Chase Case #4

[Chris Allington]

I ended up stopping on my way from Omaha to Rolla in Columbia, MO and thats where I will stay. I want to stay just ahead of the surface front but I'm really starting to not like the surface winds here. Oh well... worse comes to worse I can vist some relatives.

 

[Scott Weberpal]

I will be posting the 00z data/results a little earlier than I originally said I would. I'm leaving to go out of town for the weekend, so I'll post the results sometime around 3 pm today instead of 5-7 pm.

 

[Chad Cowan]

.. I decide to go North East in Janesville,wisconsin, ready to go east where I expect a convective development ..

Really going out on a limb there and picking Scott's hometown, huh?

I actually think today has solid potential for supercells and tors near the Galesburg, IL area. That's where I would have shifted to from Peru, IL. I really like the 77/63 reading just to the west of me with, and with a nearly southerly wind at the surface and NW flow aloft, vertical shear is quite good, especially for any storm that deviates to the right. Keeping a close eye on the CU field forming along the prefrontal confluence zone in east IA...

 

[Marc Austin]

Well since results will be posted soon, I suppose I have to settle on a target now. Currently I'm in Burlington, CO watching some towering CU to my west. I hate to pick an exact target now. I'll just define a relatively small region within eastern Colorado. One in which I would be able to make it to a storm within reasonable time. I would probably chase within a box from Burlington north to the Colorado border south and west to Fort Morgan, CO, south to Limon, CO and back east along I70 to Burlington. While I do think tornadoes are possible over southern Wyoming, I like the terrain here in Colorado as well as the idea of some lumbering supercells. I'm expecting some large hail at the very least. If nothing forms, I'll make a stop in the beautiful Rockies. Coming from FL, I don't see mountains too often. Thanks for putting this together Scott!

 

[Patrick Martin]

Well since results will be posted soon, I suppose I have to settle on a target now. Currently I'm in Burlington, CO watching some towering CU to my west. I hate to pick an exact target now. I'll just define a relatively small region within eastern Colorado. One in which I would be able to make it to a storm within reasonable time. I would probably chase within a box from Burlington north to the Colorado border south and west to Fort Morgan, CO, south to Limon, CO and back east along I70 to Burlington. While I do think tornadoes are possible over southern Wyoming, I like the terrain here in Colorado as well as the idea of some lumbering supercells. I'm expecting some large hail at the very least. If nothing forms, I'll make a stop in the beautiful Rockies. Coming from FL, I don't see mountains too often. Thanks for putting this together Scott!

Seeing as how we are both in Burlington, I'll just say "ditto" since the northeast quadrant of CO would be my chosen chase terrain for this day. If CO ends up being a bust Marc, you are welcome to caravan back to my house and we'll throw some steaks on the grill.

 

[Scott Weberpal]

The results are in! This day was a tornado outbreak day with 27 tornado reports in one state alone. Another state had 7 tornadoes, and another state had two reported tornadoes.

I have post some 00z data here with the storm reports at the very bottom so you can look at the data first and make a personal decision as to whether or not you think you're in the right spot before you peek at the storm reports. The only clue I'll give is that it was NOT a late summer event, it was a May event.

Was the day what you expected? Were you surprised at the storm reports?

00z UPPER AIR

00z 300mb
00z 500mb
00z 700mb
00z 850mb

00Z SURFACE

00z Fronts
2245z Upper Midwest
2245z Central High Plains
2245z Plains/Ozarks

SATELLITE & RADAR

2245z Satellite
0045z Satellite

00z Upper Midwest Radar
00z Plains Radar

STORM REPORTS

SPC Storm Reports For This Day
My favorite picture from the day
ILX writeup with pictures
MKX writeup with pictures - My pictures are included here

 

[Darren Addy]

Whoo-hoo! My first tornado of 2009! I'll take VIRTUAL tornadoes in January.
(At least I'd like to THINK I would have gotten the Ft. Morgan tornado, although if I was impatient I might have gotten lured west for the slightly earlier Weld storm (which also apparently produced).

Edit: on further review, not finding confirmation of a Ft. Morgan tornado, though the SPC shows a report of one.

 

[Dick McGowan]

Ahhhhh, I didn't have time to analyze yesterday's updates before today (I was on a dialup connection until now). Oh well, I was in position to see tornadoes just based off of 12z data alone.

I'm staying in Kirksville, MO northeast of the surface low, and in position for the shortwave progged to arrive later today. I'll most likely be heading east at around 15z into Western Illinois depending on my 18z data.

 

[Dick McGowan]

Thanks again, Scott, and everyone else who has put these together! It sure helps pass the time and to brush-up skills before the real thing starts.

 

[Chad Cowan]

Boom goes the dynamite! Lucio and I nailed Peru, IL with the early morning target but I got antsy and went to Galesburg. There was a tornado report 15 miles from there so I hopefully would have seen that one. Thanks Scott.

EDIT: Just looked at the archived radar loop on the SPC events page and the storm of the day blew up right over Galesburg. It went on to drop multiple tornadoes across the state of IL (the southern most red streak on the reports map). I'm going to give up real chasing and just go virtual from here on out... I definitely would've found a way to miss the tornadoes in real life.

 

[Dann Cianca]

What a bustacular day in Idaho! I guess if there's any validation at all its that the SPC saw the same things I did that morning.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

Score! ... cha-ching ...

Thanks Scott ... lots of fun ...

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

Tornado!! We got on the supercells as they were developing and bagged a couple.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

Only one sad post-script to today's eventful chase. On my way home through Kansas I noticed that the bite mark where Two Socks had playfully nipped me when I said good-bye appears to be infected. Stopped at the hospital in Goodland for rabies vaccination ... good times.

It was worth it to see a great storm, though -

 

[Brian Stertz]

Nailed it...lol and I was sitting at the NWS Lincoln at the start.

[SIZE=-1]0130[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]UNK[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]1 N LINCOLN [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]LOGAN [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]IL[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]4016[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]8936[/SIZE][SIZE=-2]TORNADO ON THE GROUND...SEEN 2 MILES NW OF THE WEATHER OFFICE. FROM NWS. (ILX)[/SIZE]