May 25th had some hope of dryline supercells in eastern Colorado. After a landspout fest that we missed due to sticking to our target near Springfield, Colorado, we were treated to a fantastic supercell and a 10 minute cone tornado! This supercell was nearly stationary for several hours before dissipating.
May 23, 2010 Northwest Kansas Nighttime Tornado
Not much to show here as the only shots I got were in the dark of the slender cone. There was another tornado just after this, a tapered elephant trunk that the NWS in Goodland could see from their office. The shots here are all video stills.
May 22, 2010 Bowdle, South Dakota Tornado Outbreak!
May 22nd was a day that had high risk/high reward written all over it. There really wasn’t much anywhere else to chase. We played the triple point in north central South Dakota and were rewarded with one of the prettiest and most violent tornado producing storms of the year. Several storms formed along the triple point and congealed into one beastly tornadic supercell that produced at least half dozen or more tornadoes. The large wedge in the photos below was an EF4 and we were able to get within a quarter mile of it before it started spewing debris around us. The structure of the monster was breathtaking as it dropped tornado after tornado between Bowdle and points northeast from there. Enjoy the photos and video, but keep in mind people’s lives were changed by the monster.
May 19, 2010 Oklahoma Tornadic Supercell
We intercepted a tornadic supercell in central Oklahoma near Dover, that produced a nice cone tornado. This became almost completely rain wrapped as it moved rapidly eastward. Due to the TIV and support crew blocking the road, we almost had a collision course with this tornado. We were very fortunate the tornado passed just to our south or else disaster could have happened. One of these days, chasers are going to die due to congestion, stupidity and irresponsibility.
May 18, 2010 Texas Panhandle Supercell and Tornadoes
The setup May 18th was one of a weak boundary in the Texas panhandle, with good moisture and instability filtering in as the day went on. A strong shortwave trough was forecast to arrive during late afternoon, providing increased lift and ascent for storm development. A supercell formed by late afternoon southwest of Dalhart, and tracked/developed southeast towards Dumas. This storm was a classic cyclic tornadic supercell, and also produced copious amounts of significant hail. A very audible hail roar was quite easily heard as the storm spun and moved east of Dumas. We intercepted 4 tornadoes from the supercell. It tried several times to produce significant low level rotation, and at one point east of Dumas, I thought we would get a large tornado. It couldn’t stay focused long enough for that to happen. Finally, as it approached Stinnett, it produced a nice stovepipe tornado.
May 14, 2010 No Trees, Texas Tornado and Supercell
Had an interesting day this day as we targeted a boundary in southwest Texas from Odessa towards Carlsbad. By the time we arrived early afternoon, storms were already firing. A couple became quickly tornadic as they encountered the boundary. We were 5 minutes late to witness a nice cone as we got stuck in the core behind some semis. We did witness a brief tornado near No Trees, Texas, as well as an oil tank explosion from a CG strike. The storm became very electrified and had beautiful structure and colors.
Here is a Youtube video from this day:
May 11 and 12, 2010 Supercells and Brief Tornado
May 11th and 12th promised to be decent days. Decent moisture and instability were present, along with good shear. However a fairly stout cap was in place on the 11th, which was much weaker on the 12th. We intercepted a briefly tornadic supercell south of Woodward, OK on the 11th and then a monster HP beast near Clinton, OK on the 12th. The 11th’s storm was a wet LPish type supercell with pretty structure and a weak tornado not far from Strong City. The 12th’s supercell produced a tornado east of Clinton that we weren’t able to see, however the HP’s structure was quite nice.
May 10, 2010 Northern Oklahoma Tornado Outbreak
May 10th had huge potential with SPC issuing a High Risk. A strong deep trough would kick out a wave through the southern plains that would create strong moisture advection, increasing instability and strong deep layer shear. We chased one particular storm that formed well southwest of Cherokee, Oklahoma. It developed from a high based supercell that moved off the dryline into deeper moisture, lowering its base and becoming a beast. We intercepted it close to there and followed it toward Wakita where it produced numerous tornadoes. Later that afternoon we would catch another supercell near Ponca City that produced a slender elephant trunk tornado near Pawuska, OK. Being on the wrong side of the van as we raced east to escape a closing tornado west of Medford, I could not shoot any decent video, but here is a cool video that also contains two clips from Ruth McAvinia that shows some crazy behavior from a couple of chasers. Some of these pictures are from my guests Dr Ken Fitzgerald and Ruth McAvinia.
April 30, 2010 Ozark County, Missouri Tornadoes
April 30th took me to southwest Missouri for what ended up being a High Risk day from SPC. All the ingredients were coming together for a tornado outbreak in Missouri and Arkansas. We targeted a pinch point in the boundary that occurred near Muskogee, Oklahoma. Storms kept firing in that location and then raced north into colder rain cooled air in southwest Missouri. Finally, one storm was able to right turn and not race into the colder air. This storm produced several confirmed tornadoes in northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri as it pulled the boundary into it. We intercepted two of those tornadoes. If you have never chased in the Ozarks before, it is a very difficult task. With storm motion at 50 MPH, we were on curvy, winding, hilly roads that you could not drive over about 40 mph safely on. Thus as the storm passed us we could never catch it again. Below are a few pics and also a video I shot. Still it was an exciting successful chase!
April 29, 2010 Washington, Kansas Tornadic Supercell
April 29th took us to central/northern Kansas to play a boundary. Moisture was not optimal that day, but lift and shear were great. A supercell formed southwest of Cuba, Kansas and looked pretty respectable. It had a decent non-rotating wall cloud for a long time. Finally as it moved north of Washington, a new lowering started spinning rapidly, eventually putting down a brief tornado as it came directly overhead blasting us with strong WARM RFD winds. The wall cloud passed directly overhead giving us a moment of intensity hoping it would not drop a tornado until it passed us. It was on the ground off and on for about 3 minutes before dissipating.
Check out this video time lapse:
