Nebraska Twin Tornado

[John Hudson]

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

 

[Will Campbell]

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.

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.

 

[Matt Ashworth]

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.

 

[Bram]

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

That's OK I am glad you appreciate it.

 

[Bram]

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 >

 

[Joshua Nall]

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.

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.

 

[Winston Wells]

Here's a not unintelligent article about the subject at hand, complete with input from Greg Carbin and Harold Brooks:

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/how-storm-gave-birth-twin-tornadoes-pilger-nebraska-n133376

 

[Hannah.Taylor]

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.

 

[joel ewing]

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

 

[Ryan Pfeifer]

OAX survey crew wasn't able to find the 3rd if there was one: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=oax&storyid=102897&source=0

 

[Jeff Hawkins]

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....[re: those harmed] 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

Joel, thanks for that post, first I certainly agree with the concerns of those affected, second I agree those of us on ST should be "aware" more and hence more responsible to protect ourselves with chasing and others also, and third yes I'd like to see the "3 tornadoes" shots if they are legit, it seems others who've claimed this so far that I've seen have posted photos of 2 tors and a 3rd lowering obscured by ground clutter or unverifiable ground contact. I've also seen a radar grab of this, with 2 clear G2G contrasts, and a 3rd questionable reading (and noone has correlated the radar to the photos yet).

 

[Bob Schafer]

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/sho...-6-16-MISC-NE-IA-IL-WI-MN&p=338396#post338396

 

[Paul Knightley]

Is is possible that two supercells are actually in extremely close proximity at one stage, before merging? The radar animation *appears* to show what might be loosely considered as two separate cores just prior to the storm(s) passing Pilger. Perhaps a new cell erupted in the flanking line of the original main updraught column...an animation of the VIL might highlight this more than reflectivity data.

Of course, this may be how cyclic low-level mesocyclogenesis/tornadogenesis proceeds - and it's just that in this case, the 'new' tornado grew extremely rapidly whilst the 'old' tornado remained at a strong intensity for longer than some other documented cases of cyclic behaviour.

 

[Jeff Duda]

Of course, this may be how cyclic low-level mesocyclogenesis/tornadogenesis proceeds - and it's just that in this case, the 'new' tornado grew extremely rapidly whilst the 'old' tornado remained at a strong intensity for longer than some other documented cases of cyclic behaviour.

This is what I would put my money on.

 

[Bram]

Interesting question, and that's why I've created another Youtube-video which shows supplemental radar data. This one should give a much better idea of the storm structure than my previous one, which only showed data of the lowest scans.

The most interesting thing is part 3 of the video in my opinion, which shows the reflectivity and velocity data of the 0,5°-scans of the KOAX-radar, together with those of the 2,4°-scans. This is a good way to compare the lower levels of the storm(s) with the mid-levels. Keep however in mind that there are about 2 minutes between those scans.
Part 4 shows the VIL sampled by the KOAX-radar, where Paul asked for, combined with the reflectivity of the lowest scan. That also seems a good way to look at the storm(s). In this case there are however about 5 minutes between both things.

I don't have very much knowledge about this, so I let others decide if these are different supercells or if this is one cyclic supercell (or a combination of both), but I do want to say something about it:
In the radar animations of the mid levels of the storm(s), it seems like there are at least 3 different rotating 'main' updrafts, each responsible for its own tornado (stanton tornado and the twin tornadoes near Pilger). Those updrafts do already exist before the tornadoes develop, so they are not associated with them (at least at the beginning). In the reflectivity images it also looks like the complex is composed of different storms, just as in the animation of the VIL.
That's why my question is: could it be the case that the first 3 tornadoes are associated with 3 different supercells, and that the last EF-4 tornado is associated with a cycle of one of them (because I can't see a different mid-level meso developing before that one forms), or does this all fit the definition of a cyclic supercell?

I am curious to hear what other people with more knowledge think about this. This video should provide some good information to them

The video:
Watch video >