Chase Case #8

[Bob Hartig]

Well, now, good for me. I chased this one in real life, too, though down in Indiana. But that chase was informed mainly by SPC outlooks; this time, using the maps and NOT relying on the SPC, it was like a brand new chase. Didn't do badly in 2007, but I did better here, and it's nice to have nailed this one based on my own sense of the synoptic and mesoscale setup.

 

[Corey Sloan]

Decent chase for me...good severe reports all around my final target location! Thanks for putting it together!

 

[Joe Karel]

I may have seen one or two tornadoes, i was south of champaign IL. Just depended on if i chose the right cell in the heat of the moment...not bad though, never seen a tornado in real life so possible first virtual tornado in IL.

 

[Paul Austin]

I didn't chase this setup in RT, but I did pretty well in this virtual chase. My initial target of Bowling Green, KY was a bit too far east, but my adjustment towards Hopkinsville and on to Owensboro put me in great position. I don't know for sure I would have made it to the Owensboro storm in time. It depends on whether or not I would have wasted time in Hopkinsville getting data or visiting friends (probably not the latter while in chase mode). I certainly had time to close, but I can't be sure I would have decided to go after that first cell until it was racing away from me. If so, I might have been able to see several tubes from just the one cell as it tracked right along the river and US 60 and produced near several communities, according to SPC. Even if I had been late on that one, a nice line of sups produced back towards Hopkinsville and points W/WNW. Now in real life, I might have tracked the storms well, but something probably would have gone wrong: dead batteries on cameras, flat tire, road construction, or just bad visibility. Still, I'll call it success and have a nice juicy steak this evening. Any good steak houses in the Owensboro/Evansville/Hopkinsville area?

Nice case, Marc, thanks for going to all the trouble to put it together. I learn something new each time.

Congrats to all who nailed it. And to everyone else, don't worry, I'll be congratulating you on the next one while settling for a McD's Quarter Pounder for dinner .

 

[David Wolfson]

While I'd call it a successful virtual chase, the tornadoes in my area were well after dark from storms that only formed around sunset. In particular the deadly Mason/Williamson, MI, tornado (less than fifteen miles east of my target) happened between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. That storm would have been the chaser and I the chasee that time of night.

I guess Bob went back to Grand Rapids, and by the time all the debris has settled the only place to get a steak around Lansing would be Denny's.

 

[Paul Austin]

...
Nice case, Marc, thanks for going to all the trouble to put it together. I learn something new each time.
...

Thanks also to: Chad Cowan, Andrew Revering, Scott Weberpal, Andrea Griffa, and Dustin Wilcox (did I leave anyone out?) for nice case studies as well. I know it takes a lot of time and attention to detail to put them together. Excellent job! Keep it up.

I think this has become one of my favorite aspects of StormTrack. It certainly helps pass the winter months.

 

[Andrea Griffa]

Succesful chase for me too; thankfully my first target was Paducah,Ky and I was able to chase those nice supercells round about Owensboro.
Thanks another time for this case,Marc

 

[Andrea Griffa]

Thanks also to: Chad Cowan, Andrew Revering, Scott Weberpal, Andrea Griffa, and Dustin Wilcox (did I leave anyone out?) for nice case studies as well. I know it takes a lot of time and attention to detail to put them together. Excellent job! Keep it up.

I think this has become one of my favorite aspects of StormTrack. It certainly helps pass the winter months.

It's been a pleasure for me,Paul!

You're right,I love it too and it is very good in order to survive in the snow and the cold

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

I think I may have seen at least one tornado in Kentucky. That's a first for me!

 

[Patrick Martin]

I doubt I would have seen the tor report in MS as it was likely after dark. The irony is that the other day when I had positioned to Jackson TN, and was agonizing over going north or south, my wife glanced over my shoulder for 5 seconds, and said "go north". Goes to show you, always listen to the word of a good woman, lol

 

[Greg McLaughlin]

I am not sure if I would have seen the couple of tornadoes in eastern MS and western AL. I would have been pretty close to those storms, but I would still have been to the west of them.

As I stated in my first post I wouldn't even think about chasing a scenario like this in real life, so me probably being out of position on this case doesn't really bother me.

 

[Scott Weberpal]

LOL, wow, I actually chased this event in real life. Was down in south central Illinois and it was one of those days you had to absolutely be in the right spot at the right time. The one tornado reported there was very brief and happened among a broken string of supercells...one of those frustrating days, just glad it wasn't anything impressive. I'm fairly sure most of the Kentucky tornadoes happened near or after dark, I know there were a few before dark though. Thanks for putting this together!!

 

[John Farley]

Well, finally a day I actually chased:

http://www.johnefarley.com/chase101807.htm

Kind of wondered if it was that day. This virtual chase is pretty close to what I actually did, except that having access to model forecasts, I was a little more optimistic than in the virtual chase. FYI, I am quite sure the tornado reports near Vandalia were bogus. The storm had an awesome, back-lit wall cloud and produced lots of golfball hail and wind damage, though.

 

[Chad Cowan]

This was a fun and intense chase in real life. That was some of the most rock hard convection I have ever seen. The low-topped but FAT cape allowed us to see pretty much the whole storm. Adam Lucio, Matt Fischer and I targeted around Lafayette, IN and followed (tried to keep up with) the supercell that tracked all the way across northern Indiana. We saw some wall clouds and funnels when we were able to see the base but eventually dropped off it because we were tired of playing catchup. The storms that formed in IL looked very linear by the time they hit us on our way back west to Chicago so we stopped for a bite in Nappannee, IN... what we weren't expecting was an embedded supercell wrapping up to our immediate south, prompting a Tornado Emergency for our city and dropping an EF-3 tornado 1.5 miles east of where we were eating. What we really weren't expecting was Adam's tire flying off as we were trying to catch up with the tornado.

You can see a slideshow of my images and radar grabs here:
http://photos.clcimages.com/Slideshow.aspx?gallery=44266

 

[Ben Holcomb]

I knew immediately which day this was when I saw the outlook. In retrospect, I drove a lot of miles in order to end up in Williamston which is about 13 miles from my house.

I ended up in Fulton County, IN which was the cell that came out of Lafayette. I ended up seeing this funnel which never did end up touching down. I chased that cell for awhile until it just got simply too dark. I didn't have any gadgets in my truck (Just a HAM Radio, NOAA Weather radio and my eyes) so I wasn't about to continue chasing into the night.

I Headed back from around Rochester, IN to Lansing. When we were getting into range of the Lansing area repeaters is when all hell broke loose in Williamston, with the first tornado reports coming in.

I rolled into Williamston about 15 minutes after the tornado did, and found lots of destruction. Here are the pictures from the aftermath of that.