Storm chasers hit by farm equipment

[John Olexa]

Close call! glad nobody was hurt. EDIT : changed link first one quit working

http://features.aol.com/video/storm...cle|popular-videos-5min-main|sec2_lnk2|471830

 

[Warren Faidley]

I'm astonished it took this long for this video clip to show up. Not too long ago, such footage would have ignited a firestorm, but such are the times we chase in now days where getting too close is the rage and no one seems to care anymore why chasers do it or who started the lunacy.

However, in fairness, you never know the circumstances and it would be unfair to comment in detail until the exact facts are known.

W.

 

[Dan Robinson]

This incident (and most likely the other high-profile video of power poles falling) appears to be a result of intense RFD winds south of the Cordova-Beaver Crossing, NE tornado. The OAX survey noted intense straight-line wind damage many miles south of the tornado as a result of the RFD:

THIS SUPERCELL ALSO PRODUCED A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF WIND DAMAGE TO THE SOUTH OF THE TRACK OF THE TORNADO. SOME OF THIS DAMAGE...ESPECIALLY FROM CORDOVA...AND POINTS EAST ALONG ROKEBY...YANKEE HILL...DENTON AND OLD CHENEY ROADS WAS INTENSE. IN THIS AREA...SOME STRAIGHT-LINE WIND SPEEDS REACHED 110 MPH. OTHER STRAIGHT-LINE WIND DAMAGE EXTENDED EVEN FARTHER SOUTH INTO NORTHERN SALINE COUNTY INCLUDING THE FRIEND AND DORCHESTER AREAS.

 

[Michael King]

Wise to be cautious re. criticism Warren. I was part of the Cloud 9 group & travelled in a vehicle behind the one that was hit. I believe the very beginning and early development of the EF3 Beaver Creek tornado started just south of the west - east road that we were travelling on (in an easterly direction). From what I am told and from what I saw (or didn't see!) myself, this early development entailed relatively light rotating rain curtains with no visible condensation funnel. As I understand winds 'only' have to be 80 mph to move irrigation equipment like this equipment was moved. The graphic, dramatic and thus newsworthy quality to the footage is because it captured the equipment moving and toppling towards and onto the vehicle. The Cloud 9 group was not in the vicinity of heavily rain wrapped tornadoes as taken and shown with other footage from this storm, presumably involving later stages of this EF3 tornado. Both earlier separate tornadoes we had seen on this storm were far to the SW and NW of our position as we travelled on this same road and earlier on (before the irrigation equipment incident) as we observed this storm.

 

[Skip Talbot]

It's not that nobody cares, lots do and there have been really heated discussions about this event and its incidents already. Most of the initial discussion occurs on Facebook though instead of Stormtrack.

There were several incidents that occurred with this event:
Watch video >


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkXWre5y4Ak

In the above two videos, chasers were attempting to approach the Cordova EF-3 from the south and appear to be impacted by RFD or perhaps the "ghost train" inflow jet feeding it.

Dan Robinson made this great map based off the preliminary damage survey:

It appears that at least for some chasers, attention was focused on one part of the storm, while disregarding other more immediately dangerous parts of the storm.

Spotting on this storm was extremely difficult and dangerous for those chasing near the "bear's cage" due to its HP nature. I made this infographic to try and illustrate the situation:

We had a visual on a cone tornado, but could tell from the inflow winds at our location, that this was not the main circulation. Indeed a 1.5 mile wide EF-3 was hiding in the rain to the left of the cone, and we couldn't really see it at the time. Chasers entering the bear's cage are in extreme danger from being impacted by tornadic winds as are chasers who are trying to cut across the bear's cage to escape, or are crossing its path during escape. These were fatal mistakes from El Reno, and chasers are still making them.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Wise to be cautious re. criticism Warren. ... this early development entailed relatively light rotating rain curtains with no visible condensation funnel.

That there was no condensation funnel means the tour is exempt from criticism? Not that I'm here to criticize, but this is not really a valid excuse because from your description it sounds like the tour van was operating underneath a tornado producing part of the storm, and then it was impacted by a tornado. Sure the winds may be on the low end for a tornado, but if it's a circulation doing damage, it sounds like a tornado to me.

Was the tour intentionally operating under a dangerous part of the storm, or were they dangerously unaware? It would be really insightful to see what went wrong here. I know many chasers compromise their own safety for the sake of getting a view, but I think many are going to be much more critical if a tour group is doing this.

 

[JamesCaruso]

That is some scary stuff in the videos Skip posted; having my escape route blocked by power poles taken down by intense RFD is not something I want to be involved in.

Have these people learned nothing from El Reno?

Maybe I am just a big chicken, but I really do not like messing around with monster HPs. I have been doing this a long time, but at just two weeks a year it still doesn't add up to enough experience to make me comfortable in that environment - not that anyone should ever be "comfortable," regardless of how much experience they have. Especially in the earliest days of a chase vacation when still working the rust off, there is no way I will tangle with something like that. Better to go for the outside structure shot. In too close, you either get low-quality video OR overly dramatic video because you truly are in danger. There seems to be little in between.

I am sure I probably have been in similarly bad positions before and was probably just lucky the storms weren't quite powerful enough to take any power lines down in front of (or on top of) me. But I am going to remain extra vigilant this year.

Be safe everyone.

 

[Paul Knightley]

There is nothing 'chicken' at all about not being close to or within the Bear's Cage - I would call it intelligence...why on earth is it worth risking your life and the life of others with you just to get a shot of a rain-wrapped tornado? If you can answer then fine - it's your choice, but it seems such a shame that so many years' worth of knowledge about the general behaviour around storms seems to be casually tossed aside by some.

I don't know the full stories of the cases here, of course, but I would be very interested if anyone would tell them - just from an educational point of view.

 

[Brandon Clement]

I was in the notch for El Reno and was hit by the tornado. It took a series of events going wrong that put us in the position to be hit like roads being on a map that weren't there, roads being blocked by police, traffic jams on dirt roads and an extraordinary tornado. However, it also showed me that a series of events in just a matter of a couple minutes can change a chase drastically and these events are out of my control. I won't say that I wont chase in the Bear's cage any longer but I can say with certainty that I wont do it on high parameter days, with a cell that has a small dry slot, a cell that is HP or in a place without a lot of road options, storms with huge hail and won't push all the way into the notch.

The Cordova tornado I played very safe. I didnt feel comfortable with the road options, amount of chasers and the rain wrapped wedge to play it any other way. I knew what I could do to get the tornado but I also knew that if I took those actions that the tornado was just as likely to get me. At one point I think there was something like 12 miles between N-S running paved roads. When I got to the paved road to take a north option to get a viewing point it looked like a Mardi Gras parade from chaser traffic. I kept heading east another 5 miles to get to the next north road option but once I got there had a great view, little traffic, was safe and ended up getting a better vantage point than most that were less than a mile from the tornado.

I will never tell anyone else how to chase and think anyone trying to play chaser police is kind of silly but the decisions I made the other day were really easy to make and seemed like the only real option. I'm not so sure I would have made those same decisions prior to El Reno but after accepting the fact that I was about to die in El Reno it probably led to some perspective. I also haven't seen video from anyone that was hit or almost hit in El Reno that was also in a very bad place for the Ne wedge. Pretty sure a lot of people learned a lesson from El Reno but unfortunately a lot of people, myself included, have to learn for themselves sometimes.

 

[Warren Faidley]

You can't really avoid RFD or gust front winds unless you want to be miles away from the storm. I've always considered high winds as part of the risk. I think the heart of the issue here, or at least what started it, was the way the footage clips were labeled. On YouTube it was "Tornado Chasers Get Hit By Farming Equipment - May 11, 2014." I'm not sure if that label was created by the actual source, or, as we have seen before, copied and doctored. If it was the source, it should be corrected unless it's to draw attention. Once again, we should not assume anything without hearing from the source.

One related footnote: Apparently a few insurance companies have had it with "close calls." I received an email on Wednesday from an Underwriter in the UK who wanted some information about "storm chasing risk assessment and evaluations." When I pressed him on "why," he told me several large insurance providers in the UK and elsewhere were considering altering / adjusting (dropping) policies that included storm chasing. This might be in conjunction with a show the BBC is planning about storm chasing, maybe not. Regardless, this is good example of why the "getting too close for no real reason" problem does effect other chasers down the line. I don't own a large tour group, but if I did, right now I'd be regretting that I never condoned the stupidity, today or when it started years ago.

W.

 

[Michael King]

Nobody is immune from people questioning how they approached the storm. My main point is don't lump us in with those operating near the bear's cage and playing chicken with dubious rain wrap areas. To my mind the risk there is significantly greater than re. our path.

That there was no condensation funnel means the tour is exempt from criticism? Not that I'm here to criticize, but this is not really a valid excuse because from your description it sounds like the tour van was operating underneath a tornado producing part of the storm, and then it was impacted by a tornado. Sure the winds may be on the low end for a tornado, but if it's a circulation doing damage, it sounds like a tornado to me.


Was the tour intentionally operating under a dangerous part of the storm, or were they dangerously unaware? It would be really insightful to see what went wrong here. I know many chasers compromise their own safety for the sake of getting a view, but I think many are going to be much more critical if a tour group is doing this.

 

[Skip Talbot]

My main point is don't lump us in with those operating near the bear's cage

But you were operating within the bear's cage. That's what those spiraling rain bands are:
http://theweatherprediction.com/habyhints2/436/

I'm not saying chasers can't do this. I've driven under the RFD and pushed into the bear's cage to get shots. I acknowledge that these are dangerous maneuvers though. It's possible to encounter life threatening winds any time you're in this position. I don't think chasers should get lulled into a false sense of security because the bars of the bear's cage look relatively benign, either because they're backlit or because the core of the storm isn't ominously dark and green.

 

[Rob H]

You can't really avoid RFD or gust front winds unless you want to be miles away from the storm. I've always considered high winds as part of the risk.

The topic of RFD safety is relevant to this discussion, although it may not apply directly to the tour in question.

Those big nasty supercells (usually HP) can be expected to have really strong RFD. When I'm playing in the inflow notch the second thing on my mind is always "where do I go when the RFD comes". I've ridden out 100mph RFD in an empty field before and other than my car rocking, I've been fine because I've planned ahead of time - no trees or power lines around me. If you've got powerlines and trees all over then it seems like a poor decision to classify it as "just RFD" (with implied safety because it's not the tornado) - which is a statement I hear a lot. 75mph RFD can take down poles in good condition and a pole falling on your car stands a very good chance of killing or maiming you.

As people have noted in other threads, there is a point where the distinction between RFD and tornado can be very small, and to take RFD lightly will probably prove to be a fatal mistake to a chaser some day.

edit:

Nobody is immune from people questioning how they approached the storm. My main point is don't lump us in with those operating near the bear's cage and playing chicken with dubious rain wrap areas. To my mind the risk there is significantly greater than re. our path.

I'm not meaning this as an attack, but more a simple statement of how this scenario appears objectively. The end result is the same regardless of intention or perceived recklessness - a car got hit by a giant sprinkler. There obviously was some risk that was not accounted for.

 

[Warren Faidley]

The bottom line is that anytime you are near a serious supercell you are going to subject yourself and others to a host of risks -- way beyond the tornado dangers -- which I consider a low risk unless you make the decision to place yourself in a dangerous position. Dust storms and heavy precipitation can cause serious visibility risks as can damaging or erratic inflow or outflow winds of any origin. Then you have lightning, Godzilla hail, slick roads and other vehicles hauling ass. When I have someone else in my chase vehicle, I'm a lot more considerate of the risks and I chase in a slightly more "conservative manner." As a matter of fact, I was on my best behavior last May when El Reno was hit because I had two tourists in my vehicle and two other chase team vehicles following. I'm sure I would have taken a little more risk if I was not responsible for other lives.

W.

 

[Matt Hunt]

It all seems senseless to me. My buddy was chasing this day, and he said he couldn't believe what he saw people driving into. All those chasers, and there really aren't any truly photogenic tornado videos from anyone! It's not worth it. Just stay out of the bear's cage. There will be plenty more classic supercells with photogenic tornadoes in the future, but if you lose your life trying to get a low-contrast rain-wrapped junky tornado, you won't be there to see them!