Topic: 2008 US tornado season discussion

[Harley Pearman]

More twisters hit Kansas and Oklahoma 24/5/2008

Unbelievable but news reports filtering through:-

CTV.ca
KMBC-TV 9 News - Kansas City
KMBC.com

Tornadoes rampaged through western and central Kansas for the second night in a row destroying numerous homes and causing widespread damage. Fortunately, most tornadoes occurred in rural areas.

One tornado in Gove County lifted a vehicle and tossed it across Interstate 70 and a local disaster was declared in this county.

In Comanche County, the town of Protection took a direct hit from another tornado. Damage occurred on the east side of town with numerous trees and powerlines down.

Greensburg:

Another tornado passed through town. Incredible, the twister approached from the west, lifted and dropped back down on the east side of the town that is currently being rebuilt from last years tornado devastation. Damage was minor. The funnel cloud passed right over the top of town.

Other tornadoes occurred in Ellis County, Pratt County and Trego county.

Currently breaking news on KWTV/News 9 as this is being written, a tornado in Kansas has caused two fatalities in a vehicle that was found in a field, 160 km west of Wichita.

Up to 17 tornadoes rake Kansas Friday as well.

A spectacular tornado is captured by KWTV/News crew from a helicopter, flying beside it over Oklahoma Saturday May 24 2008. Go to CTV.ca with image.

More details on the Windsor Tornado (Colorado).

The twister damaged or destroyed 600 homes in the small city. Winds have been estimated at between 111 to 165 miles per hour (180 to 267 km / hour). It's path was 35 miles (56 km) long through northern Colorado.

Going onto the Storm Prediction Centre, 23/5/2008 was an exceptionally busy day.

There were 63 tornado reports and 102 hail reports and 44 wind reports. The most significant were:-

2238 10 miles SSE Gove (Gove County - Kansas) Multiple reports of funnels / tornadoes from a spotter network over a 5 minute period.

2314 10 miles SSW Quinter (Gove County Kansas). A large wedge tornado reported.

2352 8 Miles south of Studley (Sheridan County Kansas). Report from a spotter network reported a wedge tornado at 6.52 pm CDT and a stovepipe tornado by 6.59 pm CDT.

0112 9 miles SW Greensburg (Kiowa County Kansas). KAKE Storm Chaser sees a large tornado on the ground.

0132 Ellis (Ellis County Kansas) Two damaging tornadoes reported with lots of power flashes observed.

Also storm moving near Greensburg with large wall cloud and producing occasional tornadoes.

0135 Greensburg (Kiowa County Kansas). Tornado on the ground.

0140 1 Mile west of Greensburg. Tornado observed on the ground at 183 and 54 Junction.

0148 3 Miles west of Haviland (Kiowa County Kansas). A large tornado observed on the ground.

0217 1 Mile north of Ellis (Ellis County Kansas). 2 tornadoes reported. One large and one small. The larger one was just north of I-70 at the Ellis Interchange.

4 Miles south of Trousdale (Edwards County Kansas). Two tornadoes on the ground at the same time located between 240 and 250 Roads and V and W Roads.

These represent the most significant of the ones reported.

These are all detailed at the Storm Prediction Centre Storm Report web page.

Some impressive hail reports too. While the majority relate to small hail, the most significant are:-

2115 2 Miles west of Cozad (Dawson County Nebraska). Golf ball size hail fell with winds gusting to 100 km / hour. Hail covered the ground.

2158 7 Miles east of Wheatland (Platte County Wyoming). Pea to quarter size hail completely covered the ground turning the ground white.

2250 1 Miles west of Knowles (Beaver County Oklahoma) Baseball size hail reported.

2259 8 Miles SW of Meade (Meade County Kansas). Quarter to golf ball size hail. Some hail jagged.

2353 6 miles NNW Inglewood (Clarke County Kansas). Wall cloud with rotation and hail the size of tennis balls occur.

0255 10 Miles west of Slapout (Beaver County Oklahoma). Quarter size to golf ball size hail.

0403 Higgins (Lipscombe County Texas). Baseball size hail.

There were also reports of golf ball size hail near Sylvia and Abbeyville (Reno County Kansas) and hail to the size of lemons 5 Miles east of Wheeler in Wheeler County Texas.

Wind reports

The most significant two that captured my attention are:-

A semi trailer being blown into a house (2155 report at Eaten Weld County Colorado).

Hutchinson Airport - Hutchinson (A gust measured at 84 miles or 136 KM / H) Reno County Kansas.

With so many storm reports, tornadoes and hail, it certainly was an active day across parts of the midwest.

Harley Pearman

[Macca]

Hi all,

We busted royally in south eastern Nebraska today. We got onto the southern-most convection along the dryline in south eastern Nebraska and it bubbled away nicely between 5pm and 6:30pm with some LP'ish structure but the shear was just too strong and the instability just wasn't there to keep the updraft sustained before it would get ripped apart by the 70knt mid-level jet. Not to worry. The Oklahoma storm would've been nice but we are happy enough with our 12 or so tornadoes in the 2 days prior (though slightly spewing we missed the Quinter wedge!). 

Anyway - we reside in York, Nebraska tonight but it looks like we'll be heading back west tomorrow for another shot over north western Kansas/north central Kansas (both tomorrow and Monday). Target to be refined in the morning.

In the mean time, I have finally been able to catch up on some photos.

This was the day before the first of the two big days when we chased up in Colorado and got some nice LP storms, a few funnels and some nice structure at the end of the day... http://macca.bsch.au.com/gallery2/v/USA2008/210508/

And this is what has been termed Day 1 of Tornadofest 2008....

There are 4 different tornadoes in this gallery (the first one is near on impossible to see but after that it gets much easier...trust me). I'm about to watch the video back for the first time (yes...i know...its nearly 3 days later!) but from what I've seen so far, it is quite nice  .

Enough rambling...here is the link...

http://macca.bsch.au.com/gallery2/v/USA2008/220508/

Enjoy! Day 2 of Tornadofest 2008 to come in the next few days (which hopefully have a little more sucess than today...hehe).

Macca

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hennessey, Oklahoma Tornado Footage May 24 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_INhNhuEQ4Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeYrFZk67No&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbcm6TZNxcA

Wow! Incredible scenes and I guess a different perspective.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Richary]

TV news tonight had a few of those aerial shots. Amazing stuff! Glad I wasn't under it!!!

Would still like to be there chasing it though. One of these years.

[Peter J]

It would have been a great year to be chasing - and the season isnt near 1/2 way in, and it's already setting records with the most deaths in a tornado season in 10 years, and still more are occurring.

Big Pete

[Michael Bath]

Thanks for showing all those shots Macca - enjoying the show remotely !! Awesome to see the life cycle of the tornado N of Hoxie.

MB

[Shaun Galman]

Hi guys,
WOW they are definitely having a great storm/tornado season in the states! (I wish our last season was as substantial? Here's hoping this year will turn into something decent or I think I'll quit lol!)

Reading the reports and seeing the photos first hand from Macca (and co.) is really handy and it is great to have a man on the ground!
Great job Macca, take care over there! Cant wait to see what eventuates over the next couple days! Watch out for those F5's!

I'm also keeping my eye on Mike Hollingshead's site as he just purchased a new Canon HV20 (from what I've read in his updates) so I cant wait to see what sort of footage he gets and how well he uses it in this current fluctuation of severe storms? (that I very much wish I could witness first hand from a chasers perspective)

Cheers,
Shauno

 

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi guys,

Macca I must apologise I somehow did not see the post because I just went straight to posting myself or you were doing it at the same time? Not sure.

I just saw the sequence of the tornado! Yes nice stovepipe You get the impression it was a very strong or even violent tornado in steady state! Nice flat country and also fantastic contrast. I bet you found it hard to remain upright with the inflow on this particular day!

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Macca]

Hey Jimmy,

No worries - I think we posted at the same time . 

The wall cloud was rotating violently and it was clear that it was going to produce a BIG tornado...sure enough, a few minutes later we saw the vorticies start to dance around underneath.  We then watched it for I guess over 10 mins (possibly 15) as it churned pretty hard just off to our west.  Motion was definitely indicative of a very strong (possibly violent) tornado.  It even developed a horizontal vortex (may've been two of them actually) which persisted for several minutes as well around the back of the tornado.  I've seen these as common features in strong tornadoes. 

This was the second tornado this storm had produced and it went on to drop at least 2 more that we saw - one of which became quite large as well.

I'll get around to writing a full report in the next few days (as well as doing my photos from the following day when we saw more tornadoes...hehe).

Didn't have the greatest chase day yesterday with lots of storms going up simultaneously and becoming rapidly outflow dominant - we had some frustrating moment but had some fun with some outflow dust later in the day.  There were a few tornado reports in Kansas but apart from one or two, I fear the rest may've been crapnadoes (ie sheriffnadoes, scudnadoes, dustnadoes, gustnadoes).

Today we are sitting in Bucklin, Kansas (about 15mi west of Greensburg) near the triple point hoping that storms fire up in a most isolated fashion today - entirely possible given the stout cap in place at the moment (although with 4000 CAPE and -10 to -12 LI's, once it breaks, it should be explosive).

Macca & Brad

[James]

Well Macca and Brad have nailed today in terms of positioning. An awesome looking supercell has formed  right near them and heading just east of Greensburg as I type. Im sure there will be some more amazing pictures to come.

Classic example of a outflow boundary on today's vis sat pic. The loop really showed it up well. You could literally see the cu increasing in size as the boundary hit before the smaller cu died off after it passed. Fascinating to watch

 

[Matt Pearce]

Beautiful sat pic that one. The various outflow boundaries around the place are very clearly visible. That's the one thing that I remember very clearly from my time chasing over there back in 2004...how the OFBs were still so obvious well into the next morning, and needed to be taken into account when planning chase targets. It's just not something you tend to think of too much back here.

[Harley Pearman]

Tornadoes - Iowa 25/5/2008

Impressive photos and observations.

Certainly an impressive tornado season. Looking at the Storm Prediction Centre site, there have been 1,191 tornado reports and a preliminary count of 931 twisters from 1 January 2008 until 23 May 2008 and the number is well above average to date.

However, it was Iowa's turn 25/5/2008 and some significant tornadoes include:-

2147 - 2 miles south of Aplington (Butler County) Iowa. A large tornado resulted in 6 fatalities and 70 injuries. The tornado tracked through Parkersburg. This one has featured on CNN. This tornado causes major damage on the south and east side of town.

2205 - Hugo (Washington County Minnesota) which is part of an outer NE suburb of St Paul. A tornado results in one fatality.

2209 - 1 Mile north of New Hartford in Butler County Iowa, a tornado leaves 2 fatalities. A later report 2211 makes mention of a rain wrapped tornado with a satellite tornado.

2213 - 3 miles north east of Stout in Grundy County Iowa, a spotter confirms another large tornado 2 miles SW of New Hartford.

2228 - Blackhawk County (Iowa) Large tornado observed over county near Waterloo and the airport.

2301 1 Mile west of Fairbank (Buchanan County). An 800 metre wide tornado was observed moving east towards the town of Fairbank.

2307 (This would have been incredible). As baseball size hail falls over town of Fairbank, one tornado is confirmed NE of town but a second tornado approaches town from the west.

These represent the most significant of the 50 reports. Full details can be found on the Storm Prediction Centre web page. It seems a very powerful storm system occurred near the city of Waterloo. Many of these places are close to this city central north east Iowa.

Hail storms

In addition, some major hail events also occurred. Of the 291 hail reports, the best ones are:-

1919 - 13 Miles east of Leoli in Wichita County Kansas, 3.5 inch size hail falls.

2022 - St Germain in Vilas County Wisconsin, vehicles observed with smashed windows following a hail storm.

2050 - 4 Miles SSE of Silver Creek Wright County Minnesota, 3.5 inch size hail falls over a housing estate.

2215 - Softball size hail occurs in Finchford in Blackhawk County Iowa.

There were other reports of golf ball to softball size hail from various thunderstorms included in these but the majority of these observations relate to small hail falling.


Harley Pearman

[Macca]

Hi all,

We've been a bit quiet over thelast few days - mainly because our chase has come to an end.  I am typing this from Los Angeles airport with only a few hours until my return flight home.  I am totally storm exhausted and don't want to look at another weather chart for months. 

I still have to write up a report for Thursday, Friday and probably Monday (the bigger days) and also need to put up pics from Friday and Monday. 

In short, we busted Saturday, didn't see much Sunday (as in we picked the wrong storms but got some interesting lightning after dark and some very very fun outflow jets - more on that later), and on Monday...well...Greensburg was under the pump again.  The short version of Monday is that we were on the Greensburg supercell, got absolutely PUMMELLED by BIG hail, smashed the windscreen and peppered the car with dents (funnily enough unintentionally) and had a great day...hehe.  Again - more on that later.

Thanks for all the comments, forecasts, etc over the last month.  It was great to be able to share our experiences with members of the forum.  If anyone wants any information or has any questions, please feel free to ask (in this thread as it will allow others to see the questions and responses). 

I think we clocked up 11,000 miles in the 4 weeks we chased.  Surprisingly, we spent the majority of our time in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas with only 1 brief chase into Arkansas, 1 into Nebraska (bust) and one in Colorado. 

Tornado count for the trip in the end was 14 (i think) and we had two days with hail of 2 inches (5cm) or larger fall on us.   It was my best chase season in the US to date (out of a total of 3).

Cheers,

Macca (& Brad, Andrej, & Marko)

EDIT:  Not sure if this is some kind of sick joke but they have "Old McDonald" playing here in the Qantas Club. 

[Richary]

Great reports Macca, has been great fun enviously reading them.

The BBC currently has a reporter over there storm chasing for a week and blogging his experiences. Up to Day 2 so far.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7421072.stm

[Jimmy Deguara]

Macca, Brad, Marko and Andrej,

That is an awesome number of tornadoes to get in one season particularly during the limited time frame of opportunities. Well done! And most of all they were photogenic and awesome! Some strong tornadoes were had in those 3 days in particular!

Have a safe flight home guys and we'll see you here in Australia!

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara