I was on the supercell between Ord and Ericson NE from around initiation. Today was one of those days you just kind of enjoyed because of how some processes work. Stuggling storms can be fascinating to watch, when/if they finally get going I guess.
I'll post pictures and more info tomorrow but thought I'd toss this up tonight. I thought the storm was toast when I got hit in the face by cool outflow in a location about 1-3 miles south of the storm. I almost called Steve and Randy back and told them they may as well turn around and head back home, I really thought it was done for. This was just sw of Ericson on the highway that goes ne out of Ord. The storm was moving very slow to the ssw. I'm looking at it to my ne as it moves towards me when I get hit by the cool air from the north, in a location that wasn't all that near the base yet. I'd guess it was probably 5-10 minutes after that I hear this sudden roaring noise. First I thought hail, but it just sounded too much like wind. Then I can see a line of trees about 1/4 mile up the higway bending over to the west. I thought I'd quickly get hit by these winds since they were so close, but I didn't. They carried on like this for a bit, in this localized channel, while this elongated storm seems to seperate and organize quickly to the west. The updraft above begins to curl around hard to the ne with chaotic motions now happening in the base. I was like, this is going to tornado now! I wondered where the the tornado warning was since I could see the updraft rotating, then right then it came out. It was just very cool how that whole process worked before that storm took off, albeit for a short bit. It was amazing how strong and localized that wind was from the east and how as it happened the storm cleared away from the precip and the updraft began to rotate with strong vertical motions under the base. The bad part was the base wasn't very flat now, it was rarther torn up and looked like it was almost multicellular even if the updraft above the area was not. The base didn't look good, but the updraft above it started to crank around. Areas under the base would seem to get a decent sized cut and look to tornado before quickly losing it in that region. Then it would happen somewhere else. Pretty cool I guess.
The radar loop of this is interesting as well. Watch this radar loop of this.
HERE
ODX on there is Ord. This event happens just ne of Ord. You can see it struggle, struggle, then bam it gets a hook and plows sw. Uggggg! So close to getting that crazy NE supercell in July. Change a little something about today and that probably would have offered some tornadic fun. I bet that boundary being too much e-w there might have been the problem. It looks like it was having a hard time latching to it(maybe it was just LCLs...it was 97/70 in Burwell at this time with winds gusting to 20mph from the ssw). You can see those cells popping off some e-w boundary and jumping east. Oh, the other cool thing about these are watching how other cells help them organize and get deeper. That cell north of it had to help it out with its bit of rain cooled air. I kept waiting for it to bump into this southern one as I figured that extra cold pool might be just what it needed. Heck if you watch the loop you can kind of visualize the bumping and gaining cold pools from those small cells on down the line till the big one goes. Well you can at least see the one north of it finally bump into it right before it takes off.
The more I watch that loop the more it interests me. Watch how that outflow boundary it is creating to the west really kinks in. It almost seems like the cold pools or rfds of the northern ones push that boundary south first and then that movement pulls the storm. You can see a weak push behind that main e-w bounday catch up to that boundary right when it really goes sw. The boundary certainly lunges sw BEFORE the storm did, right before. I guess if the cold pools bumping south helped that storm deepen, a stronger plume would create a stronger RFD which caused that kink. Then the kink would go maybe right before you see much for returns. It just looks strange to me I guess. It seems like the kink in the rfd/outflow boundary happens just a bit early and gives it more of a yank look, as apposed to a storm wrapping around and sending the rfd/outflow boundary out.
Maybe this fits more of a discussion, lol. I'm probably just being stupid and looking too much at this boundary/storm interaction.
For what it is worth this reminded me ALOT of June 20, 2005 in far se SD. That did something similar with a strong eastward push and a storm getting a hook like this and moving sw.
THAT CHASE
It is 2 a.m....several hours too late to be staring at yanking rfds. Pictures to go with this later.
EDIT:
Something else about this storm. It is pretty darn freaky where that storm did that. It is essentially exactly where the one went July 12, 2004. It didn't go quite as long(but close) but where it went can't be a couple miles different than the one in 04. What are the odds of 2 storms tracking sw down a boundary like that in the same exact area(pretty much as close as you can get). Mesos tracking sw can't be very common to begin with, but to be so close would be very very rare. It crosses the highway west of Ericson exactly where the tornado did in 2004. It even lifts and plows s then se at the same location as the one in 04 did. The speeds were even the same for the locations, lol. It started off west of Bartlett not really moving. The 04 one even had a storm bump it from the north and "merge" with it where it started west of Bartlett. Too freaky.
