Wakita cell - Just RFD?

[Rob H]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ooxoWVOcwU

Someone else took this video and I was able to get a copy with their permission, as I was curious about what happened on Hwy 11 that day.

Ignoring the whole "it's just RFD / even 100mph isn't dangerous" mentality in the video - was this truly just RFD? Supposedly the person with the anemometer recorded 75+ mph winds, and videos like Adam Lucio's clearly show little satellite tornadoes forming and dancing back and forth across the road just south of the big tornado at this time. The intense winds in the video did snap power line poles that were previously standing. I haven't seen any videos with this part of the convoy at a distance where you can see clearly what is happening.

The winds appear to be twisting inwards to the tornado, but at what point can you distinguish RFD wrapping into a tornado separate from the tornado? I was under the impression that RFD can get up to 100 mph, which would come close to tipping cars and breaking windows in certain situations, but I haven't seen much in the way of reports or videos to verify this hypothesis.

I've been in RFD before, and I've never seen anything like this - although I've also never seen a multi vortex morph into an EF-3 in an environment with insane EHI. Any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated.

 

[Scott Weberpal]

Looks like the winds are straight-line from northwest to southeast and the meso is WELL off to their northeast. Looks pretty clear cut that it's RFD.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

As I dropped south from Wakita on the back side of the storm I was hit by the same thing. Where I was felt like it was going due west. It was pretty damn intense though. I just kept driving and it subsided. Happens often behind intense supercells. One of the stronger cases I'd seen though.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

Between what N-S roads did the Circulation cross Hwy 11, where did those chasers get hit and loose their windows? Perhaps I'm still a little thrown off due to my different perspective of the tornado, West of the Storm and North of Hwy 11, but I'm starting to wonder if there wasn't a second circulation/tornado NW of the main circulation...

 

[Verne Carlson]

I recognize this section of hw11 as a little east of the tree filled section where the multi-vortex tornado crossed back and forth across hw 11 and then moved off to the northeast and became the wedge. The inflow out of the south might be what they're in at the beginning but towards the end they are clearly in the RFD. The tornado at the whole time of this video is clearly well off to the northeast from the road. The chase tour had their windows blown out back in the trees west of where this video is from.

 

[Rob H]

Verne is spot on with the location. I was just surprised to be in RFD that intense not having experienced it to that degree before. The other videos showing the spinups (satellites?) south of the big tornado led me to second guess myself. The winds weren't noticeably twisting in that video, but I recall them shifting, and it might have been the change from inflow to RFD and also just the power of the tornado pulling the RFD back in.

Dustin, this event took place on Hwy 11 just about at CR840, according to my audio logs. The multi vortex was around CR810 I believe. That entire cell was very agitated so nothing would really surprise me at this point.

 

[Danny Neal]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ywzd27FxQQ - Definitely RFD

 

[Dick McGowan]

I actually think it was the rear inflow jet....we were on the south side of the meso after our close encounter....probably one of the sickest things I've ever seen come together. As the RFD wrapped around, the rear inflow jet would pull it into (way west of the meso) the rear of the meso at incredible speeds just above the surface. I haven't found it yet, but there is a paper on this supposedly. I really hope I get to see it again, as it was almost as amazing as the tornado(s) themselves.

 

[Adam Lucio]

I agree with Dick, the speed at which those clouds were moving just above ground was unreal, I had never seen anything like it. It seemed there was a secondary area of rotation that moved through behind the main tornado. It was clearly evident above our heads as those little tornadoes spun up just ahead of us, you can see a couple funnels descend in my video as well. It was definitely a violent and chaotic environment.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

this event took place on Hwy 11 just about at CR840, according to my audio logs. The multi vortex was around CR810 I believe.

You (or anyone for that matter) have an exact time on that?

Also, Verne mentioned it moving North-East from hwy 11 and becoming a "wedge" At what point is it believed to have formed this wedge?

 

[Danny Neal]

My video is from 3:50-51 P.M. on SR 11 18 miles west of Medford.

 

[Rob H]

You (or anyone for that matter) have an exact time on that?

Also, Verne mentioned it moving North-East from hwy 11 and becoming a "wedge" At what point is it believed to have formed this wedge?

I'm just going off the times on my video clips that I took, so I might be off by a minute or so... the multi vortex touched down at about 3:39pm. The intense winds in the Youtube video I posted were at about 3:48pm. Somewhere in that time the mv lifted and there was just a big wall cloud, and shortly after the rotation on the ground became evident.

Not sure why this image doesn't show anything on Hwy 11 - it was pretty clear that the multi vortex was literally standing on top of it.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/images/oun/wxevents/20100510/maps/northoktracks.jpg

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

You (or anyone for that matter) have an exact time on that?

Also, Verne mentioned it moving North-East from hwy 11 and becoming a "wedge" At what point is it believed to have formed this wedge?

A fatter barrel deal started just east of the highway to Wakita, a mile I guess or so. I can see it forming in there on my video from near Wakita before rain hides it all. It's the same exact deal you can see on TVN's video of the larger deal. Starting to think there never was any wedge. And not thinking that shape even lasted long. http://davieswx.blogspot.com/ That first image on Jon's account I could see starting after it passed to the east of Wakita highway, not terribly far.

To me that storm is just as interesting for the fact it had such a difficult time producing a nice tornado as for what it did produce. Like just what was the issue keeping it from planting something nice. Just too chaotic and intense with the rfd blasts maybe. Really was having a hard time balancing out.

 

[jamesmseitz]

Hey there Rob. Nice Video editing on this one.

I have replayed this thing in my head hundereds of times and if you look at time code 1:12 you can start to see the winds approaching us and by I think 1:22 you see the trees start to disappear. I went frame by frame through it. I am thinking as well that it seems to be a rear inflow jet.... The winds seem to start out of the Northwest then switch to out off West. RFD usually is in front of a moving line of Storms (usually). This seemed to move toward the cell.

Anyway this was a great day that we will talk about for years. Pleasure chasing with you and look forward to the next chase (Hopefully sooner than later )

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

A fatter barrel deal started just east of the highway to Wakita, a mile I guess or so.

The reason I've been curious about this is because I filmed a tornado that bounced around 6 miles East of Wakita Hwy, though this tornado was far from a Barrel or wedge, thus I'm not wondering if there wasn't a second circulation behind the main one...The video grab below is looking ENE at 4:02 The map shows the location of the video grab as well as my areas where I crossed the damage path...I stayed with it for as long as I could, but it wasn't long until I had to back track too many times due to damage, in fact I had lost view before it even reached hwy 81...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hka1WJrxcaA