Night time tornado chasing - WHY??

[Susan Strom]

Re: Chasing at Night

Originally posted by StephenLevine
come alive at night. I love how the storm is cast into fire by the lightning from the very beginning as it approaches all the way to the very end when the vast arc of thunderheads explode with bolts, the entire thing silhouetted upon a black star filled sky.

Amen, that's it right there. All the other stuff, long drives, need sleep...all minutia when that is in front of you.

 

[Darin Brunin]

I had a scary experience after dark on May 22nd of last year too. My chase partner and I were in Hebron at about 10:00 filling up with gas for our trip back home. We knew that the storm moving through at that time was severe but it wasn't tornadic yet. When we were filling up with gas I looked to the northwest and saw the RFB with a nice wall cloud. After this the cool air that was present was suddenly replaced by warm inflow. I then called my nowcaster and he said that they just issued the tornado warning for it. So knowing that we had to make a decision of whether to get away from the storm ASAP or be cautious and see what it produced. Well, we took the second choice and it ended up paying off big time. We went east out of Hebron on Highway 136 and were basically running parallel to the storm which then went on to produce two possibly three tornadoes when we were running along side of it. We ended up breaking off of it in Beatrice and heading back to Lawrence but we were very satisfied with what we got. Here are a couple camcorder stills of the storm and tornadoes which were taken with a couple miles of the Jefferson/Thayer county line on Highway 136 at about 10:30. The quality is not the best but it gets the job done. I messed with them in PS to make the contrast better and it pixelated them more. Sorry about the length that the pictures take up but I could not get two on the same line for some reason. The first two pictures are of a known tornado and possibly a second one to the right of it. The third and fourth are of a wedge (seen clearly) and then the known tornado that was in the first two pictures which is roping out above the larger tornado.

 

[Mike Kruze]

Originally posted by Joe Nield

You're not kidding. Mike Kruze took this from the window of our hotel room in Beatrice.

May 22 was one of those days where we felt it would just be better to stop for the night and watch from inside a sturdy hotel. After the tornado went through Hallam and Firth, new development south of that storm was beginning to become more linear. Faced with potentially embedded supercells in a line and not wanting to chance a Missouri River crossing, we decided to call it quits. We let the line pass over us from the safety of our hotel. I think we made the right choice, and the lightning show was spectacular that night.

Chasing at night is one of those things you just have to evaluate on a storm by storm basis.

 

[David Schuttler]

I had a scary experience after dark on May 22nd of last year too. My chase partner and I were in Hebron at about 10:00 filling up with gas for our trip back home. We knew that the storm moving through at that time was severe but it wasn't tornadic yet. When we were filling up with gas I looked to the northwest and saw the RFB with a nice wall cloud. After this the cool air that was present was suddenly replaced by warm inflow. I then called my nowcaster and he said that they just issued the tornado warning for it. So knowing that we had to make a decision of whether to get away from the storm ASAP or be cautious and see what it produced. Well, we took the second choice and it ended up paying off big time. We went east out of Hebron on Highway 136 and were basically running parallel to the storm which then went on to produce two possibly three tornadoes when we were running along side of it. We ended up breaking off of it in Beatrice and heading back to Lawrence but we were very satisfied with what we got. Here are a couple camcorder stills of the storm and tornadoes which were taken with a couple miles of the Jefferson/Thayer county line on Highway 136 at about 10:30. The quality is not the best but it gets the job done. I messed with them in PS to make the contrast better and it pixelated them more. Sorry about the length that the pictures take up but I could not get two on the same line for some reason. The first two pictures are of a known tornado and possibly a second one to the right of it. The third and fourth are of a wedge (seen clearly) and then the known tornado that was in the first two pictures which is roping out above the larger tornado.

Possibly same as what you were looking at.
?
This one was approx. 10:12 n.w. of fairbury
[Broken External Image]:http://www.homemyhome.com/sitebuild...ures/.pond/52220041012pm0012.jpg.w300h225.jpg

[Broken External Image]:http://www.homemyhome.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/.pond/522040002.jpg.w300h225.jpg

10:27 ?
[Broken External Image]:http://www.homemyhome.com/sitebuild...ures/.pond/52220041027pm0001.jpg.w300h225.jpg[/quote]

 

[Darin Brunin]

David,

It is quite possible that we were looking at the same thing from different angles. I would be interested in know what your position was. I may have been a little cautious about chasing that storm on May 22nd but now that I look back at the position that we were in relative to the storm I don't think that it was that dangerous at all. We stayed in the vehicle the whole time because the lightning was our primary concern.

 

[David Schuttler]

Originally posted by Darin Brunin
David,

It is quite possible that we were looking at the same thing from different angles. I would be interested in know what your position was. I may have been a little cautious about chasing that storm on May 22nd but now that I look back at the position that we were in relative to the storm I don't think that it was that dangerous at all. We stayed in the vehicle the whole time because the lightning was our primary concern.

The circled area is basically where I was setting on east/west running roads ,west of highway 15 looking west. I would drop south closer to Fairbury now and then. From what I can recall at the moment I would put me at about 1 mile west of hwy 15 and approx. 4 miles north of Fairbury.during those vid caps(I have GPS this year TG...lol). I don't believe this is the area that prompted the Plymouth warning later but not positive

* AT 1048 PM CDT...RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE STORM WITH A DEVELOPING
TORNADO. THE MOST DANGEROUS PART OF THE STORM WAS LOCATED 4 MILES
SOUTHEAST OF PLYMOUTH...OR ABOUT 10 MILES WEST OF BEATRICE...MOVING
EAST AT 30 MPH. LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTED A TORNADO NEAR PLYMOUTH
WITH THIS THUNDERSTORM

Once I filled up in Faibury I couldn't see much since the rain had caught up by then

[Broken External Image]:http://www.homemyhome.com/sitebuild...ures/.pond/52204nebnightarea.jpg.w300h229.jpg

 

[Darin Brunin]

David,

I would say that was the area that prompted the Plymouth warning later on. My vid caps were a little farther west around the Powe area though when I was following it on 136 coming east from Hebron. Also the time on the captures was between 10:18 and 10:25 with the larger lowering(almost certain large tornado) around 10:25 farther east The rain also blocked my view shortly after the point where I got those vid captures. Did u have any confirmed touchdowns? I wish that my captures would have had better contrast but I have to go by what I got. The video is very clear though. My computer is getting a virus taken off of it right now but in the next few days I will make a vid clip of the time frame to let you see it.

Darin

 

[Mike Peregrine]

I saw Darin's video at the last chaser party in KC ... when he introduced it I was thinking ... 'great ... a night-time tornado video' ... then it ended up being pretty dang cool - and pretty scary too. Reminded me of the night tornado in Twister for some reason.

For the most part I'm not a night chaser, just because I'm usually just trying to make it home after the big show during the day ... BUT ... since I live on the Missouri River and the big storms happen to our west, it forces us to drive home in the middle of some crazy stuff every spring. On May 22nd, I was half scared silly after the sun went down for a good two hours as the rotation celebration continued into the night, then drove home through a terrible soaked mess. Then on the 29th the story repeated itself as we ran into quite a wind event coming off of a rotating supe near Marysville, Kansas that was strong enough to move my car sideways ... we ended up racing through Marysville, running red lights and just trying to get out from under the base of the storm - people must have thought we were nuts. I'll never forget the night chase of June 13, 2001 while the Narka supercell continued producing clearly visible tornadoes on the ground west of Fairbury, Nebraska either ... it was a wild sight seeing two funnels weave around each other in between the lightning concentrated around the meso that night - I can never recommend chasing at night because it just scares the poop outta me, but still end up doing it every year, seems like.

 

[Jeff Miller]

hmm

Still dont do night chasing...with the pictures I see above, makes me wonder what I am missing out on!!

However, it is just too difficult in my opinion, to see and observe satellite vortices, gustnado whirls (on the gust front), and other nighttime dangers that can lurk near a dangerous storm's business end. With the spectacular lightning and tremendous picture opportunities vs. the dangers, I still side with the dangers and simply dont attempt it.

I dont think that makes me a "weaker" chaser or even a "safer" chaser...its all in individual preference.

 

[mikedeason]

I don't actively chase at night, though I guess it could be said I "passively"chase. If there's a nice isolated supercell or I can get a good angle on the tail end of a squall line or multicell cluster, then I'll set up a few miles away (usually southeast ot south, depending on the movement) and try to get some good lightning and structure shots. For me, it's presents a good oppotunity to wind down and relax after the rush of a chase.

Regards,

Mike

 

[Craig Maire II]

Night time chasing

I have had many excellent chase experiences at night including a tornado that I witnessed/shot video of in Linn County, Iowa on 7/20/03. I am very careful when I chase at night, only bring people with me who know what to possibly expect etc. With the right amount of lightning night time chasing can be almost as good as chasing during the day time! (My opinion). There is a risk of injury/death anytime a chaser goes out and one must accept the risk or stay home. Remember, lightning is much more of a danger than a tornado due to its ability to strike far from its parent storm with almost no warning and its often extreme frequency, and lightning can occur day or night.