Leaving a storm

[Dan Robinson]

What is the best storm feature that you've left behind in favor of something else?

I never thought I'd leave a tornado on the ground, but that's what we did on June 9 in Stockton, Kansas! We could see the Trego County supercell on radar. It looked good and would be an easy intercept, so we left the rain-wrapped Stockton tornado and headed south. I'm not second-guessing our choice at all, but the more I think about that, the stranger it sounds.

 

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi Dan,

That is a pretty bold/hard decision to make! Have not had to do that as yet!

We did have to leave the first tornado warned supercell with a tornado that was rain-wrapped although difficult to observe to go for the sculptured beast that hammered Limon! And that's right - I should have gone earlier It was an awesome storm.

Sorry about the repitition of the pics below:

Which one do you choose when both are tornado warned?

This was what we saw when we got into position...

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

 

[joel ewing]

Wow! That decision to leave the tornado in Stockton for a possible upgrade really impresses me! You are a chaser with a capitol "C".
I was on the Graham Co. action from the start, but did not get as far as Stockton to witness that tornado.
And Jimmy, you might remember meeting me, along with my cousin / chase partner Doren early in June....somewhere in the northern Texas panhandle. It was either there, or southeastern Colorado. You were with a couple of your chase group guys..."Harley?" and was it "Jim"? Anyhow, I might have those names wrong, but you and I did meet.
I'm glad to see that you finally got in some good action as well. When we spoke, you and I were lamenting that there hadn't been too much to see up to that point.

 

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi Joel,

Definitely did recall you and yes things had improved since then thank God! We were in SE Colorado on the same day as the Chaser Picnic. Check out this link for an example of the sunset pictures we got a few hours after we met:

http://www.australiasevereweather.com/phot...2005062804.html 28th May 2005

http://www.australiasevereweather.com/phot...05/0528jd05.jpg

The other chasers with me were certainly happy coming along.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

 

[Shane Adams]

May 3, 1999

I left a mile-wide F5 tornado, because a second tornadic storm had developed west of us (the F5 was about 8 miles east) and it became clear the F5 was going to ravage parts of the OKC metro, and I had no desire to trail a tornado through death and destruction.

We broke off Storm A and took Storm B, witnessing nine tornadoes from it over the next 90 minutes.

 

[Jeff Wear]

I left the same storm Dan did while it was probably still tornadic - but I could no longer see the tornado due to the rain.

That was not the first time I had to make a decision like that though. On 10/9/2001 after the Foss Lake tornado roped out I left that storm to go after new storms to the southeast. That storm actually went on to produce a couple more tornadoes after I left it.