or further to the northeast.

I also want to give out a message. While driving east following the wedge, a strong gust of wind hit the car in front of me and myself. I slammed on my breaks to avoid running into car, and I know the guy behind me made an amazing effort to not hit me by going off the road. I wanted to say thanks. I made sure the car drove back on the road before getting too far ahead (there was no where to pull over on that road!)

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Dan Dawson, Robin Tanamachi, and I (along with a couple others) made it to the Kearny area in time to witness at least one tornado on the SW side of town. We saw one large occlusion well SW of town, with good RFD motion and a gustnado. As we Hwy 44 two miles S of I80, a very rapid RFD punch occurred, followed by tornadogenesis to our immediate N. This tornado appeared to move N into rain, but there were at least a couple other tornado-like lowerings that we caught glimpses of through trees. We followed this cell as it became an HP mess to near Grand Island, at which time we decided it wasn't really worth chasing.

Seeing the sups in N KS, we hauled southward to see if we could catch the supercell W of Beloit. Lo and behold, we came out of the FFD on Hwy 14 N of Beloit, then proceeded W on 14/9 from Beloit. An absolutely beautiful updraft quickly came into view, followed by a tornado to our SW. The structure of the updraft was, hands down, the most gorgeous storm I have ever seen. This, by itself, would have made my day. We watched the large tornado move NE before trying to get closer to it N of Beloit. Well, that tornado occluded to the N as it appeared that a new meso developed to our E. We had some issues with dirt roads N of Beloit, and we had a scare when we noted a fat funnel to our immediate S (immediate being < 1/2 mi). We sat near Chris Collura and some TWISTEX folks when we saw a ground circulation with this funnel. We tried to move southward, but the ground circulation got way too close for comfort (it may have passed over Chris and the TWISTEX group). It was weak, and it was very occluded (the RFD gust front was well to the E, which is why this one caught us off guard a bit). We tried to catch up with the storm again NE of Belleville, catching glimpses of at least one cone tornado N of Concordia. A fuse blew in my car that took out the tail lights and instrument panel, so we opted to call it a night so I could find the busted fuse.

Overall, I would have considered today a bust (for me, at least), despite the Kearny cell. The Beloit supercell, however, was so jaw-dropping that it absolutely made the day.

 

[Ben Prusia]

Though I could not confirm a visual (most likely rain wrapped), I intercepted the Kearney storm southwest of town. As I headed back north on Nebraska Highway 44 towards Kearney, I witnessed a lot of power flashes. As I got to I-80, there was a power flash that resulted in some power outages in town. I could not see an actual tornado from my position to the south.

I followed this storm east on I-80 for a little before deciding to intercept the second storm. Headed south, I drove through very strong winds (dust storm almost). I headed back to I-80 and then followed a variety of storms back to the east as they weakened closer to Lincoln. Did not see much of anything else, and did a marathon drive back home.

Overall a decent chase, but I am still waiting for a shot at a decent tornado sometime this year. I will upload a vid cap or two sometime soon (once I figure out how to work this software).

 

[Eric Treece]

All in all I can't complain about today. I got up at 0500 and checked out the Day 1 and a few models and was out the door by 0730 targeting somewhere in the Kearney/Minden area. I ended up in Elm Creek for a few hours before initiation north of Goodland and intercepted near Eustice. Storm motion was insane and it seemed like no matter what route I would take it kept catching me. I finally opted to get closer to the core near Odessa and hopped on I-80 toward Kearney. Little did I know the tornado was not far behind me, but the precip core was so intense I couldn't see a thing from my location. I was beginning to lose a little faith in the storm itself as the storm near Oakley, KS was really catching my attention. I made the decision to stop at the Kearney exit and head south toward Minden and then intercept the southern cell in KS. As I was topping off my tank at the gas station the tornado sirens in Kearney started going off and I finished up and headed south a touch and into somekind of constuction/quarry area right off of the interstate and watched the meso come right into town. I sincerely hope everyone in the effected area is safe as it sounds as though there was some damage in Kearney itself. I talked myself out of heading south to the NC KS storm......DOH! As I headed back to Denver along I-80 I noticed some debris scattered throughout a couple of fields, a house that didn't fair so well and a number of billboards that took a beating as well.

Video of this can be seen here:

http://coloradostormchaser.com/video.htm

Here are a couple of pictures I took as well.

NUMEROUS power flashes can be see in the video. This tornado was wrapped up in a pretty tight precip core.

 

[Darren Addy]

Talk about your backyard storm chase. Left work about 10 minutes early and impulsively decided to try to beat the tornado warned storm SE of Odessa, NE to the Elm Creek exit. Succeeded. Dropped south of the Platte River and took the road east staying ahead of the storm and its hellacious (at times) outflow. Basically continued east and ended up in Kenesaw. Got back on I80 westbound and had trouble getting back into Kearney.

This was an impulsive naked chase and I really didn't know how badly Kearney was hit until I was on my way back and changed to a Kearney AM station. Wife was not pleased with my impulsive decision. "Chasers chase" did not seem to sway her attitude.

Have an uncorrected dump of what I took with a crappy point & shoot digital here:
http://cgi.unk.edu/tmp/nakedchase/

Donations to the "Let's Buy This Poor Sap a REAL Digital Camera Fund" can be made via Paypal to my contact address.

We are without electricity in most of Kearney. I'm at a friends stealin' his internet near Pleasanton, at the moment.

 

[Gabe Garfield]

My chase group and I intercepted the Kearney cell and then went on to witness the northern Kansas tube-fest.

In Kearney, I had a close call with the tornado on the south side of town when it went through. A little too close for comfort, but everything turned out okay (thankfully).

We dropped south to Kansas, where we witnessed one of the most amazing atmospheric spectacles I have ever seen. Tornadoes of every shape and size dropped within a 20 minute span SW of Glen Elder, before consolidating into a large tornado (that apparently hit the town directly). After this, we observed another large tornado that eventually hit Jewell. I talked with some locals who indicated that someone they knew had their home completely wiped off its foundation. After this, we observed another large tornado (not sure if this was continuous from the other tornado) north of Scandia (W and N of Belleville). This tornado was easily the most impressive wedge tornado I've ever seen. Initially, it was a large barrel, probably a quarter to half mile wide to our due north. As it moved east, it widened considerably. According to the locals we talked with, pavement was scoured on a road NW of Belleville. From all accounts, this tornado appears to be a candidate for a violent tornado rating.