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It was a complete
coincidence that the start of my chase vacation was also the start of an
unusually active stretch of severe weather across the Great Plains.
That said, it was no easy task getting from Montana to Kansas early this morning
in time for chasing later in the day. Getting bumped from the
early morning flight in Williston, ND completely killed whatever faith I had in that podunk
aviation outfit (why does Great Lakes even overbook those 19 seaters?!?!). Despite this
act of airline selfishness (inexcusable for such a small airport),
I still managed to arrive in Denver before noon to catch my rental car and boogie east for the dryline.
While setting up my chase gear in the rental car east of Denver, I heard of the TOR-warned storms about an hour to my north crossing the warm front. A quick glance at the radar revealed these weren't worth the drive as they'd quickly enter the cooler boundary layer and turn elevated. In hindsight, the Greeley wedge would have been worth the drive regardless! |
| After battling 30-40
mph SSW winds and waves of tumbleweed behind the dryline in eastern CO,
I finally crossed the dryline in northwest KS just as the first Cbs organized
south of Oakley. While still on I-70 eastbound the cell to my southeast
developed great rotation, but I disliked the structure after crossing through
the back edge of its hook echo near Grinnell. Moments later this
storm became tornadic, but naturally I had already shifted my focus to
new Cbs farther south near Gove City.
Here's the view of a rotating storm near Gove City that organized incredibly fast. Its first wall cloud (shown here) would soon be undercut by an RFD blast. |
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Now looking NW at nice clear slot with a better wall cloud.
Even though this storm would be TOR warned moments later, I wasn't too impressed with its behavior and soon ditched this in favor of a
much better cell farther south. Video Grab |
| Motoring south and then east of HWY 23 on some dirt roads, I found myself at the intersection of rural roads 80 and K (about 14 miles north of Utica) watching this hazy lowered base well to my SSW with a decent inflow band. |  |
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This new supercell was already TOR warned when I arrived and eventually displayed this very low, ominous rotating wall cloud. |
| This supercell was moving NNE (directly towards me), but I gambled with it mostly in hopes of being able to get a fair amount of video and photos before having to pack everything up and drive. Notice the clear slot arcing around a rotating core on the left side of this photo. This would become tornadic shortly. |  |
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Moments later this stout funnel developed while
continuing to revolve around the northeast edge of the larger circulation. This soon became a tornado (compact debris cloud)
and began moving WNW (left to right) before being absorbed by the larger circulation. Video Grab |
| In similar fashion to multiple vortices, cyclic rotating debris clouds developed
to the right of this rotating core's track. The now substantially lower LCL of the wall cloud combined with these circulations was really beginning to
concern me that the tornadic width might be expanding. Video Grab |
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Awesome occlusion downdraft about 75% of the way around the meso. Rotation in this wall cloud was simply stunning! The tornado is still in progress here (diffuse debris cloud) and just over one mile away. I waited here another minute or so before bailing ahead of a dirt-laden RFD gust front...and of course the tornado! |
| Thank goodness I aborted my previous location considering the tornado had maxed out into a dusty wedge while crossing the road! Also, take note of the dirt plume along the RFD gust front/inflow jet. This tornado was rated an EF1 (Storm Data entry). |  |
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I could only drive
east at this point, so I eventually lost view of the large tornado thanks to plumes
of RFD dirt to my northwest. After seeing a handful of weak gustnadoes
and getting hit by one along the RFD gust front, I drove north on 82 and
soon noticed what I thought was another gustnado ~1.5 miles to my north. But
something seemed odd...this gustnado was awfully well developed and only getting
more organized. I looked above it only to see a small nub of a funnel cloud!
The RFD gust front was to my north by this time and it's very likely this acted as either a trigger or enhancement for possible vortex line stretching. Wow, science in action! Video Grab |
| The wedge tornado was no longer
apparent from my vantage point, but a pronounced lowered base still remained on the west edge of the
supercell. I'm only driving about 50 mph in this video grab, but the slower fps rate makes it look
significantly faster. This tornado stayed over open farmland and was rated an EF0 (Storm Data entry).
Video Grab |
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Churning up more dirt. I initially thought this tornado would be
anticyclonic (similar to the one I observed on 29 May 2004), but no dice. Video Grab |
| I continued north on 82 as the condensation lowered further and later stopped to get some stills as it flew north at around 45 mph. |  |
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Dissipating fast. |
| Just after the previous tornado roped out, I noticed a stout funnel on the SW side of the supercell that later became this brief tornado. This lasted only for about a minute (Storm Data entry). |  |
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A larger perspective showing the tornado on the left trailing what had now become a behemoth of a rotating wall cloud under the new meso core! I drove cautiously north toward I-70 as the base of the wall cloud/lowered meso revealed at least one ultra-brief, dusty tornado before blasting east on I-70 in time to avoid any rude encounters. |
| After exiting at WaKeeney,
I headed north on 283 and quickly found myself part of a chaser circus. The
supercell was now HP and beginning to lose
its contrast as shown here. Considering there were really no other
storms of interest, I aborted this messy supercell in favor of a motel,
rest and a much needed meal. I had been up for 25 hours straight
at this point and the adrenaline rushes from the chase were beginning to
wear off fast. Video Grab |
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Settling for the Super
8 in WaKeeney, I unloaded my gear and proceeded to the other side of town
for the Subway. Bringing my meal back to motel (with the intent
of falling asleep immediately after eating), I noticed a suspicious updraft
base well southwest of the city. The booming thunder just had that distinctive
positive stroke quality, so I grabbed my camcorder and tuna sub and drove south of
town to get a better view of the structure.
My timing was pure luck as I was presented with this classic wall cloud and tapered lowering to my distant SW! Video Grab |
| Tornado
located near Trego Center around 2044 CDT (NOTE: this is not the WaKeeney
tornado...that's the next tornado). (Storm Data entry)
I had no desire to get out of the car for better video considering the barrage of CGs still
underway in the FFD! Video Grab |
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Tornado wrapping in rain
with what little daylight that remained. I stayed in place to video the surreal motion of the
wrapping rain curtains in addition to a new mesocyclone located to the NNE of the occluded member.
Video Grab |
| Here's
what I believe is the developing WaKeeney tornado located about two miles
SSW of the city around 2057 CDT (Storm Data entry).
In reality it was much darker than this, but the video grab here was taken during lightning. I fled
this scene seconds later when a rogue quarter size hailstone landed on the rental car.
Video grab |
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A police SUV and unknown chaser were ascending the entrance ramp just as a tight circulation picked up water off the road instantly hitting both vehicles (this was not the main WaKeeney tornado, but rather a smaller vortex just to its east). The chaser raced east while the SUV stopped...effectively blocking the ramp. The power also went out at this time, so I was in no mood to wait out whatever was lurking in the RFD. I drove around the LEO which apparently ticked him off as he flashed his red and blues at me, but I seriously doubt he knew what kind of danger he was in to be blocking an eastbound route AWAY from the supercell and what was later confirmed as the WaKeeney tornado. I escaped the wind-driven hail, but have no video evidence of this drama. I later returned to the motel only to see additional SVR cells backbuild over WaKeeney while dropping some 1" hailstones. Some folks were still huddled in the hallways expecting the worst, but this day was finally done. After having been awake for 29 hours straight (not something I'm proud of by any means), I could finally get some sleep. |
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