Chasers Stuck in the mud in SD

[Jason Foster]

Wasn't there a ton of flooding up there during the winter...I know someone mentioned that a few posts ago, but I think it was more damaging then that post kinda lead too. I seem to remember that many hundreds of thousands of acres under water, deep water. Not sure of the extent however, if it even reached the area where this event took place.

Delorme has a data corrections form on their website for situations like these. We (storm chasers) could actually send in quite a few corrections, which would help to prevent chasers from being "Delormed" in the future. Here is the link to the form:

http://www.delorme.com//customerservice/revisions.asp

Additionally, I believe we could collectively have a base map that is distributed with various corrections. I'm still on 2006, but have edited all the local roads as necessary to be updated for my routing. But the suggestion of sending revisions to delorme directly is better, but no the only option.

See those little grey lines?

Every once in a great while (not likely this situation) I found the mobile colors (black background) helps with the dirt or paved situation.

 

[Scott Bennett]

One of the things I wish is there was a way to put road reports into SpotterNetwork without it going to the NWS. You could drop a persistant icon of "Road construction 1 lane road" someone might be able to review them and mark a end date based on the department of roads website. Andy had called me Friday to warn me about resurfaceing around Wray, CO which I then posted to FB. I was telling people on chaser common to stay off 130 that it was a dead end, obviously not everyone was listening.

 

[GlennMartin]

Scott,
Wasn't implying that anyone in this group was "getting close" nor do I have a problem with that per se as indicated in my post. I was indicating that for those that often do the margin of error is razor thin and these unlikely issues can lead to life and death decisions. A series of unknown events can happen to anyone. You are being very constructive in your suggestion of ideas how to disseminate information on road hazards and the like in near real time.

 

[Joshua Nall]

See those little grey lines? Those were produced automatically by software reading a database that was created from a survey that was done who knows how many years ago. After they were put into the software they were probably never checked by an actual human to see if the information was entered correctly, and may go years before being updated if they are updated at all. Knowing that, you have to think... I'm staking my life on those little grey lines.

Also think about this...look on any map, see those large bold lines. If there is a bridge over one of those roads and hail is falling, you might be staking your life on a large bold line. On the 19th I was driving down to the southern most storm through the core (Wynnewood tornadoes) and had to sit on Interstate for 5 or 10 minutes cause a handful of folks had completely blocked traffic trying to keep their sheet metal straight. That incident reminded me, when people are involved, expect the unexpected. That's really what you have to do every time your out. It drove the point home to me if you are in hail and folks start slowing down, a bridge coming up, take the ramp. Then go straight and continue on your way. It may be a life saver if a tornado is headed your way. Of course if that was really the case one could just turn around or cross the median. I may not have seen anything anyway, but that definitely held me up.

 

[Mike Heitz]

We absolutely were not trying to "Get Close" we were trying to avoid the convergance. If you check the video of at least our group (Adam, Danny, Ben & Myself) you will see that almost all of it is taken on gravel/dirt.

On the 4-5 chases we have done as a group this year we avioded pavement at all costs to avoid the convergance. Our stratagy has been to have well planned routes away from anyone else well ahead of the precip. This stratagy has worked very well providing us unique views nobody else had. It's really simple, the road was on the map, road ended unexpectedly. We knew cars were trapped in the now precip covered road behind us. There was no excape path, it was a short road. We had one way out with at least 2 tornadoes on the ground behind us, we took it. This is not about trying to get close this was about trying to live.

In all reality to give people a perspective once the wedge dropped in bowdle hwy 12 had a lot of chasers, EMT, LEO's and that it was basically a moving caravan of cars all moving east with the storm. It wasn't really that bad but it was noticeable and you "may" have had to wait a minute or 2 to pull out, but you could tell some chasers were getting agitated. Also there were no N/S paved roads between bowdle and ipswitch, the storm was still visible at times but it was slowly moving further north away from 12. I do think something a lot of the chasers didn't realize was exactly how piss poor the gps and road network was, while coming west we tested a few dirt roads and watched our gps show a few roads that were glorified wheel ruts covered in grass. That is what kept us from cutting north when everyone else did, you could tell that the N/S dirt road going north was fine we just didn't trust our "escape" routes east so we played 12 east to ipswitch and headed north on the paved road but at that time it had become HP and way to hard to view anything. Just a few thoughts to let everyone know our thinking and how we played the paved road only options, how some of those roads were garbage, and i think the choice to go north was 50/50. Also i don't know if many chasers had noticed there was a ton of overland flooding ahead of the storm, and we also feared the condition of some of the less traveled dirt roads. Just a few points to add .

 

[Scott Bennett]

I have posted to my blog if you want to know my side of things. Outside of that I am done discussing the subject.

 

[Matthew K. Hartman]

Hahah! Thanks Kory, for that. My partner and I were actually trying to get west to 281 at that point, but came across closed roads on two separate occasions.

Notice where I am, as well, in relation to the chase-horde.

This is the safe distance MKH is referring to:
Radar Image

Look for the icon on the far right side of the screen under "Columbia".

 

[Matthew K. Hartman]

I'm not sure about Microsoft mapping applications, but with Delmore's Street Atlas, you can submit map corrections. Not that it will help in the short-term, but submitting will sure help all of our's future chasing and, most importantly, the maps we depend on.

In Street Atlas, click through "Netlink -> Support" and you will find "Submit Correction." Make sure, however, before you do this, that you zoom into the road segment in question and highlight it. The revisions I've sent in the past, I've used the ruler function to select the segment. When you submit the revision, it appends a copy of the map, so doing so will help Delorme determine the road segment much easier.

How often the company updates it's road networks, I really have no idea, but I'm sure they are updated quite frequently.

On a semi-related note... If any of you find yourself ever chasing in N. Dakota... we have very similar issues up here. Outside of a few in Northwestern MN, most of the revisions I've sent have been in Central ND. My other hobby, hunting ghost towns, has taken me on several minimum-maintenance roads that either are not in SA, or are incorrectly documented.

 

[Matthew K. Hartman]

I just wanted to stay south of that cell to the northwest! That thing a mean couplet at about this time. Possibly the strongest I've seen on radar since Greensburg. We were contemplating on staying near Columbia and wait, but it would have been dark by the time the storm neared us. And if there's anything I refuse to do, it's to chase anything after dark.

We had an awesome late dinner at Culvers in Aberdeen soon after this... Where we overheard a couple talking about how they saw "the tank from TV." My chase partner and I laughed aloud, at that.

Looks like Matthew is waiting for the hail vault to pass him over.

 

[GlennMartin]

Everyone should read Scott's blog entry above it was very thoughtful and honest. I don't post much but I have posted a couple of times in this thread I think because it reminds me of my own experience where for a couple of minutes I was no longer in "control" of my situation. I have always been a cautious chaser and never desired to get exceedingly close. It was the Picher-Seneca EF-4 of May10 '08. I had a laptop with GR3 but I wanted to remain north of Joplin in better more familiar terrain but the two northern supercells coming out of Kansas were congealing and it was clear that the southern one would be the focus of all the energy so I cautiously ventured south into the unknown. I wanted to take 71 South but I noticed for several miles there was no east escape route due to a stream/ditch. I will not approach a supercell without both an east and south escape route so I took the next east option south, turns out this was a mistake as I would have had a nice view of the western horizon off 71. I meandered a bit and wasted some time taking a side road which looked like it would offer a look at the western sky which it did not just thick trees so I got back on the south option and noticed the long inflow tail that was overhead was drifting south with me. I was prepared for a decent right turner given the pre storm environment with extreme helicity and that is what it was currently in the process of doing. I have done research on level II data as a grad student in the mid 90s so I know radar morphology pretty well. Suddenly I ran into hordes of non chaser traffic being dinner time on a Saturday evening they were leisurely driving along. That is when I noticed the 3/4 mile tornado bearing down on me. I shouted "how could this be directly west of me!?!" Turns out it wasn't due west of me, the road I was now on was starting to angle back to the southwest but I didn't notice that right away given the circumstances. I was never actually in the direct path where I first viewed the tornado but close enough to get very angry at myself. Dozens were killed by this tornado and many were in their vehicles including a family in a van going to a wedding. 3 generations of life snuffed out instantly. I had witnessed several strong and violent tornadoes prior that produced horrific damage but I always approached them, I hunted them, this was the first time I felt like I was being hunted so to speak. I made mistakes, left late wanted to make it further west into SE KS to begin with and then was a little lackadaisical in how i approached the storm. To those who may feel similarly my advice is to get back on the horse. Stay aggressive but cautious learn from that moment where you weren't in control. At all times respect the powerful force you are dealing with. This is a risky endeavor but we can all do things to mitigate the risks and if you find it is no longer an enjoyable hobby to you find another one that is.

 

[Adam Lucio]

Much like Scott B - here is my log for that day. I don't touch up on the issue at hand too much, but it is the last thing I will say about it.

http://www.aerostorms.com/052210-storm-chasers-stuck-in-a-field.php

 

[Ben Holcomb]

Matthew,

A quick look through your site and I found this. Not that I take issue with that, but what if that had dropped a large tornado, and your road option there was closed? You could have found yourself in the same predicament.

 

[Michael Reno]

Pic from The Field

First off, let me say without intending to make light of any of this that this is an epic story. This is the sort of thing that makes the life of adventure worth living. I don't envy you for the fear you must have had during the moments of doubt, but thank you all for sharing this. I started chasing in the late 80's and I very rarely go anymore, for myriad reasons, but having this forum to lurk around in and read is a real treat for those of us stuck at home.

So, question: is that a vortex or the "drillbit" funnel on the other side of the pickup, or that just a rain / hail / mist feature?

 

[Michael Reno]

RE: Pic from The Field

Well, I just watched Adam Lucio's video and answered my own question (yes, it's a funnel). You gotta watch the video. I salute you, sir. May it never happen again.

 

[Danny Neal]

Yes it was quite certainly a hair raising experience! I didn't post my video yet, only video caps. Make no mistake it was there in the field less than a football field away. Probably not anything I want to experience from a farm field again!!!