Bob Hartig
EF5
This started out as something of a joke between my Michigan chase buddies and me, but besides humor, it packs enough interest that, now that I've done my blog writeup, I thought I'd drop in a little blurb here as well. I don't think it belongs in chase reports; it's more just an item of curiosity.
I'll start by saying that, between an aged mother who had knee replacement surgery on the day of the April 27 Alabama outbreak, and just plain lack of funds, I've been largely sidelined this year. My few trips west were for the most unproductive. Even the "Good Friday" Saint Louis tornado was disappointing, since I never saw it even though it was breathing down my neck.
There are seasons when you just grab what you can, particularly when you live a long way from the Plains. Such was this year, and it's why I'm happy to have at least one tornado video from this season. It was a pathetic little pukenado that I caught east of Hastings, MI, on July 27, but it was at least something. Kind of.
And there were some interesting points about the storm. It occurred in an area outlooked for nothing more than general thunderstorms. I don't think the parent supercell even got severe warned, at least not initially. So I was surprised to see rotation on the radar not far to my southwest. It was one of those situations where you just think, "Dang!" grab your gear, and go, and that's what I did.
The storm was moving ESE, suggesting a northwest flow setup, as I recall. Surface winds overall were, I believe, from the SSW, and the storm structure got shifted a bit, with the wall cloud on the NW part of the storm rather than the SW. (Just going by memory here.) The wall cloud looked impressive, and I remember catching drafts of warm RFD from the back end of the storm. I never could get ahead of the storm, so I don't know what conditions were like ahead of it. But from my vantage point, it was definitely a chaseworthy storm.
East of Hastings, I caught a glimpse of a whitish condensation tube in the distance. It wasn't large or well-defined, and at first I thought it was just scud. But when I rolled down my window, I could see an unmistakable rapid, upward feathering motion, and after reviewing my brief HD video and running it past a couple of my fellow chasers, I'm satisfied that I scored a bona-fide tornado.
While I reported the wall cloud to GRR, I never called in the tornado. Maybe I should have, but it was so brief--here and then gone--and I like to have more certainty before I report a tornado to the WFO.
Here's my blog writeup with an embedded YouTube video. Don't laugh! Unless October is good to me synoptically and financially, it's all I've got to show for this year. Besides, it's probably the only existing video documentation of an otherwise undocumented tornado in Michigan.
I'll start by saying that, between an aged mother who had knee replacement surgery on the day of the April 27 Alabama outbreak, and just plain lack of funds, I've been largely sidelined this year. My few trips west were for the most unproductive. Even the "Good Friday" Saint Louis tornado was disappointing, since I never saw it even though it was breathing down my neck.
There are seasons when you just grab what you can, particularly when you live a long way from the Plains. Such was this year, and it's why I'm happy to have at least one tornado video from this season. It was a pathetic little pukenado that I caught east of Hastings, MI, on July 27, but it was at least something. Kind of.
And there were some interesting points about the storm. It occurred in an area outlooked for nothing more than general thunderstorms. I don't think the parent supercell even got severe warned, at least not initially. So I was surprised to see rotation on the radar not far to my southwest. It was one of those situations where you just think, "Dang!" grab your gear, and go, and that's what I did.
The storm was moving ESE, suggesting a northwest flow setup, as I recall. Surface winds overall were, I believe, from the SSW, and the storm structure got shifted a bit, with the wall cloud on the NW part of the storm rather than the SW. (Just going by memory here.) The wall cloud looked impressive, and I remember catching drafts of warm RFD from the back end of the storm. I never could get ahead of the storm, so I don't know what conditions were like ahead of it. But from my vantage point, it was definitely a chaseworthy storm.
East of Hastings, I caught a glimpse of a whitish condensation tube in the distance. It wasn't large or well-defined, and at first I thought it was just scud. But when I rolled down my window, I could see an unmistakable rapid, upward feathering motion, and after reviewing my brief HD video and running it past a couple of my fellow chasers, I'm satisfied that I scored a bona-fide tornado.
While I reported the wall cloud to GRR, I never called in the tornado. Maybe I should have, but it was so brief--here and then gone--and I like to have more certainty before I report a tornado to the WFO.
Here's my blog writeup with an embedded YouTube video. Don't laugh! Unless October is good to me synoptically and financially, it's all I've got to show for this year. Besides, it's probably the only existing video documentation of an otherwise undocumented tornado in Michigan.
