Highest topped supercell chased...

Brian Stertz

Brian Stertz

EF5
Joined
Nov 28, 2005
Messages
1,054
Location
Overland Park KS
Mine would have to be the June 4, 1999 supercell near Thedford NE. By far and away the most violent updraft I have witnessed. The updraft was punching so hard in the vertical that significant cumuliform knuckles were billowing back. The updraft also had the very classic cyclonic/anti-cyclonic gear sympatico with a nice F-2 tornado under the cyclonic "gear". It headed north across open country with a sizeable caravan of chasers and the DOW close behind. I am guessing that top probably exceeded 65 k feet just before the tornado developed. I have seen some monsters in my time...but this one stands out in my mind as clearly in a class by itself.
 
I really enjoyed the June 21st, 2004 Amarillo monster hail producing supercell. You just knew you had to get out of the way of that thing. People running red lights, with giant hail holes in their windshields... Amarillo NWS estimated the inflow winds of about 140mph at 1000 ft. This supercell was a monster to witness. Couldn't find info on tops of this supercell, hope someone can help out... Just something about witnessing a violent storm like that moving through a city environment.
Then there is the Greensburg EF5 night... still can't get myself to put an account together....
 
Similiar thread here:

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=18708

That thread was "witnessed" versus "chased" so not quite the same though.

My answer it that thread applies here, since I did chase it:
Jason Foster said:
May 23rd, 2002 Pampa Beast.

That was the largest individual cell, with the most frequent lightning I've seen. Producing tornadoes and monster hail with very high VIL numbers, I'll bet this storm was really up there. I don't have any specific data on the storm, but Chris C. might, since he, Jeff Gammons and I were together on that storm.
Click to expand...

It was also likely the tallest storm I ever witnessed, but as said..don't have the data.
 
DSC00352.jpg


June 7th, 2009 - 'Nuff said.
 
Bash me for reverting to newb status, but how do you know the height of the supercell you're on? Are you looking at the heights plot in your radar software, using discussion/watch text, or just guessing based on the visuals?

If I had to guess, it would be the same storm as the one Danny has pictured. That storm put down the largest hail I have ever seen, and I imagine the tallest tower I've been on is responsible for that
 
Seems like the trend is June 7th and i'll have to hop on that bandwagon. I was underneath that storm most of the time and it was a monster. Really surprising it never produced anything! From what I read on the NWS site at one point, the top was nearing 70k feet!? Can't confirm that, but I remember hearing it. Definably won't forget that storm for a very long time

EDIT: Well...surprised it never produced a tornado. It definably didn't disappoint hail wise! Glad we dodged all that...would have lost our windows had we got caught up in the hail core. OUCH!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It's not about so much being a pinhead and speculating storm tops, its the violence of the cumuloform tower that would give the wow factor. This went from a nice tcu to a mammoth mega supercell in probably 30 mins. I am sure there are other posters that recollect and saw this explosion. I am still in awe of how much power was pushed upinto the outer limits that evening. The June 7th supercell was not in the class of this one as I saw both get after it. Both did have an outflow boundary involved though.
 
Mullen, Seneca, Thedford June 4, 1999 Storm Updraft

Here's a photo of the updraft in low light, well after sunset. A tornado was underway below the weird RFD crack:

Storm03.jpg


More on the storm is at:

http://www.k5kj.net/990604.htm

The tallest storms I've chased have been on high CAPE days between Abilene and Midland, Texas, with precipitation tops over 60,000 feet. You can view one of these storms that was so tall, it left nacreous clouds in its wake.

http://www.k5kj.net/960526.htm
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You could pretty easily determine the maximum height of the storms you're on by getting archived level 2 or 3 data from NCDC. If anyone wants me to find out for them, or wants to do it themselves but doesn't know how, let me know.

ADD: For reference, I looked at some archived imagery of the June 7th supercell as it crossed the Missouri River and shortly after. Although I don't have GR2AE, I was checking the highest tilt that the storm showed up on. That storm had tops of at least 53000 - 55000 ft at times, and probably higher, but I didn't do the interpolation between elevation scans.

ADD2: After checking the level 3 echo tops product using NCDC's Weather and Climate Toolkit, it showed the June 7 supercell to top out around 55 - 56000 ft consistently.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You'll need to provide a common frame of reference first - as there is no "meteorological" definition of storm top. There are frequently used criteria, but the needs differ by the customer.
 
rdale said:
You'll need to provide a common frame of reference first - as there is no "meteorological" definition of storm top. There are frequently used criteria, but the needs differ by the customer.
Click to expand...

Right. I know in GR2AE it's adjustable but the default setting is the maximum height of the 18 dBZ isosurface. I was using a similar threshold, only a bit lower.
 
Thanks to the FAA... But in the very first post it looks like Brian is looking at cloud tops which will be notably higher. That's all I was saying...

PS Just so people aren't confused, storm tops (on radar) are not to be used to determine severity. It's a nice product to look at in order to say "Wow, that's tall" but don't ignore a 30K report if the environment says those aren't worth ignoring...
 
I agree with you, Rob. If you consider the factors that control/influence cloud/storm top height, then you would know what a tall storm meant. The two major factors I'm aware of are tropopause height and amount of CAPE. Local pressure gradients could influence cloud top height as well, but probably not nearly as significantly as the first two factors. Thus a tall storm means either the tropopause is high then or that the updraft is very strong. If you use parcel theory and an undilute parcel, then cloud top height is just the equilibrium height on a sounding.
 
8/10/2006 the Chamberlain supercell was going between 70,000 and 75,000 per echo tops. This is also the first time I witnessed cirrus splashing into the stratosphere.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top