May 22 Hill City Supercell

[Chris Hayes]

Does anyone know how many tornados were produced by the May 22 Hill City supercell? We all know about the white trunkated cone tornado that we saw. However, in viewing my video from that day, it appears that there MIGHT have been another brief one before that.

 

[Shane Adams]

I know of two reported by chasers. The first one was a white cone that we didn't see, and then of course the beauty that everybody saw.

 

[Andrea Griffa]

I know of two reported by chasers. The first one was a white cone that we didn't see, and then of course the beauty that everybody saw.

I was there at the first stage of the supercell and I remember that the first meso, after 15 minutes I took this picture near Collyer(if I'm correct), started to dropp down a visible and clear funnel cloud. I couldn't take the picture because I was driving but my friend took it. We were along the interstate just before the exit to Collyer. As we took the exit to Collyer we couldn't see the funnel because of trees and houses and I can't confirm that we had a touch down; what I can confirm is that the funnel was somewhat clear and defined.

http://digilander.libero.it/andreblu81/IMG_2557.jpg

 

[Brett Adair]

If I'm not mistaken, our group saw a brief touchdown in an open field north of the tornadic cell of the day. I have a video of it uploaded online here....but I dont think the touchdown occured when I shot this.

Hill City Lead Cell and Funnel

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

I'm fairly certain I had a distant view of the first touchdown. It's actually what got my attention and decided we should end the structure shots and go in close for tornado time.

The contrast was so bad, that I actually took that picture to see what was going on underneath. I couldn't see it with the naked eye, so I zoomed in and snapped a shot with the camera to get a better view. When I saw that, we packed it in. This was probably 15-20 minutes before the other tornado that everyone else saw.

Even the tour group next to me did not see it, because they were all in awe of the danglies hanging off the back end of the storm which posed no threat. Some may need to brush up on HP structure 101

 

[Willoughby Owen]

Definitely atleast two..
There was a very brief weak touchtown under this meso everyone was familiar of.

View the video of it here, sorry it's such bad quality and a large file (12mb)
http://www.weather-display.com/downloadfiles/tornado2.wmv
(Save target as...)

Not sure if everyone spotted that... I personally missed it while aweing at the structure.

 

[Verne Carlson]

I was there at the first stage of the supercell and I remember that the first meso, after 15 minutes I took this picture near Collyer(if I'm correct), started to dropp down a visible and clear funnel cloud.

Andrea, We also saw the funnel at the Collyer exit, in fact this is taken from the exit itself along I-70 as the meso crossed the interstate. The funnel was visible for up to 10 minutes and hung in the air horizontally. We never did see it touchdown however.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

I too saw a pretty well defined funnel on the original northern Meso, though I'm pretty sure what I saw never reached the ground.

This video grab is of the quickly dissapering funnel, it reached further down then this, it just caught me off guard as I still had the camcorder in the bag and it began to lift before I could get the vid camera out. I saw it extend about 1/2 down though I never saw any ground circulation.

That same storm kept trying to organize again this is shortly after that funnel

This shows the original Meso on the right and the new storm quickly gaining stength to the South.

Here is the confirmed tornado and debris cloud, the one that everybody and their dog saw.

 

[Shane Adams]

The first tornado I was talking about came from the same storm as the one everybody saw, about 10-15 minutes earlier. I went and did a time stamp on my video and we're looking right at the tornado as it's happening, but we really couldn't see under the base very well because of contrast. However other chasers reported seeing this white cone tornado. If I'm not mistaken, I believe Jay McCoy saw it.

 

[Bill Hark]

I thought there were two tornadoes. The first was brief and had somewhat poor contrast.

Then the second was the white cone that quickly roped out.

I also saw the funnel on the original meso but it never touched down.

Bill Hark

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

I too saw a pretty well defined funnel on the original northern Meso, though I'm pretty sure what I saw never reached the ground.

This video grab is of the quickly dissapering funnel, it reached further down then this, it just caught me off guard as I still had the camcorder in the bag and it began to lift before I could get the vid camera out. I saw it extend about 1/2 down though I never saw any ground circulation.

Dustin, I was about 1/2 mile away from the rotation in that photo, along with a few other chasers and can confirm that never touched down.

I believe that the object in question is what I posted above, which occurred 10-15 minutes before the tornado everyone else photographed.

Obviously, my image isn't enough to confirm anything, and I never really even thought twice about it until this thread and figured I'd dig through and share what I had.

I do have it on video as well, but really only mention it being an interesting area, and that I thought we should head closer.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

Bill, I have pictures almost Identical to your two above, though I was under the impression that they were the same tornado, as I never saw the first one dissapate, I just assumed it changed shape and contrast as my angle of view changed. Are you saying that your two photos above are of two different tornadoes?

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Yeah, was going to add that I think Bill is showing the same tornado.

You can see it change shape and contrast in just the minute or so of video that I have up from a stationary location.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV1V6lp7p1o

 

[Bill Hark]

I had thought the tornado briefly lost ground circulation before reforming. On my YouTube video, that's about 7 minutes 5 sec.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXoUhctDtQk

I was counting ground circulation (or lack of) though contrast was limited and I was moving making viewing difficult. If there is a gap in the ground circulation and it is the same meso and funnel, does that make it the same tornado or two different tornadoes?

Bill Hark

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I was counting ground circulation (or lack of) though contrast was limited and I was moving making viewing difficult. If there is a gap in the ground circulation and it is the same meso and funnel, does that make it the same tornado or two different tornadoes?

Bill Hark

Same tornado. (20 character rule, woohooo wasted space for the sake of character numbers)