Skip Talbot
EF5
I took my GPS logs and archived Level 3 radar data and produced some animations of my tornado intercepts from this year. Its interesting to not only be able to see the entire chase from a radar prespective, but its also insightful as to what mistakes were made and how things could have been done differently. I've learned a lot from watching these animations, and I thought it would be valuable to share them here.
March 28 - Goodland KS (Multiple Tornadoes)
KGLD Animated GIF (2.5MB) Individual PNG Frames
Full Log
This chase was as close as I've gotten to perfect, and yet there was still room for improvement. Jerry and I ran around to three different storms before we settled on the right one. The running around cost us a tornado near Sharon Springs. I can't complain though, because this chase was unbelievably fantastic.
April 24 - Nickerson, KS (Weak Multiple Vortex Tornado)
KICT Animated GIF (3.5MB) Individual PNG Frames
Full Log
This was an incredible chase, not just because of the fantastic LP supercell structure, but also because we were 150 miles south of initiation, in a separate state, with storm motions against us, and we still managed to intercept. Lesson learned: We should have made our move north sooner after seeing better cu development along the dryline in KS and that OK was choking behind the linear mess.
May 4 - Lebanon, KS (Nocturnal Supercell and Rope Tornado)
KUEX Animated GIF (3.5MB) Individual PNG Frames - Chase Analysis
KDDC Animated GIF (4.6MB) Individual PNG Frames - Greensburg EF5
Full Log
I made two animations for this chase. One from KUEX wherer we wound up chasing, and one from KDDC where the Greensburg EF5 moved through. Was going north a mistake? I believe that the answer is not so obvious. At the time of initiation, the storm we were after was 70 miles to our north with a motion against us. What would become the Greensburg storm was more than 100 miles to our south. Although motion would have been in our favor, the added distance meant we would not have intercepted that much sooner. Also, as we departed, our northern storm was discrete and we had a visual on a very strong looking updraft tower. While we couldn't see the southern activity, it appeared multicellular on the radar. A more thorough investigation and scrutiny of the Mesoanaylsis might have helped push us south, although we probably wouldn't have caught the discrepencies that Jon Davies detailed in his analysis.
What if we had gone south? There were two possible routes. Straight south on 281 to Pratt, and then west would have been the wisest. However, to make better time we might have gone southwest on 56. This would have meant dodging the core and manuevering around the meso (and unbeknownst to us at the time, an EF5). Should something have gone wrong, (a flat tire, stuck in the mud, etc) the situation would have become extraordinarily dangerous. Also note that another cell went up north of the Greensburg storm before the Greensburg storm was fully mature. If we had taken the southwest option, that storm would have gone up right over our heads and we might have wound up chasing it instead of the Greensburg storm, ultimately seeing less than we caught near the Nebraska border.
May 4 was a succesful chase for us, but I do have mixed emotions about missing the Greensburg storm. It was a legendary event with a 2 mile wide wedge, satellite tornadoes, and other, separate torndaoes. Yet the devastation and death it caused would have been disheartening and ruined whatever joy we would have gotten from a succesful intercept or exhileration from feeling such power.
May 5 - Great Bend, KS (Stovepipe Tornado)
KDDC Animated GIF (4.6MB) Individual PNG Frames
Full Log
This was a stressful, yet rewarding chase with a low contrast tornado southwest of Great Bend. After our first wall cloud intercept we went north and west back to the dryline to setup up downstream while the storm we wound up intercepting our tornado on was already developing well south of there. We wound up making a huge loop and could have intercepted much, much earlier than we did. Another lesson learned from watching this animation: stay in the area of development, and be prepared to double back sooner. We also went north after this storm which turned out to be a mistake as it was gusting out and we had trouble keeping up. The wise move would have been to drop south down the line, catching the nocturnal tornadoes that many of you got.
Well, I hope you guys enjoyed the animations and my analysis. My friends have described the animations as looking like either a fun video game, or a drunken mouse in a maze.
March 28 - Goodland KS (Multiple Tornadoes)
KGLD Animated GIF (2.5MB) Individual PNG Frames
Full Log
This chase was as close as I've gotten to perfect, and yet there was still room for improvement. Jerry and I ran around to three different storms before we settled on the right one. The running around cost us a tornado near Sharon Springs. I can't complain though, because this chase was unbelievably fantastic.
April 24 - Nickerson, KS (Weak Multiple Vortex Tornado)
KICT Animated GIF (3.5MB) Individual PNG Frames
Full Log
This was an incredible chase, not just because of the fantastic LP supercell structure, but also because we were 150 miles south of initiation, in a separate state, with storm motions against us, and we still managed to intercept. Lesson learned: We should have made our move north sooner after seeing better cu development along the dryline in KS and that OK was choking behind the linear mess.
May 4 - Lebanon, KS (Nocturnal Supercell and Rope Tornado)
KUEX Animated GIF (3.5MB) Individual PNG Frames - Chase Analysis
KDDC Animated GIF (4.6MB) Individual PNG Frames - Greensburg EF5
Full Log
I made two animations for this chase. One from KUEX wherer we wound up chasing, and one from KDDC where the Greensburg EF5 moved through. Was going north a mistake? I believe that the answer is not so obvious. At the time of initiation, the storm we were after was 70 miles to our north with a motion against us. What would become the Greensburg storm was more than 100 miles to our south. Although motion would have been in our favor, the added distance meant we would not have intercepted that much sooner. Also, as we departed, our northern storm was discrete and we had a visual on a very strong looking updraft tower. While we couldn't see the southern activity, it appeared multicellular on the radar. A more thorough investigation and scrutiny of the Mesoanaylsis might have helped push us south, although we probably wouldn't have caught the discrepencies that Jon Davies detailed in his analysis.
What if we had gone south? There were two possible routes. Straight south on 281 to Pratt, and then west would have been the wisest. However, to make better time we might have gone southwest on 56. This would have meant dodging the core and manuevering around the meso (and unbeknownst to us at the time, an EF5). Should something have gone wrong, (a flat tire, stuck in the mud, etc) the situation would have become extraordinarily dangerous. Also note that another cell went up north of the Greensburg storm before the Greensburg storm was fully mature. If we had taken the southwest option, that storm would have gone up right over our heads and we might have wound up chasing it instead of the Greensburg storm, ultimately seeing less than we caught near the Nebraska border.
May 4 was a succesful chase for us, but I do have mixed emotions about missing the Greensburg storm. It was a legendary event with a 2 mile wide wedge, satellite tornadoes, and other, separate torndaoes. Yet the devastation and death it caused would have been disheartening and ruined whatever joy we would have gotten from a succesful intercept or exhileration from feeling such power.
May 5 - Great Bend, KS (Stovepipe Tornado)
KDDC Animated GIF (4.6MB) Individual PNG Frames
Full Log
This was a stressful, yet rewarding chase with a low contrast tornado southwest of Great Bend. After our first wall cloud intercept we went north and west back to the dryline to setup up downstream while the storm we wound up intercepting our tornado on was already developing well south of there. We wound up making a huge loop and could have intercepted much, much earlier than we did. Another lesson learned from watching this animation: stay in the area of development, and be prepared to double back sooner. We also went north after this storm which turned out to be a mistake as it was gusting out and we had trouble keeping up. The wise move would have been to drop south down the line, catching the nocturnal tornadoes that many of you got.
Well, I hope you guys enjoyed the animations and my analysis. My friends have described the animations as looking like either a fun video game, or a drunken mouse in a maze.
