This (see below):
...should be the new image at the top of the ST home page. I wish I could "thumbs up" this post ten-thousand times. This is the most well written and concise form of the essence of chasing safety I think I've ever seen.
This is a great thread for new chasers to read, and it's a lesson about what can happen when you play too close and don't have enough options for escape, or enough time to utilize them.
An escape route should never involve crossing a tornado's path, and that appears to be the main problem in this case. Reuter is 1-2 miles north of where the tornado crossed 81, which was closer to 15th. I know because we crossed 81 at 15th and the tornado was directly behind us. I don't agree with police blocking any roads at all (unless it's an extremely clear cut case), but in this case, I'd argue the police officer was actually in a beneficial position if he was blocking 81 southbound at Reuter, because the tornado crossed south of there.
Tornado to your south or southwest moving from east to northeast here are your escape route options:
Your best escape route would have been north. You had a beautiful escape route to the north on 81. A fast, four lane, paved highway, directly away from the path of the tornado. I don't care if there is 7" hail falling out of the storm. 7" inch hail doesn't roll your car 10 times or fling your body a quarter of a mile. You've committed to neglecting the hail threat if you're hook slicing or playing the inflow notch of an HP on a day with 5500 J/Kg of SBCAPE anyway.
The worst escape route would have been to continue east on Reuter, crossing the northeast moving tornado's path, trying to get out ahead of it. Conditions of the road up ahead are unknown. It's unpaved so it will be a slower road, more prone to flooding or blockage from debris. It'll slow you down just enough to put your right in the crosshairs when that tornado makes that occluding left hand turn like many big wedges do.
The next worst escape route would have been south. Why? Again, because you're crossing the tornado's path. It's a dangerous gamble racing that tornado. You may have cleared the tornado had the cop not been there, sure, and it's easy to blame the cop since he's a person. Had it been a tree blocking 81, it would have been a little harder pointing the finger. Anything can cut off your escape route. If you don't have another option, or the time to take that option, then you've made several mistakes already and placed yourself in a poor, potentialy deadly position.
A better escape route than east or south would have been west on Reuter. Simply turning around would take you into the hail and RFD, which is a bad place to be, but ultimately better than in the path of the tornado.
It's a lot easier to visualize this with a map. I borrowed Scott McPartland's map of the event which was pieced together from his own position and visual observations of the tornado at key times:
I've crudely annotated the position cited in a previous post of where the 81 roadblock was encountered, Reuter and 81, and the chaser's position coming up to this roadblock, as well as where the tornado may be, give or a take a mile or so east or west on that track, it doesn't change the reasoning here. The "good" (or less deadly) escape routes have green checkmarks, the "bad" (or potentially deadly) escape routes have red X's. It's pretty plain to see they cross the tornado's path.
The moral of the story for our new readers is that it's not a good idea to play in the bear's cage of the largest and most violent of supercells (many would argue of any supercell), and that it's better to take the road to hail and 80 mph winds than the road to 200+ mph winds. I'm not trying to be condescending here, but this seems like a fairly clear cut case when you lay out the options, and I think it should be spelled out bluntly so we don't lose more friends.
...should be the new image at the top of the ST home page. I wish I could "thumbs up" this post ten-thousand times. This is the most well written and concise form of the essence of chasing safety I think I've ever seen.
