Quinter area tornados

[Chris Hayes]

This was being discussed in the most intense winds thread, but I thought it deserved it's own thread. On May 23rd there were at least 2 tornados in the Quinter, Kansas area. I was on the one in the following Youtube video that was taken by Dick McGowan. I was within a 1/2 mile of him taking video of this same tornado.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ThE_4eAN9No

Any idea what this tornado was rated? The tornado was approaching from the south and dissipated, or appeared to dissipate right before reaching I-70. A 2nd one formed right on the other side of 70. On the link below, are maps of tornados that occured around Quinter on May 23rd.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=gld&storyid=14861&source=0

Now, here's another Youtube video of a tornado that did cross I-70. Numerous other chasers got this one as well.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GgGjtZxGEkI

This begs to question: what tornado is what on the maps on that Goodland NWS site? The first video showed a large and apparently strong/violent tornado come easily within a mile of crossing I-70 before it dissipated or weakened significantly. The 2nd shows a tornado that DID cross I-70. Did Goodland miss the first tornado during it's surveys or what? I'm just curious, because there's somthing wrong here.

 

[Chris Foltz]

Hey Chris,

That's a great question. As I posted here, we are looking for as much information as possible from both May 22 and May 23 to ensure the tornado tracks and subsequent information entered into StormData is depicted as accurately as possible. I wanted to take a moment to say a huge "thanks" to all who have contacted me with information so far.

Again, we would sincerely appreciate any and all help in beginning/end times as well as lat/lon for the tornadoes that occurred in our CWA both of these days. Obviously, we have reviewed the radar data and completed storm surveys but as we can all attest, there was a lot of rain and the roads in that area were less than ideal to say the least. Any assistance you could provide would be much appreciated. Please PM me if you are able to help out with GPS logs, etc...

 

[Marc Austin]

I'm assuming there wasn't much damage from the tornado in the first video. We watched it from Quinter as it dissipated. From what we could tell, and we weren't as close, it seemed to mostly stay out in the fields. This one definitely lifted before crossing the interstate. The tornado in the second video occured roughly an hour to an hour and a half later and did cross the interstate. I'm pretty sure this was the EF-4 tornado that just missed Quinter to the west. In the posted video, the tornado had morphed into a cone. About 7 minutes earlier it looked more like this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vJN_1qcsDHg

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tBEDVhzwqlI

This tornado definitely crossed the interstate and in these videos you can see damage being done to some farmsteads west of Quinter. I hope this helps. I'll try and get a time stamp from the first tornado. Hopefully this will help clear things up. It did look like a strong tornado, but I'm not sure that it hit any substantial structures.

 

[Bill Hark]

Chris, I am certainly willing to help. I did send Joy, the webmaster an image of the second tornado crossing I-70 along with some info on times and a pic of the car swept off the road.
I can also send you video if needed. Below is a short version of my Quinter video:

1 min Youtube of second tornado
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZeXqhZONFM

longer version of both tornadoes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Qk0uxK3tI

The 2nd Quinter tornado crossed I-70 at 6:30PM CDT. I was east of the tornado. From my GPS log, I was 3.3 miles west of the Quinter exit or 1 mile west of the Gove AA overpass. The tornado crossed the road 1.8 miles west of me.

Bill Hark
http://www.harkphoto.com

 

[Peter Wharton]

We (Stormchasing.com) were on the first tornado referred to above - we had tracked it north on Castle Rock road into Quinter for some distance when it was distinctly wedge-shaped from that perspective, and turned onto I-70 where this short video was taken by which time it had assumed a more classic cone shape - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC7U-i5i5eM

It dissipated before crossing I-70 - I have a pic taken shortly thereafter on the muddy roads north of Quinter which is time stamped 4:59, so my estimate of its time is about 4:15 to 4:45.

I'm pretty confident that this first one is not the EF-4 referred to on the NWS, Goodland site, but the track recorded for the EF-2 doesn't conform with our observations which record a much longer path south of I-70 parallel to Castle Rock road and dissipating just before I-70.

 

[Kem Poyner]

Quinter tornado

I also video taped the first tornado as it approached I-70. My vantage point was from a bit farther into town. My video includes, in the shot the group of chasers who recorded the video at the start of this thread.
I was sitting on a driveway of some small office building. There were a couple other chase cars ahead of mine to the West. The second tornado developed very quickly about 75 yards infront of us. As the first chase truck spead past me he yelled out his window,"Its coming right at you!"
The big problem that became very clear to me was that my car was facing the approaching wallcloud nearly on the ground. I did not want to risk a 3 point turn around as the sides of the driveway was a muddy mess. I kept my head together and drove toward the thing maybe 20 yards and turned around in a wider, safer spot. Then got the heck out of there. It was pretty intense for a few seconds. I am not sure that the second tornado actually touched the ground. If it did it was brief.

 

[Andrea Griffa]

Chris I saw later this thread.
I report here as well my thoughts about Quinter area tornado.
We had a debate because both tornadoes had the appearence of a violent tornado. Actually when I observed these two tornadoes the last wedge(the EF4) before getting a cone shaped tornado near the interstate, showed some large debris thrown in the sky(I suppose some trees).
Anyway if the map is correct the first wedge was the Quinter EF2. It dissipated 1 km south of the interstate. However a weak tornadic circulation was always at the ground:even when the wall cloud crossed the I70. After (I think less of) 1 km another tornado was at the ground North of the I 70 and it got bigger till became a very photogenic large cone tornado(the first tornado of Doug Kiesling video). After few minutes another wide tornado touched the ground and become a large wedge tornado and it headed northward.
After these tornadoes another large meso came toward the interstate and you could see the another large tornado at the ground: the EF4.

As regards you question,Chris

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ThE_4eAN9No

Any idea what this tornado was rated? The tornado was approaching from the south and dissipated, or appeared to dissipate right before reaching I-70. A 2nd one formed right on the other side of 70. On the link below, are maps of tornados that occured around Quinter on May 23rd.

I'm pretty sure that is the first EF2 tornado I was speaking before.

 

[Andrea Griffa]

As about Ellis night time tornadoes this is what I could do from some chaser help and from some radar images.
I have no idea if the tornadoes were always at the ground.

 

[Peter Wharton]

Anyway if the map is correct the first wedge was the Quinter EF2. It dissipated 1 km south of the interstate. However a weak tornadic circulation was always at the ground:even when the wall cloud crossed the I70.

Agree with these observations, however I think the EF-2 originated far further south than the track map suggests.

 

[Andrea Griffa]

Agree with these observations, however I think the EF-2 originated far further south than the track map suggests.

Yes Peter I agree with you, I would say at least 5-7 miles south of the I 70.

 

[Bryan Putnam]

^ Peter, I believe it did too. I saw it, along with most, when it came out of the rain a couple miles south of the interstate. This would be right about where the track from the NWS starts. However, due to its size there's a pretty good chance it had been ongoing in the rain for awhile before it became visible.


The track for the EF-4 looks spot on to me. I was about a mile east of Quinter on I-70 and I first spotted it in the haze to my SSW. (In fact, I can't comment on its exact start because it was already a large wedge when i first spotted it in the haze miles off in the distance.) It was closest to my location about halfway through its duration, which would correlate with its turn northwest on the track map. I thought at the time that it was just becoming obscured by rain because it became harder and harder to see as it reached I-70, but its clear now that it was actually moving towards the northwest and further away from my location.

As far as the appearance of the tornadoes and the ratings, I always considered the second the more violent by far. The first tornado had a decent amount of ground rotation, but the second was downright frightening.

 

[Donald Giuliano]

Agree with these observations, however I think the EF-2 originated far further south than the track map suggests.

We watched this tornado touch down, and can verify it was farther south than the NWS track. I'm not sure how much further south it was as we would need to check our GPS logs, but would guess about 2 miles. Quinter #1 (the EF-2) got big in a hurry, our video from that day can be found at:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=oOtT4GsiGZg

 

[Chris Hayes]

The location of the EF-2 on that map is what had gotten me so confused, not to mention Im a believer that there were in fact two tornados there (south and north side of 70). The map showing the tornado originating so close to 70 confused me because of the shear size of the tornado as it was approaching 70. We had heard reports of a tornado for about 10+ minutes before we got a look of the tornado and I thought for sure it was on the ground AT LEAST 10 miles south of 70 before we seen it. The reason I think it was 2 tornados is because we were so close to the circulation as it crossed 70, then watched as "the second" one touched down on the north side of 70.

 

[Chris Foltz]

Chris,

I think that's the entire crux of the question. I've viewed video which would indicate two separate tornadoes as you indicate but others have indicated there was a constant tornadic circulation even as the meso passed over I-70. After reviewing information provided by many different people, it certainly appears the preliminary track as indicated on the map places the starting point of the EF2 tornado too close to I-70. It will most certainly be adjusted for StormData purposes. Thanks again to all who have provided input.

 

[Andrea Griffa]

Chris,

I think that's the entire crux of the question. I've viewed video which would indicate two separate tornadoes as you indicate but others have indicated there was a constant tornadic circulation even as the meso passed over I-70. After reviewing information provided by many different people, it certainly appears the preliminary track as indicated on the map places the starting point of the EF2 tornado too close to I-70. It will most certainly be adjusted for StormData purposes. Thanks again to all who have provided input.

I confirm a tornadic circulation under the wall cloud after the tornado dissipated. Anyway it's true that the tornado touched down at least 7-10 miles south of the I 70.