Rolling Fork Tornado

[JamesCaruso]

Chasing these nightime wedges in the dark, especially southern fast movers is not for me.
As Warren Faidley stated..."Sadley, just a matter of time".
I chased that Thalia/Lockett wedge last year, hoping to capture it a second time coming out of a roadway mess , waiting in the dark (no radar)on 183 for it to appear thinking what the hell am i doing here searching between lighting flashes. Lucky for me it turned 90 to the north. Unlucky for the town and that van.
No not for me!

There is a risk/reward calculation in many chasing scenarios / maneuvers, but views of a tornado as nothing more than a silhouette for fractions of a second during lightning flashes just does not seem to be at all worth slicing an RFD into the bear’s cage like that. Or maybe I am just a chicken$—- …

 

[Jeff Wright]

Certainly never come in from the North. In Alabama, there are three good SE-NW approaches in 269, 78/I-22 where you could preposition easily.

While watching TWC I saw a spur road that seemed to point directly at the storm ironically enough.

School footage

Watch As Tornado Hits Amory, Mississippi High School - Videos from The Weather Channel

The high school in Amory, Mississippi was hit by a tornado Friday evening. - Videos from The Weather Channel | weather.com

weather.com

That camera must have been taped to a tile.

 

[Jamie H]

I was really disappointed to see at least one chaser continuing to live broadcast while 'rescuing' (not sure carrying a camera with a light on it counts as rescue work). I'm sure people who are emerging from a direct tornado hit really want to have a camera in their faces.

Those lights btw are also visible on Max Olson's video. On the Discord people speculated it might have been something from a transformer? I can't see that it would be car lights at this point.

 

[Jonathan Scrogham]

The Chaser Chat Podcast released a special episode interviewing a chaser who was overtaken by a subvortex and was lofted by the Rolling Fork tornado. I want to make it clear that it was not a zero-metering attempt, rather a result of a navigational error, as specified in the episode. Link to the podcast here.

 

[Bobby Little]

after listening to the podcast chaser Marcus Reynolds states he was lofted 100-150 feet in his car into a baseball field.

 

[Gary Latimer]

As to the lights being observed on the video streams, I’m curious if it could have been something simple like solar powered floodlights (like the security type lights that turn on with motion that are not hardwired but rather, solar battery powered)? It will have to be something that has the ability to remain powered without a hardwired source… so that leaves only a few options. A vehicle is one option as well. But also possibly a solar wind turbine (not sure if the structure / motor section could have its lights remain illuminated or not but I did see at least one turbine impacted)

 

[Jamie H]

Link to Max Olson's video. If it doesn't start at 1:36, scroll to it and just after you can see one of the lights come up from the ground and start to rotate the tornado.

 

[JamesCaruso]

Regardless of what that light is, it’s pretty wild to watch it disappear and (quickly) reappear from the opposite side as it’s spun around the tornado…

 

[Bobby Little]

definitely a U.F.O.

 

[James K]

As to the lights being observed on the video streams, I’m curious if it could have been something simple like solar powered floodlights

I was thinking 'battery-powered light' as mentioned in a previous post... Don't know why I didn't think of this!
Yes... a solar powered floodlight or streetlight! That could very easily explain it! And I would say is probably the "best guess" as to whatever it is.
(both of of these are easily obtainable even for a homeowner - all you have to do is go to Walmart (have thought about getting one of the streetlight version myself))

 

[James K]

As to the lights being observed on the video streams, I’m curious if it could have been something simple like solar powered floodlights

I was thinking 'battery-powered light' as mentioned in a previous post... Don't know why I didn't think of this!
Yes... a solar powered floodlight or streetlight! That could very easily explain it! And I would say is probably the "best guess" as to whatever it is.
(both of of these are easily obtainable even for a homeowner - all you have to do is go to Walmart (have thought about getting one of the streetlight version myself))

 

[Michael Towers]

There is a risk/reward calculation in many chasing scenarios / maneuvers, but views of a tornado as nothing more than a silhouette for fractions of a second during lightning flashes just does not seem to be at all worth slicing an RFD into the bear’s cage like that. Or maybe I am just a chicken$—- …

I’ll chase after dark if a Classic or LP Supercell is isolated and the topography, road network and storm motion make it feasible to pursue, otherwise since I’m not into lightning the risk is not worth the reward. I tend to err on the side of caution and personally there’s no way in hell I’d chase this type of event at night (or even in daylight given the location) but to each their own. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the graphics but this nocturnal endeavor with a Dixie HP didn’t work out so well:

I'm shocked no chasers were killed. Sadly, it's only a matter of time. Everyone seems to forget about satellite tornadoes and rapid, deviant vortex motion with these violent set-ups.

I wouldn’t take the above approach in daylight with a Classic on the wide open plains and I doubt many experienced/cautious/responsible chasers would but with so many people out there it only takes a tiny percentage making an ignorant decision or taking a reckless risk to prove you right...and it seems like there's not a short supply of them out there these days.

 

[JamesCaruso]

So what happened after that?!? The video stops right at “impact”…

 

[Jamie H]

All I know is they were impacted and the car was damaged. Easy to judge after the fact of course, but he was driving South towards a tornado when he had a North escape route (with paved options to go East to Hwy 61). He missed the left turn which would also have got him to Hwy 61, despite having GPS on, because he was focused on where the tornado might be and not watching the road (straddles the centre line at one point).

From there he loses situational awareness and starts to panic, leading to poor decision making. I'm not sure enough chasers are willing to stop, consider the options, and perhaps miss the tornado to remain safe. Some are very good at getting very close, as safe as they can be (and even then the risks are very high), but that also leads to people who are not as skilled also getting into danger. Two chasers were impacted by this tornado and both were lucky enough to walk away, but I am not sure I can fathom why someone would drive from North to South, towards an unseen tornado, at night, in an unfamiliar area, especially when there were safe routes away from the storm.

 

[Drew Terril]

To add to Jamie's point, situational awareness is where people tend to get hung up. And more times than not, when that is lost, panic comes into play. So I can see pretty easily where one thing led to another, and for some people it's very difficult to hit the abort button and attempt to break contact, to use the old Army phrasing. I've had no issue backing off when I'm unsure on whether I'm in a safe position, but I've also tempted fate enough over my life that I have no desire to do so further.

Maintaining situational awareness is something that can be trained for, but it's not easy to resist the sensation of panic when it starts to set in. And to be completely fair, even most trained people momentarily freeze when taking fire for the first time, or ending up in some other dangerous situation. And I don't think that this is a bad analogy to use.

Something I've also seen discussion wise over the past few days is people asking what to get for first aid, SAR, etc. The first thing I would recommend is to get training. At the very least, get CPR certified and take some kind of basic first aid course. Ideally, a more advanced course (like a wilderness medicine course) would be great. And I'd stay away from premade kits. Most of them are crap, and you'll end up replacing half the stuff in them if you have the knowledge base to know what's needed and what's not. Another thing that gets overlooked is triage. That needs to be trained for as well, especially if there's not EMS on the scene yet. The more information that you can give them when they do show up, the easier time they'll have evaluating the situation. If you have the means to communicate with them when they're on the way, even better. Oftentimes, this can be accomplished via ham radio as many EMAs have a licensed ham at the EOC during events. We had a system in the military for communication with incoming medevacs to let them know what to expect. I would imagine there's a similar one on the civilian side.

Beyond that, if you don't have the aptitude or training to help medically, something as simple as being able to clear a path for EMS and Fire to get their vehicles in is invaluable. If you have a chainsaw and a winch, you can as much good as anyone with medical training, because if they can't get those vehicles in, it makes transport much more difficult. On rare occasions, an LZ for a LifeFlight may need to be cleared, although they rarely fly in inclement weather (just like military pilots rarely fly into a hot LZ).