Nebraska Twin Tornado

Its one thing to see a parent funnel and satellite vortexes... but this was legit equal sized violent tornadoes. Not even that far apart. I really hope a DOW was on this one.
 
I was on the twin tornado producing storm today. Saw 2 tornadoes on the ground 3 different times and actually saw 3 tornadoes on the ground at once too. One rope tornado left over from the first wedge north of Stanton and then the twin tornadoes near Pilger. Went back through the area and Pilger looks bad. It is one mile from hwy 275 and you could see a ton of damage. Also came across a car or what was left of a car in the ditch. I would conservative estimate only 1/3 of the car was left and it was embedded into the dirt on the hillside next to hwy 275 where the wedge went through. There was only the front two tires and the bottom part of the car frame under the engine. Behind there, there was nothing left. No engine, no cab or frame around the passenger area or rear to the car or vehicle. I'm not sure what the car looked like before hand of course, but if that was a whole car, one can assume EF-4 to EF-5 damage.
 
If you weren't chasing in this area or weren't able to get off work today, like me, than I wonder if you are as completely devastated as I am. Obviously first thoughts go to all who were impacted by the tornadoes. That being said, meteorologicaly, this is clearly once in a lifetime. If you love storm chasing or weather and were able to witness this first hand, congratulations. Still can't wrap my mind around two seperate, cyclonic, likely EF4+ tornadoes, that close to each other... This is a series of texts I sent my chase partner 6am this morning. Still can't believe I missed this. Again, thoughts to all impacted, best wishes. image.jpg
 
Having chased in the northern plains several times this year, watching this on TV was both fascinating and gut wrenching knowing I couldn't be there to witness it. One cell all alone and producing how it did....ugh. Thoughts are with those who were impacted. From a chaser standpoint this was about as good as it gets.
 
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Mike Marz said:
That being said, meteorologicaly, this is clearly once in a lifetime.
Click to expand...

No it isn't. Ben Holcomb says he saw two wedges rotating around each other on April 28th in Mississippi. While I have my doubts they were both "wedges", I do believe there were two large tornadoes in proximity to each other simultaneously.

Regarding the El Reno tornado last year, some of the sub-tornadic vortices were large enough that many considered that tornado to have multiple large tornadoes in proximity simultaneously.

This was definitely an uncommon, or even rare event. In my guess having multiple large tornadoes in progress simultaneously and visible enough to be captured by camera probably occurs once every few (maybe 3-6) years. This wasn't really a rare atmosphere, as such CAPE and shear values are not uncommon during June when very rich moisture becomes available before the jet stream moves all the way north into Canada. This was simply a cyclic supercell where the right ingredients came together for several tornadoes to become visibly large in appearance.
 
Yea I agree once in a lifetime is definitely incorrect, I guess it just feels that way when you miss it. Been in neb so much this year and I finally couldn't get off work to make the drive today. That's how it goes I guess.
 
I'd say for many people, your statement is correct......on a personal level.
 
Stan Rose said:
Incredible day for sure! I also was immediately reminded of the Palm Sunday twin
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As noted in the other thread here, Palm Sunday was a multi-vortex tornado. The sequence shows it lasted for about a minute before "filling in". This was the case of separate circulations and fully separate tornadoes from what I've seen.
 
We were about 3-4 miles to the west of the tornadoes as they moved north across HWY 275 and there were two, definitive wall clouds/mesos producing each of the tornadoes, and even a third that looked very close to condensing just south (or appeared as such from our vantage point). These features persisted for quite awhile as the storm moved north east. We caught back up after some dirt road "excitement" near Emerson where the northern most circulation produced a very brief tornado while the circulation to the SE of it was still visible and well defined. Shortly after this it looked as though the two mesos collided and then the storm basically evaporated. I'm presuming due to running into stable outflow from the MCS/QLCS to the north in South Dakota. It was a very dynamic day and quite sobering to see the damage in Pilger and the surrounding areas. We saw a sign for the HWY 275 junction which likely originated from somewhere near HWY 15 south of Pilger almost 30 miles to the north near Emerson, and the debris field north/northeast of Pilger is wide and long, streching for many miles.

Another good example of how unpredictable things can become on days with very high CAPE/Shear environments. I'm completely astounded at how close some chasers felt comfortable getting considering how dynamic this storm was, with dissipating/occluding rotations with a tornado on the ground and new rotations putting multiple tornadoes on the ground. I opted to play it safe...no desire to become a statistic.
 
rdale said:
As noted in the other thread here, Palm Sunday was a multi-vortex tornado. The sequence shows it lasted for about a minute before "filling in". This was the case of separate circulations and fully separate tornadoes from what I've seen.
Click to expand...

That's an important difference. So yesterday's event was a sup with two embedded mesocyclones?

John
VE4 JTH
 
Aye, they were all seperate, and even a third area south of the "twins". Here's a couple pictures we got from about 4-5 miles west on HWY 275. Sorry for the bad contrast..photo 111.jpgphoto 333.jpg
 
For those of you interested in radar images of this event: I've compiled 3 animated GIFs of radar images from KOAX during the tornadoes. The first shows almost the whole lifecycle of the supercell. The second shows only the images from during the tornadoes with a slower speed, and the third shows only the images from during the twin tornadoes, with an even slower speed. I've done that to make it possible to take a detailed look at what happened during those moments.

You can find the animations by clicking at the link below, which directs you to my post at a Dutch weather forum.
http://www.weerwoord.be/includes/forum_read.php?id=1988511&tid=1988511
 
I'm still calling it a once in a lifetime event for me personally. I honestly thought I'd never, ever see the Palm Sunday twins coming out of a curtain of rain towards my position. I don't swear in my videos and I dropped a loud "ohhh, s%^t" when my brain figured out what was actually there.

In my video the large tornadoes appear to be rotating around the outside of the meso. Giant swirls all the way down, apparently.

Another good example of how unpredictable things can become on days with very high CAPE/Shear environments. I'm completely astounded at how close some chasers felt comfortable getting considering how dynamic this storm was, with dissipating/occluding rotations with a tornado on the ground and new rotations putting multiple tornadoes on the ground. I opted to play it safe...no desire to become a statistic.
Click to expand...

Before Pilger was hit, there was a several kilometer handoff in circulations in between SAILS updates, if I recall correctly. Not the kind of day you want to mess around under the meso.

edit: Yeah, look at the couplet "jump" as it passes over Stanton in Bram's animation.
 
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What an utterly fascinating event this was; of course my heart's in a thousand pieces that I couldn't be out there to see it. Will be interesting to see if anyone got mobile radar out of it. Wishing RaxPol was out there to scan it, I am sure it would have provided a treasure trove of useful data.

To Bram: Is it okay if I post a link to your images on my (sadly neglected) blog? They are amazing! Haven't had the opportunity to chase much or blog much due
to some health/family issues the last couple of years, but I think I'm ready to give the old site a makeover.

John
VE4 JTH
 
Rob H said:
Before Pilger was hit, there was a several kilometer handoff in circulations in between SAILS updates, if I recall correctly. Not the kind of day you want to mess around under the meso.

edit: Yeah, look at the couplet "jump" as it passes over Stanton in Bram's animation.
Click to expand...

Precisely. We were playing catch-up from the south coming up HWY 81 as the Stanton tornado was ongoing. We reached 275 and the Stanton circulation died, and the very next scan there is an impressive couplet SW of Pilger, while the Stanton storm was roping out. We got slowed down going eastbound on 275 by the damage path of the Stanton storm, and frankly I think I'm glad, I wasn't going to play cat and mouse with this storm.
 
It is devastating to hear that this town was hit much like Greensburg was (reports of up to 75% of the town gone or otherwise heavily damaged) and even more devastating to hear loss of life as a result (two confirmed fatalities with a third of unknown relation to the storm). From a chaser standpoint, seeing something like this would definitely have been a rare catch, but that thrill at least for me dies the moment I hear of the damage it caused to that town.

I hope that the town recovers and that we are able to learn from rare events such as this.
 
John Hudson said:
To Bram: Is it okay if I post a link to your images on my (sadly neglected) blog? They are amazing! Haven't had the opportunity to chase much or blog much due
to some health/family issues the last couple of years, but I think I'm ready to give the old site a makeover.

John
VE4 JTH
Click to expand...

That's OK :) I am glad you appreciate it.
 
The animations appeared to give to much traffic for Dropbox, and that's why they are temporarily disabled. Because of that I've created a Youtube-video of them:

Watch video >
 
Jeff Duda said:
This was definitely an uncommon, or even rare event. In my guess having multiple large tornadoes in progress simultaneously and visible enough to be captured by camera probably occurs once every few (maybe 3-6) years. This wasn't really a rare atmosphere, as such CAPE and shear values are not uncommon during June when very rich moisture becomes available before the jet stream moves all the way north into Canada. This was simply a cyclic supercell where the right ingredients came together for several tornadoes to become visibly large in appearance.
Click to expand...

Where are the pictures? This is at the top of the list from what I've seen. The environment was not rare, but to have two massive tornadoes ongoing at the same time this close to each other, this visible. Yeah, once in a life time thing in my opinion. I've seen multiple pics today of folks trying to marginalize this and it will typically be two shabby tornadoes, or a large one and a little rope. No doubt it has happened before and will happen again though.
 
e6e8eqam.jpg


i took this in Meeker, OK last year on 5-20-13 about 45 minutes after the Moore OK tornado.

mile wide wedge on the left, with a satellite tornado on the right. the wedge is hard to see because it was rain wrapped which is why i focused more on getting the satellite tornado in there as well.
 
Hi all. Just wanted to reassure non-believers that there were indeed 3 separate tornadoes on the ground at once yesterday afternoon at one point, as per other posts prior to mine. My chase partner Doren Berge and I had perfect positioning while watching all 3. Doren does the camera work while I primarily do the driving, and he grabbed both still photos and video that will leave no doubt and confirm this. At the moment, we're in O'Neill Nebraska at a motel (2am Wed.) and I've got to get up in a few hours to drive him to the Omaha airport, where he'll fly home to Salem, Mass....and 2 days later I'll fly out of Omaha back to my home in southern Arizona. I can't speak for Doren, but he promised me that he'd throw the photo of the 3 tornadoes on the ground as well as other jaw-dropping images into StormTrack as soon as he walks in his front door, kisses his bride and catches his breath. He and I have been working this alley HARD... from Neb. to near Lubbock and everywhere in between since May 29th, putting at least 6K miles on the chase vehicle so far!. I have never been in so many tornado watches or been up close to so many tornado warned storms in 25 plus years of doing this, with so few actual tornadoes to account for. Thank the Good Lord for yesterday.....it made up for ALL the rest of the season, but it's certainly tempered by the deaths of that little 5yr. old girl and the others....as well as all of the horrific destruction. As Doren and I stood on a hill near Stanton for a few moments watching things unfold, we knew that this would probably be a day of death for those in the paths of these monsters. BTW....I'm compelled to ask: Who was the person in the small white vehicle that drove right up to one of the large tornadoes and got right in it's outer circulation? He is very very lucky he didn't get a 2x4 driven completely thru his head....it could have happened oh-so-easily. Forget political correctness....I've never had much respect for pc, so I'm not afraid of asking his name. I sure hope he's not part of the "StormTrack family"....as he surely should know better if he is. If this type of behavior keeps up, we'll soon have another chaser death that you can bet will bring more unwanted attention to this chasing endeavor that we all love so passionately. We don't need that type of heat on us right now, folks. On a much more positive note.....big, heartfelt congrats to all who got to see something highly unique in the world of severe weather yesterday. To those of us inclined to this type of thing, please don't forget to offer up prayers for those who are in absolute and complete emotional agony after losing so much yesterday....may their hearts be healed as quickly as humanly possible. For those that are not inclined to roll that way....I certainly respect your position, so no problem and good luck to all on their next chase. Joel
 
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