5/5/07 REPORTS: KS / NE / OK

[cstrunk]

This is my first chase report, from my first "real" chase ever.

I wasn't expecting to go on a chase, but while having a family dinner party with some friends, we heard a tornado warning for a tornado sighted just west of Shenandoah, IA. I was actually outside watching that area for development, and was informed about the tornado warning by my family. This area was about 7-8 miles west of my house. I ran over to the west side of my house to get a clear view past some trees and saw a large, beautiful, rotating wall cloud. One of our family guests was ready to chase after it (I had discussed with him earlier before the warning came out about being ready to chase in case something came close), and he fired up his truck while I grabbed the camera from the house.

We watched the wall cloud as we caught up to it while moving parallel with it (heading north) at a distance of about 4-5 miles to our west. At times there was very intense rotation clearly evident. We heard reports of tornado sightings within this circulation and tornado damage reported. We were too far away to see anything on the ground. We followed the circulation all of the way to several miles northwest of Red Oak, IA, where we stopped when we caught up to the circulation itself, which was almost overhead. We watched the circulation for a few minutes before trying to catch it again, but called off the chase due to darkness and running low on gas. We refueled in Red Oak and headed back home. We were disappointed that we had to break off the chase because shortly after doing so we heard confirmed reports of a large tornado on the ground east of the Oakland, IA area.

We learned that the tornado five miles northwest of Shenandoah crossed within about a quarter mile of my friends house who was at my home for our party. His dad was watching the storm and spotted the small 50-100 yard wide funnel move across their pond and property. He reported small building damage and grain bins destroyed. There was also damage reported near the small town of Imogene, IA, about 5 miles north of the other damage reported.

I will post my only decent picture of the wall cloud later.

I had a fun time on my first tornado chase, although I can see how having more information can definitely help while in the field. We did pretty good at keeping up with the storm and choosing roads that eventually got us caught up to the actual circulation. I just wish there would have been more daylight and we had more gas.

*Edit: Added my only halfway decent picture, sorry for the blurriness!

 

[Bryan Putnam]

Our group had what we've deemed a "bases loaded" day. We were on four separate wall clouds in the Protection to Coldwater KS area as the dry line kept firing off storms. We finally caught a couple of funnel clouds and a brief tornado SE of Greensburg from the fourth storm we were on. We ended up losing it do to the limited road options in the area at that point and the fact that we were not sure of where we were allowed to go or not. The damage path left over from the night before was obviously quite humbling.

 

[Verne Carlson]

Michael and I feasted on cones, wedges, and ropes between St. John and Pratt, KS today with the Japaneese DreamVision Production Crew and Silver Lining Tours. A couple of times we had multiple tornadoes on the ground. My favorite of the day was the 'Wizard of Oz' rope west of St. John - just incredible motion and snaking on the ground. I'm spent, off to bed!

Full report here: http://stormchaserco.blogspot.com/2007/05/2007-05-05-report.html

 

[George Flickinger]

Ended up chasing the tornado-less area from Woodward to Protection/Coldwater to near Greensburg. Got shut out today, but saw lots of dead cattle from the previous day's tornadoes....quite sad.

 

[Billy Griffin]

What a day! Two chases on the year, and 11 tornadoes. I have been one lucky fella'. Took the wife and kids this time, and they had a blast as well. We had almost decided to head back to Seattle for the weekend, as after months of flooding, Mt. Rainier National Park opened today. Ahh, but I guess enough whining, the wife agreed and we stuck around here for the weekend.

4 tornadoes today. Pictures and video links coming soon, but for now, you can catch the News 9 interview and my video of just one tornado, doing quite a bit of damage near the town of Sweetwater, OK, on the following link:

http://newsok.com/article/3049974

EDIT: Finally getting photos posted up on my webpage. Some incredible stuff I didn't even know I had. Photos and video captures as the Sweetwater school explodes! Welcome to take a look-see at: http://www.billygriffin.com/2007 Storm Chasing.htm

#2 EDIT: Photos from yesterday... (MUCH BETTER RESOLUTION AND PHOTO / HD VIDEO AT WEBSITE - WWW.BILLYGRIFFIN.COM)

FINALLY GETTING ARCHIVED VIDEOS FROM OVER TWENTY YEARS UPLOADED ON MY WEBSITE !!!

 

[Doug Mitchell]

Got off work at 2pm and blasted SW out of Lawrence with my roommate. Got on the first t-warned sup (that I know of) in Reno County and witnessed a brief tornado near the Raymond/Chase area. After that, we struggled the rest of day as not having radar data severely hindered our ability to get on new storms and rotation. Got caught in the hook of the Barton County storm as it produced large tornadoes just to our east. Most intense CG barrage ever. The powerlines were glowing and my roommate said he saw a road sign "explode". The flashes were so close they burned in my eyes for about 15-20 minutes.

Will put video up soon of the Raymond tornado.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Tyler and I just got back to Pittsburg, needless to say I'm tired so this is just a few pics from today..

 

[edward oneal]

Work stopped me from chasing, but for a short time on Sunday when first thinking about it, I was mad. But after what happened to Greensburg, missing this show is OK. Had a friend lose everything he had this weekend in Greensburg, which is only 39 miles from Dodge City. Hope everyone who looks to the sky will say a prayer for all who were hit hard this week. Be safe out there.
.

 

[George Grant]

No WiFi

...confirmed reports of a large tornado on the ground east of the Oakland, IA area. I had a fun time on my first tornado chase, although I can see how having more information can definitely help while in the field.

Having current data helps immensely. We found out my wireless adapter had died after driving several hours to the Bosselman's in Grand Island. Found a WallyWorld and purchased a new Linksys 801B/G and scooted back to Bosselman's for data. It worked, but I'm still having problems with my Windoze networking. Sigh...

Made it to Saline county to the southeast to catch up with a tornado-warned cell coming out of Thayer county off the Kansas border. Stayed ahead of that cell up until highway N-33 and east of Crete until we lost the couplet. Took some nickel- to pingpong-sized hail trying to get ahead of it up to N-33. Watched it wind down as we chatted with about twelve other chasers just west of US-77.

Got back to Omaha just as my brother called about a tornado-warned cell just across the Missouri in Mills county. We raced east on I-80 to Council Bluffs and took US-6 east to Oakland. Dropped south on US-59 to the Carson "interchange." We could see the tower southeast of Oakland as anvil crawlers lit it. By this time it was dark, so we went west on highway 92 instead of east past Carson. Missed that touchdown by about four or five miles, because of my inability, er, unwillingness to drive east through a northbound tornado-warned storm in darkness. Without radar.
Pic of dying wall cloud southeast of Crete.

 

[Wesley Luginbyhl]

I brought my g/f along for another chase and my friend Dave. I got to find out what was too close for my g/f late in the day. I found out I have no interent anywhere in NW OK, so if I ever chase there is going be doing it blind. We caught the first storm that tracked near Buffalo, OK. Looked pretty good for a few moments and gusted out before it made it to KS, but it got back together as it traveled north. After realizing we needed internet we dropped back to Woodward.

After 30 mins in Woodward a new cell went up west of Buffalo, so we jumped on it. As we went into KS, I went down a dirt road that wasnt too bad, that changed though. After making it through a gate we came across a valley of mud. So we turned around to see a small wall cloud with weak rotation coming right at us. I figured it was best to drive under before it got bigger. It gusted out as we drove under it. We then stayed on paved roads and got back in front of it in Protection, just in time to see decent rotation pass north of the city and hear the sirens go off.

We jumped up to Coldwater and was going to follow it till we a got radar and notice the amazing tower SW of us. Got some pretty good pictures of a couple wall clouds and funnels hanging down with Coldwater in the foreground. The race was on from here on. Took some back roads through the countryside till we saw the first real good couple of funnels south of Haviland. We repositioned north of highway 54 and were travel down NW 140th in Pratt county when we saw a cone come down. A second vortex came down and there were 2 tornadoes down at once. After having to head east to keep from becoming part of the storm.

We caught back up with the area of ciculation on NW 110th and drove east and took Dillwyn road north. We could see the large tornado on the ground near Macksville as we approached from the south. We passed through one road block, not really noticing it because some one had moved it. We then came across a bigger road block, though there was room to get around I didnt really want to go through it, but after looking at are other options, it was the only way to stay with the storm. I figure there would be powerlines across the road at some point so i took it pretty slow down the road and turned on my flasher when i realized a larger group of cars was coming fast up behind me down the road. There was miles of powerlines down through here. The large Macksville tornado may have still been on the ground at this point, but we got distracted by a new funnel dropping down directly in front of about a mile down the road if that. Some people were trying to pass because i didnt know what was on our road, not to mention the tornado in front of us. As we passed a small substation I believe it was, I noticed powerlines across the road but it was way to late to try and stop with the people on my bumper. The rope funnel in front of us lasted a good couple minutes, it was very breathe taking, and had a very nice debris cloud which I think just about hit some people sitting on highway 50.

After making it to highway 50 we repositioned to north of St. John on 281 and waited for the storm to catch up. After getting marble size hail, the rain and hail stopped and we were left in foggy condition with a low base approaching us from the southwest. After 5 minutes of watching this base approach, I began to hear a loud noise. Sounded something like a semi coming down the highway, but there was noone driving near us. I looked to my south to see what seemed like a heavy rain shaft jsut south of the people sitting south of me. The noise just got louder and louder, we then decided it was time to run and hightailed it east to a safer location. While out on Stafford Rd, we saw numerous lowerings and a powerflash on stafford road to our north as the circulation passed over that area.

We then called it a night and began the head back to Norman after nearly wrecking numerous times while trying to navigate the wet sandy roads that had very large ruts in them and some very large water puddle we had to drive through. Anyday you bag 5 or so tornadoes is a good day. A very stressfull chase but a very amazing day. Kansas treated me well again where I am 3 for 3 this year. 6 for 10 on chases this year and over 25 tornadoes.

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoO9zqh63_o

Here are a couple pics:
The twin funnels were at the Kiowa, Pratt, Edwards County lines intersection roughly, it was amazing, they were rotating around each other. The rope formed on the front edge of the clear slot near highway 50 and Dilwyn road SW of St. John while one of the big tornadoes was down about 3 miles west of there. They may be a bit blurry, low light always gives me issues.

 

[afischer]

Chased the Pratt to Rice county storm fairly early on from infancy (near Coats KS)... observed a tornado at close range just SW of Stafford as I was punching back through the back side of the storm. The wall cloud was rotating violently. The tornado only lasted 30 seconds. A huge wall cloud was looming over town, and it whipped up two nice white funnels, neither of which touched down. Caravaned with tons of other vehicles on a new storm from Great Bend northeastward toward Ellsworth, but was too late for any of the decent tornadoes. I intercepted the next beast of a storm just east of Great Bend shortly after 9 pm, but it looked rainwrapped. Today was a case of staying with storms a little too long and missing out on storms farther down the line, I guess.

 

[Daniel Christianson]

Congrats to all.. thes past chase days i should have just STAYED HOME " but no i drive some odd hundred 1000 miles lol.. i missed the Arnold NE tornadoes by 20 min, and well i found myself either taking a side road or going into Arnold as another cell was approaching, lot of low land flooding up in Arnold, then as im on my way home i just love hearing warnings go out for my home counties", i just said the heck with it and was filimng some flooding going on down in Lincoln NE, and worked my way on US 77 towards Wahoo..

 

[Tim Marshall]

Target was Woodward, OK to Pratt, KS. Began the day in Meade, KS then dropped south to pick up tail-end charlie at Buffalo, OK. Chased that storm for hours to the northeast, and it was a race chase. Filmed a brief tornado west of Pratt, KS. Tracked the storm northeast and saw a nice funnel near Stafford, KS. Gave up on that storm and headed southwest to Haviland, KS to pick up another tornadic storm. Followed this circulation northeast and saw a large, low-contrast tornado southwest of St. John. Called it quits due to darkness and poor visibilities. Had dinner in Pratt. TM

 

[Dan Robinson]

I witnessed five tornadoes from three different supercells in the Macksville-St. John-Larned areas, with two on the ground at once (again). The tornadoes were nice, but this was my worst tornado day in terms of capturing photos and video. Low light artifacting issues with HDV, fast storm motions and tornadoes lifting before I could stop and shoot all resulted in me not getting any usable footage or stills. Still, a great chase day. Tornadoes were occuring literally inside the damage paths from Friday's tornadoes. I have a shot of a tornado with damage from Friday in the foreground.

A few video grabs here:
http://stormhighway.com/blog/may507a.shtml

 

[Bobbi Andrzejek]

This is my first chase report, from my first "real" chase ever.

This is my first chase report too. We were on the Yankton, SD storms. We live about 13 miles northeast of Yankton.

Things started happening pretty early in the day for us. About 11:00 am, the first severe storms moved in. From our farm I watched a rotating wall cloud drop a funnel about 2 miles west of us. It dipped up and down a few times, but never touched down.

My son (7) desperately wanted to go out, but I waited to see how things would develop. I'm not experienced enough yet to feel confident going out when the storms were moving so fast. So many of the tornados in our area were rained-wrapped and hard to see. We finally decided to stay close to home. For most of the day, storms flew by west of us. Toward evening, I saw a good cell just south of Crofton, NE on the radar and we headed out to intercept it.

At the Missouri River near Gavin's Point Dam we saw three separate tornadoes. A big wall cloud descended and dropped the first tornado. It grew into a wedge and then split into two. A third tornado came out of the same storm (I think). Everything was moving so fast. The storm motion was about 50 mph and they just flew by. We followed the storms up to about the Tyndall area, but they were moving so fast it was too dangerous to try to keep up given the torrential rains. The winds were moving my Suburban all over the roads, too.

We had a lot of fun. My son was thrilled to see his first "real" tornado up close and personal. I think he's hooked.