6/07/08 REPORTS: SD/NE/IA/IL/MN/MO/WI/MI/IN/KS

[Jeremy Ludin]

Joel Wright and I observed a weak touchdown just north of Mason City, IA. We witnessed some incredible structure, including numerous rapidly rotating wall clouds and amazing motions. Definitely a great chase day!

 

[mark humpage]

Al Chapman and myself today caught an nice tube in Carpenter (Mitchell County), Iowa.

http://www.elementalproject.com/projects/tornado/photos/

Great chase day today with some fantastic structure.

Mark

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

Nothing all that Special for me today, though I wasn't expecting a lot out of the day, so I was content with what I saw, I did see a "Gustnado" that apparently was being reported as a tornado....

http://severechase.com/6-7-08.html

 

[rdale]

Getting married tomorrow so no chasing today, as I had rehearsal this evening. Visited the extended family at a hotel, with a SVR issued for my county. But given lack of reports to my west, I wasn't too concerned.

My cousin opened the window and told me to come look. I figured some gusty winds so no big deal. Finally walked over - and they were not just gusty winds. Sustained 50mph out of the north. Then the tornado sirens sounded, and you could feel vibrations in the hotel. Not fun.

Got everyone in a safe place, went to the lobby and was shocked at the winds. Sustained 70mph out of the north, with patio furniture / pieces of signs / etc. flying past. Scanner has possible tornado near I-96 and I-496 - about 1 mile southwest of me. Told the front desk that people needed to take shelter, she told me there's no warning as she just watched on TV, then she recognized me

Winds still blowing, called in to the station and did some live hits, and it resembled hurricane footage. I'd never seen sustained winds like that before. Gusts yep, but not long lasting. Drove around and dozens of 2-3ft+ trees down or snapped.

As I was driving around, heard a fire call for van on power lines now catching fire. We were just a minute north, so drove on down. PD already on scene - van was fully involved. Looks like they'd turned off the road and likely drove over the lines in the driveway. Ambulance was requested for the occupant, no word on extent of injuries. Happened to get video.

I'd never heard of a car catching fire from driving over power lines before...

 

[Danny Neal]

INCREDIBLE ..... will write more later. Chased down I - 57 caught a large violent tornado crossing I 57. Will post more later, was chasing with Adam Lucio, he was 2 miles ahead of me on 57! I was at mile marker 353 looking south he was mile marker 356 looking north, passed right between. He got stuck in traffic as there were trees and semi's and suv's flipped all over the interstate....I continued chasing it E into Richton Park and Chicago Heights where I witness a lot of structural damage. The tornado continued to move NE just ahead of me doing damage. It was a large bowl lowering with numerous vorticies as it hit the towns. A lot of power flashes, a lot of trees down, but other than the damage along I 57 I don't see any VIOLENT damage in those towns....Based on damage I personally saw I would go EF-2 max. That plant had considerable damage to it.


These are Adam Lucio's video's he got in great postion as I couldn't beat the tornado to get to his position. Props to Adam for doing everything right and calling 911. I was relaying reports to WX9LOT and he was doing it VIA 911.

http ://youtube.com/watch?v=UWp8M2RgmDc

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Zca9YF4lDFE

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1x47z1SAE-U

These are his videos, mine haven't uploaded yet!!! INCREDIBLE
He will post a full account in the next couple of days with more video. Some of the best video I have seen so I thought I would share while he is recovering from Oral surgery.

 

[Willoughby Owen]

Pretty cool chase day as well in far-northern Iowa.

Headed north from Des Moines and we decided on intercepting the strong storms below the MN border which had some great potential seeing the exploding Cb tops from afar. Cell east of the tail-end cell over Fertile west of the I-35 started to hook for a bit and met quite a strong rotating wall cloud with it, but somethings prevented a tornado at that stage (probably a lack of inflow). As we followed the wall cloud eastwards across the I-35 noticed a small gustnado on our right and kept with it for a couple of minutes.. got pretty close to us in the end! Was developing into a tornado possibly we thought for a few seconds. Gave up on that one as the wall cloud turned sour after some 15 minutes and targeted the tail end. That didn't look all good either so headed into Mason City where a new wall cloud formed (probably where we missed that tornado!) Stayed there and had a beautiful sunset with incredible crawlers lighting up the sky from dusk.





Last chase day on the plains tomorrow!

 

[Donald Giuliano]

Though I didn't see a tornado up in Iowa today, this was not a complete bust for me as I witnessed a surprisingly long-lived gustnado--something like 15-20 minutes--just west of Fort Dodge. The thing exhibited multiple-vortex structure and apparently caused a flurry of conflicting reports to NWS, who quite understandably couldn't figure out if it was a gustnado or a bona fide tornado.

When I first saw this feature I thought "gustnado", then "landspout", then "definitely gustnado". Then, after getting right up next to it along the leading edge of the outflow bulge and taking a long, hard look it appeared the rotation was in fact connected to the cloud base...BUT...at the same time it was clearly being maintained as a gustnado and any rotation in the leading edge of the shelf cloud where it formed looked little different than many other outflow cloud whirls I've seen. In my opinion it was certainly a gustnado, though an unusually long-lived one to be sure and better than many a weak-tor. Got some interesting footage of it, which Reed will post for me on YouTube shortly.

**EDIT**

Link to YouTube video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eFeO-G3o9mg

 

[Darrin Rasberry]

Woke up sick early this morning and originally thought I wasn't going to be able to chase my own backyard, more or less any part of the state. However, as the afternoon progressed and the supercells on the MN border remained separate and strong, I dragged myself to Mason City (still somewhat ill, which was a boneheaded thing to do since I was driving) and arrived at the show on highway 65 about thirty minutes too early due to a mistaken reading of the sparse (but still useful) GRL2 map on my cell from Weathertap. I watched the storm approach with anticipation and excitement, and although it started to shelf out over Mason City toward the end, I was treated to a nice, relaxed hour of watching a beautiful storm without having to blow three tanks of gas and half a day of driving to get to it.

I can't report with confidence that I saw a wall cloud. From my vantage (and in my footage) it appeared for a moment that I witnessed a lowering with a defined base and inflow tail. A hilarious moment ensued when a few other people started going crazy over smoke from a plant pluming out from under this feature, calling to mind the "smokenado" term I've heard here before. However, a brief moment existed where me and a local spotter witnessed a well-defined shape that could have very well been the funnel that produced the brief tornado. I will have to review the tape with more experienced chasers to verify or discard what I may have seen, since the feature in question was far enough away from my position for rotation verification. I met up with Craig and another stormchaser, and we witnessed some positively evil-looking areas of convergence to the south of Mason City. It was of course not necessarily severe, but it was beautiful!

With Bill Schintler's help, I intercepted a TOR-warned storm INVOF the Fort Dodge area, but it had unfortunately shelfed out while I was repositioning. However, I snapped a few shots of a beautiful whale's mouth, and witnessed a gustnado even closer than the one I saw a month back.

Even my local chases are not without their necessary gaffes and misfortunes, and mine struck when my Severe WX radio ran out of batteries while I was trying to find my way down Highway 65, which had been in part closed and rerouted due to a bridge being out. Without information, I had to assume the storms to the south (now unwatchable at night) still had dangerous potential, so I wound and backtracked my way home, taking two more hours than the one and a half hour the trip typically requires. Of course when I got home I found out the storms had all weakened and that I could have taken I-35 safely, but oh well - when you don't know the situation for sure, better safe than sorry.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

As mentioned in the NOW thread, I chased the supercell that hit the southern Chicago suburbs. I witnessed 3 very large destructive tornadoes during the 1-2 hours I was on the storm.

Intercepted it south of Wilmington, IL where it dropped a "May 3rd" type black wedge tornado with violent motion. The tornado morphed between wedge and multivortex. Did not hit any towns, but did hit several farm houses that I saw. If this tornado is not rated violent, I don't know what is. Stuff was flying FAR. I saw what looked to be a car thrown at least half a mile through the air. This tornado passed about a mile down the hwy from me, and I got the classic shot of debris flying across the road.

This tornado roped out, and was later replaced by a (hard to believe) MUCH large tornado. It had insane structure with a large white bell meso with a black wedge. underneath. I reached the town of Andres as the tornado maxed out to about a mile wide. The tornado was 2 times wider than it was tall. First time I've ever heard the "roar" of a tornado. I was only about 2 miles away from the tornado at this point as well.

It continued along to the northeast becoming a large barrel tornado and roping out. Then the coolest thing happened. I have never seen such a quick transition. The tornado roped out while a new area developed quickly. Within fifteen SECONDS of the tornadoes occlusion a new wedge was already on the ground. This is the tornado that tracked into the southern suburbs. I watched it cross Interstate 57 as a multivortex and then pass through the southern suburbs as a large tornado again before losing it in rain and urban areas.

I did not expect to chase, but checking the weather situation in Iowa I had noticed some form of boundary across northeast Illinois. It was visible on radar and on satellite, as well as on mesoanalysis data. SBCape was on the order of 4500 in this area with 0-1 KM helicity at 450. I knew if anything broke the cap it would go nuts. Got to take my girlfriend Tia for her first chase, and it turned out to be a decent outting for her. She did an excellent job helping me with the maps and such.

Will have video up very shortly!

 

[Adam Lucio]

Danny posted my videos above, which are my personal best so far in my 3 year chase "career."

Didnt plan on chasing today. Had oral surgery in the morning and spent all afternoon spitting up blood...watching the radar. The initial reports started going up around Dwight but I was not sold based on radar. The cell had appeared to die [which I would later realize it merely occluded the old meso/tornado.]

I noticed at the time that the Midway METAR near where I live was showing 79 over 72...where as Kankakee...about 40 miles south....was 90 over 75. So I thought to myself that this is where the warm front has to be and this storm had the potential to explode on the boundary. So off I went.

Went down 294 to get to I 57, punched through the core and got some brief hail probably no larger than penny, it looked elongated on radar so I felt confident about not driving into a rain wrapped tornado, sure enough I emerged to absolutely stunning structure which can be seen on one of the videos. The striated meso was the best I have ever seen, I was tempted to pinch myself at this point.

Pritchard must have been very near me, as I noticed the rope out/funnel he mentioned directy out my passanger window...knowing the motion was to the NE I went south a bit to find a clearing from the trees, jumped out of my van and sure enough a rather violent looking cone was on the ground [again can be seen in the video]

The tornado crossed I-57 and like Pritchard said, transitioned into a multi vortex wedge type tornado. Due to the extensive damage across I-57 I got stuck in the police block off for an hour and all hope was lost of me keeping up with the storm so I just took some damage photos, from what I heard noone was seriously hurt thankfully.

Probably the most incredible last minute chase Ill ever have, now I know how everyone felt in Oklahoma on 5-24. Since Danny posted my videos I wont link them again, or post stills...

The tornado in its multi vortex stage after crossing the expressway.

Fairy significant damage on the W side of the expressway. Im not sure what these structures were.

Rolled SUV and crowds of people emerging from their vehicles to investigate, many weren't convinced it was a tornado till I showed them my video.

Rolled semi - the driver was ok from what I heard.

Large warehouse type building that received pretty significant damage.

These tornadoes struck a fairly populated area, but just nearly missed greater population densities to the north by only a couple miles. Thankfully I have yet to hear of any loss of life.

 

[afischer]

I was on the Osborne-Smith co. KS storm. The structure was absolutely nuts. Had the storm been longer-lived or had beefier, more tornadic low-levels, I would call it the best structured storm I have ever seen. Intercepted it between Downs and Osborne at 745pm and saw a somewhat high rainfree base in the distance with a blocky wall cloud. As I got closer to the storm, it looked like it wanted to gust out... and I thought I had missed a tornado by minutes per radio station relay of scanner reports (though in the end I think that was an old report with a previous updraft per LSRs)... so after 4 hours of driving I was pretty annoyed at the timing. However, over the next 10 minutes, the updraft exploded over Highway 24 with a perfectly symmetrical mushroom/crown shape, with bubbling convection above somewhat laminar low-levels. Right as I started driving quickly away from it to try and get some structure shots from ~10 miles out, significant cloudbase rotation ensued. Drove back to a point 5 miles west of Downs (thus not ending up getting any complete structure shots since I don't own a wide angle lens) and watched the storm with a group of locals. A classic RFD cut came in and focused fairly impressive rotation to my northwest. A large funnel resulted, temporarily wrapping in rain. Then the wall cloud came back out of the rain and twin funnels appeared. The rightmost one started spinning rapidly, then constricted into a rope which fully condensed at 837pm--producing a surprising little debris swirl at the ground. This was probably located a couple miles southeast of Portis KS. It was funny listening to the locals cheer on the funnels/tornado. The wall cloud occluded fully, and in time the storm began to weaken. A second supercell developed to the west.. in fact my hunch is the updraft was there the entire time. This one produced dual, non-rotating wall clouds and earned more tornado warnings from Hastings. I chased it up to the NE state line... watching it gradually shrivel in diameter into a small LP. On my way home I got pulled over in Brown county for a tail light out, and had an interesting discussion with the officer about chasing and his having seen a tornado on June 5. I'll have photos up in a few days. Hopefully others got better photos than I did of the structure.

 

[Josh Boustead]

That is really amazing from the Chicago area. I decided to buck the trend, not because I had any great insight, but because I had to be back to work here in Topeka for a mid shift this morning and I couldn't make it over to IA/IL. So after waking up in the early afternoon, I targeted north central KS or south central NE along the stalling cold front. Since the shear vectors were generally aligned along the surface boundary I was afraid that storms would be interfered with by newly developing convection upstream before any storm could become mature and produce. This seemed to be happening through the early evening while I making my way to Osborn/Jewell counties. By the time I arrived there, one dominate updraft had taken over and was located just northwest of Osborn, KS. I then set off of highway 281 for some time and watched the storm cycle a couple of times. Was kind of weird sitting out there all by myself without any other chasers around. Eventually the storm shifted east enough that I needed to reposition farther east. Dropped south into Osborn and took the Old Tipton Rd east out of Osborn. As I emerged east of town, I observed a well defined wall cloud had rapidly developed with rapid cloud base motions. This soon produced a short-lived tornado which appeared to be just southeast of the town of Portis. The tornado wasn't on the ground for long before lifting and the wall cloud weakened. Followed the storm north of Downs where I sat and took several shots of the great structure. Then ended the chase there as I had to be back to work for another midnight. All-in-all a very nice backyard chase. Storm exhibited great structure throughout the lift cycle and very intense cloud to ground lightning, with the tornado just icing on the cake.

Pictures to follow after some sleep and time to process what I got.

 

[Olivier Staiger]

long line of storms from Hays to York... cells died one after the other... till the only survivor was Tail-End-Charlie.... stunning rotating wallcloud that spinned down a tiny spaghetti.... Beauty and the Beast.

still chasing with swiss weather service forecaster Dean Gill, and met up with Gene Moore .

 

[Peter Nicholos]

I'll keep it short. First time I've posted my chase account on here. Intercepted the Tornado by Odell as it was just touching down the first time. Followed the cell all the way up to Will county. Lost sight of it trying to cross the Kankakee River on rte. 113 and drove through damage path. Caught back up to it in Will county when it wedged out. The tornado was probably up and down about 5-6 times. Here is the link to youtube. I'd post pics but I forgot my batteries to the digital camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGHlrXSDy2k

 

[Skip Talbot]

Three wall clouds and no tornadoes. 1000 miles.

Targeted Des Moines but saw the cu field moving out of Nebraska was going to swing quite a bit to the north so ran up 35 and saw a cell going up northeast of Ames. I followed it from its birth, while it organized an RFB, condensed a wall cloud with an RFD and occluded before gusting out and embeddeding in other cells. That was probably the first time I've seen the complete storm cycle in person. It was the first cell in the line to go tornado warned but it did not condense anything down to the ground:

I dropped to the next cell in the line, which was tor warned with a nice hook. It had a great backlit wall cloud with bowl meso above it. It would have been picture perfect if it produced but it did not. The CG was fantastic. I was parked under some powerlines, which got hit a couple miles to the south, and I heard a loud buzz in the lines right as the strike came down, with the thunder crack afterwards. That was both neat and disturbing:

As that wall cloud occluded and became embedded I dropped to tail end charlie and saw a third wall cloud with sunbeams above it (an interesting combination although the storm was on its way out):

I crossed the MN border and got on the bigger cells to my north, but they were already gusting out. I dropped down the line to different tornado warned parts but I kept seeing the same story: whale's mouth well ahead of the storm, and a mean shelf and precip core behind that. The day was over. I bailed and headed for home where I got the ultimate stab in the back finding out about the wedge fest 40 miles south of where I live.