May 10th Oklahoma High Risk chase

My day started on the 9th mid morning when I finally heard word from my teacher I could push finals off until I get back. It was a 10hr drive (over 11hrs with stops) and my original target was Wichita, KS for the night. But after talking with Cory from Mesocyclone Media he told me I could stay at his house. I decided to take that route to same some money on hotel. Arrived at his house around 11pm (thank you for staying up that late!) and couldn't wind down until the 1am SPC day 1 outlook which was upgraded to a high risk for the day.

Woke up at 730am to look at all of the "magic maps" as my father would say. Immediately, everything was pointing at it being an epic day. Cape between 2000 and 4000j/kg and 0-1km EHI values EXCEEDING 12! I saw numbers on some of the RUC models showing a psychotic number of 16! My thought...if these numbers get realized in a storm it would go ballistic and we could very well have a historic outbreak on our hands later in the afternoon.

We stuck around Edmond, OK for quite a while during the morning and early afternoon. My gut feeling kept telling me to stay very close to OKC as I think something was going to happen here. As the storm were beginning to form, initiating storms were growing just to the north of us near Enid, OK. We decided to go north and a bit west to set up for it near Covington. It had just gone severe when we arrived at the intersection of state routes 74 and 412 just east of Enid. This decision cost us the tornadoes in OKC

At this point our data was already getting sketchy. On our last radar update we could already see signs that this storm was going to go tornadic shortly. A great asset to have was RadarScope that Cory had on his phone. We could see what the storm was doing as long as he had data. About this time it began hailing, starting out pretty small (pea sized). Over the next couple minutes it continued to grow and grow until it started reaching golf ball sized hail. We had a brief moment of worry when I could hear the hail still hitting the truck (uh oh...HARV isn't working!). The back seat passenger told me that golf ball and baseball stones were getting caught in the net and that the small ones were getting through. WHEW! HARV worked!

When the hail stopped we could begin to see to our west the base beginning to lower with rotation evident. A few minutes later and our first funnel cloud of the day popped up briefly out of that base. This storm may drop one one the ground at any second! As the storm was moving closer we began moving eastward to keep up with it.Courtesy Norman NWS: Picture of the Enid, OK storm as we intercepted it

Around 5 miles east of Enid we began to see funnel cloud #2 forming to our north. I glance forward, then look north again and a debris cloud was thrown into the air. I look back forward again, then glance north and it was gone. Tornado #1 was a brief one! We got to I-35 and decided to go north from there to try to come in behind the storm. Unknowingly to us, Oklahoma City was being threatened by a much larger storm tornado warned.

We gave up on the northern storm in favor for an attempt on what now had a large tornado going through OKC further south. About this time, we met Reed Timmer and the Dominator also bailing south as fast as he could. I tried to keep up but he eventually left me in the dust.

A quick fuel up and we were on our way towards Tulsa. Driving through Tulsa we could see where this massive supercell was to our south and I couldn't wait to get down there! Our plan was to make an attempt at racing the storm to I-40 near Gore, OK then follow it eastward. After punching the core of the storm with some small hail at times an enormous wall cloud to our west coming at us became visible. We beat the storm!

As we turned off I-40 at the Webbers Falls, OK exit a quick fuel up was in order. Unknowingly to us a tornado was already on the ground (caught on video) near Gore, only 4 to 5 miles away. We could see the huge wall cloud to our north and cautiously followed it. The tornado was caught on a few more freeze frames before sight was lost of it. Soon after just north of Gore tornado damage started being run across. Not very many homes in the path so only tree damage with large trees blocking the road. Our chase ended at this point.Courtesy Tulsa NWS: Radar shot around the time we caught the Gore, OK tornado on video

After 15hrs of driving for the day and two tornadoes its what I could consider a good chase day. Could it have gone better? Yes...it could have but i'm still happy about it! I learned that I should follow my instinct instead of getting suckered. I was happy I drove down to Oklahoma for this chase!

Remember, my videos are on Phanfare. Thanks everyone!

May 1st 2010 High Risk chase

Although this day did not turn out as major as originally expected, we still had a phenomenal day! I was first woken up at 6am by my dad who said there was a moderate risk out to our south. After looking at things, I wasn't too hot to trot down there and went back to sleep for a little over an hour and a half. About 830am my dad busts in again and said there was an upgrade to high risk. Looking at things again, I then changed my mind and we packed up and took off about 9am.

Our original target city was Jonesboro, AR although I did have some worries that wouldn't be far enough. We neared Arkansas though the Missouri bootheel and sure enough I decided to move my target city to Brinkley, AR in favor of higher shear, instability, etc. Our arrival time was around 4pm and we noticed across the street some other chasers also waiting on initiation. After my dad went over there to talk to them, it wound up being Roger Hill's tour group! Surely enough, I had picked the right spot.

Soon after, the initiation began in southern AR into northern LA. After seeing where they were tracking, we moved to Carlisle, AR to sit and wait for the storms to come in. We fueled up real quick and started to eat at Sonic. Because our vehicle is so easy to pick out, we had numerous people including police coming to talk to us. Halfway through my meal a tornado warning was issued for Carlisle, AR. We went to the edge of town to see if we could find a vantage point. For a time, we were very worried Carlisle would take a direct hit from a tornado if it was on the ground and after meeting so many very kind people, I had my fingers crossed it would miss the town.

We continued eastward towards Hazen, AR in an attempt to avoid the rain and to have better visibility of any tornado if there was one. There was a vantage point about a mile south of Hazen we wound up sitting at and watching the storm. All the while, we were streaming live on Severe studios and anyone who was watching the stream was in for a treat. A huge wall cloud came into view, heading right for the small town of Hazen. It was around this time I pointed toward an area where I saw a low contrast cone tornado on the ground! With it being low contrast, I never reported a tornado with the uncertainty (probably my mistake) but another storm chaser nearby reported the tornado on the ground where I had seen it. Soon after numerous funnel clouds started forming all along the wall cloud which included less than half mile from us. This storm seemed to get ready to produce something big!

For whatever reason, the storm never produced a large tornado as what was expected on this day. Still though...we had already bagged one tornado but it was dark at this time. We decided to still follow this storm and attempt to keep up with it. Had to do some gravel road chasing even with the amount of rain that had fallen in the area. The still tornadic storm started coming back into view when we were passing through Brinkley where we began to move northeast closer to the storm.

At this time, we clearly noted a wall cloud but rotation wasn't easy to see due to it being dark. From just off to our left to just off to our right while driving northeast, we could see features where there may have been several funnel clouds. As we neared Hilleman, AR my dad pointed just off to the right and said there was a tornado on the ground. At the same time, storm chasers closer to the storm reported a tornado on the ground with power flashes! We just bagged tornado #2 for the chase!

Just north of Penrose, AR there was major damage done to a home with police blocking the road. I offered my CERT training to them but they seemed to not know what to do at the time. There were two cars at the home and a dog outside barking. A few sheriff officer's and a couple firefighters braved electrocution from fallen power lines to go for the house and search for anyone at home who may be trapped. They found another dog that was buried under some more debris that they rescued but no one at home could be found. The bed sheets had been pulled back like someone was just at the home. At this time, we heard a cracking noise and a tree behind the home started to fall on the house. I've never seen so many people pile out of a home before in my life!

It was then at this time I noticed a destroyed police car on the side of the road. All the windows were blown out and the one side was banged up severely. The deputy who was in the squad car at the time drove into the tornado on accident! He wound up being hit by the roof off the home. He was shook up but other than that was ok.

The people who lived at the house must had been found after asking what happened to the squad car, as I overheard another cop say the people at the house were ok. Whew!

Overall, a very successful chase. We had absolutely NO equipment issues and we surprisingly kept up with the tornadic storms on a crappy road network and low visibility at times. And on top of that, we bagged 2 tornadoes and no injured. It was unfortunate to see the one home destroyed though. I'm ready for the rest of the season to come along now! Its been a great season so far and I hope to reach my goal of 5 tornadoes before storm season ends

April 24th 2010 Extreme chase day

This chase log could probably be summed up in one word..."AAAAAHHHHHHH!". But where is the fun in that?

This day consisted of every single emotion you could probably think of. Our chase started late Friday afternoon when we left our town and headed to our initial target city of Birkley, AR. We arrived around 11pm and bunked down to for the night. Hopes were high that Saturday there would be a major outbreak with a high risk going to be issued. Sure enough when we woke up at 6am the SPC issued a high risk a little further south of us in MS into LA and AL.

Our target city shifted east into MS to Batesville, MS. It was at this time excitement was getting high! Then the issues began. Radar began to fail (would only update every 30 minutes at best) while the entire time the massive supercell in LA was forming. Thinking things couldn't get any worse, our cell card broke and our data abilities completely gone. All we had was GPS and a weather radio. It was at this point I believed our 1300 mile chase was going to bust and I honestly nearly broke into tears in defeat

While my dad was in the gas station getting some food, trying to figure out something to salvage the chase, a horrible message came across the weather radio. The NWS in Jackson, MS just issued a tornado EMERGENCY for Yazoo City, MS and even broke in personally (instead of the automated message). It was an eerie feeling! My heart sank at this point and I felt horrible for what was about to happen. I hoped everyone was going to listen to this warning but I hate a terrible feeling about it.

I looked quickly at where the cities in the path were, and decided to make a desperate move in an attempt to salvage the chase. We were headed for Durant, MS on I-55...the entire time the tornado emergency airing on weather radio. Halfway down to Durant, a new report flowed in saying Yazoo City was hit by a large wedge tornado with numerous injuries and severe damage. Again...I was terrified for the people in the path of the tornado

We arrived near Durant over 15 minutes before the tornado was supposed to reach the city and sat at a vantage point just off I-55 facing southwest. As we were watching Durant, MS was issued under a tornado warning with sirens blaring in the background. Just over the horizon above the trees, we could begin to see an "area of interest" with a massive amount of motion into what was still a large tornado on the ground. At this point, I made a stupid mistake that nearly got us injured or killed. The inflow into the large tornado fooled me into thinking storm motion was in that direction

The decision was then made to move to east of Durant and find another vantage point. As we were driving through the center of Durant we began to get pelted with tree debris like I never had before. Tree limbs were coming just like it was raining. I knew we were in some deep trouble and began to get scared for the first time in storm chasing. Last I had heard there was a large wedge tornado that may had done EF5 damage. Was this my last day on earth alive?

In the center of town, we turned left to go east and saw right in front of us rain curtains beginning to rotate. Thinking the tornado was off to our right I told my dad to floor it and get out of town NOW! Just as we came around the curve we could see the inflow winds picking up the rain on the road and sucking it into the tornado. We all at the same time screamed STOP! Coming to a screeching halt, we could see the edge of the tornado coming through the trees, 200ft to our right. Thanks to my dad's quick reaction, he threw it reverse. The whole time we could see the trees in front of us collapsing and breaking. We were so close that our truck was nearly rolled by the RFD into the tornado! And at our closest point, we were only 100ft or so away from this tornado!

Once reality set in that we nearly drove into a tornado, exhilaration and excitement set in. Did we just do what I thought we did? I made several attempts to call into 911 and let them know a tornado was STILL on the ground heading northeast but could not maintain a signal long enough. I felt completely and totally helpless, and again at this point I wanted to burst into tears in frustration. Our report not getting in COULD have someone killed further downstream. We made an attempt to catch back up with the storm but with the terrain and no data, we thought better of it and turned back around to Durant.

Sure enough, trees were uprooted and limbs snapped right where we had been only a few minutes before. We surveyed the area to make sure everyone was alright but to us it seemed like the damage was limited to trees with minor damage to homes (consistant with high end EF1 or low end EF2).

Go to this link to see the storm relative velocities from Jackson, MS radar: Reflectivity/Velocity images

So what did I learn from this chase? Make certain you know storm motion and direction! My mistake nearly injured/killed me, my dad and a couple friends of mine. I also learned just how many emotions you can feel during a chase. We all went from excitement, to complete and total despair and defeat, back to excitement and terror. I cant even imagine what the victims of Yazoo City, MS felt and the storm chasers who arrived right after it struck. Honestly...I'm kind of glad I WASN'T there, and I don't think I would have been ready for it mentally. I have CERT training...but some of the gruesome things I heard from chasers there it was horrible. We nearly drove to Yazoo City, MS and I wish I had to lend a hand but at the time we felt we'd get more in the way than anything. Just something to remember for next time really. It sounds bad...but something like this will happen again eventually

Just my thoughts on this chase. It was definitely an eye opener to me and glad that it wasn't our last

April 4th 2010 Chase Log

Our day (or rather I should say night) started near Carrollton, IL waiting on the long-track supercell coming in from Missouri. This storm had a history of producing tornadoes so we were waiting to catch it near Carrollton. We would have caught it further west, but we were held up by a ferry crossing on the river, which I was reluctant to do. I didn't feel like crossing, then having no way back across. We sat west of Carrollton for over an hour and a half, but it was worth it
As the storm started approaching the Illinois border, we repositioned further south since we were too far north of the long-track supercell. Our new target city was Jerseyville, IL. Did a quick fuel up and waited for a while yet again. For about 15 minutes just before the storm moved into the county Jerseyville is in, the tornado warning was downgraded to a severe thunderstorm warning. At this time, we started to head east out of Jerseyville to get a better look of the storm. I knew the storm was likely just cycling, and to NOT punch the core. Sure enough, when we were about 5 or 6 miles east of Jerseyville the tornado warning went out.
This is when things start going to hell. I could see where the supercell was and was paying attention to an area just north of Jerseyville where I thought I saw a funnel cloud. Sure enough on our video, there MAY have been a funnel. It was quite close to the ground! Mind you, it was very hard to tell since it was after dark at this time. At the same time of seeing this, our data capability dropped out completely. This is only 1 of 2 times i've run into such an issue and for over an hour we had no data AT ALL. Had we had data, I would have seen the amazing hook echo this storm was exhibiting! You can see the picture below...looks like Pacman heading towards me to eat me.Here is where our first "Uh Oh" could have happened. We were headed east at this point, with absolutely no data and no idea what the storm looked like. I knew this thing was capable of producing a tornado, but we lost track of where it went. We took Rt. 111 north about 1 mile where you see Medora, IL above. We stayed there for about 15 or 20 minutes trying to figure out where the storm was, not realizing we put ourselves in the path of the very pronounced hook echo. Wes Carter, a fellow storm chaser at Stormtrack text messaged me at this point, asking me if everything was alright. From there on, him and Rocky Watson were our "nowcasters", guiding us where to go.

Continuing on east bound after we had "nowcasters" helping us, we arrived at Shipman, IL and headed north towards Carlinville, IL. At this point it was after 9pm. We were about 3 miles south of Carlinville, when the NWS issued new tornado warnings for the area. Nothing too interesting on video, although we did catch a wall cloud and possibly another funnel cloud. Again though, it was way too dark to figure out what was in front of us. No data STILL at this point, so we started heading into Carlinville, then eastward again towards I-55

When we got to I-55, Rocky called and instructed us a tornado warned storm was heading right for Litchfield, with Litchfield only being about 8 miles to our south. We arrived in town around 11:30pm and went just west of town to watch what was coming in. At this time, a brand new warning was issued, stating a possible tornado was located NEAR Litchfield heading east at 45mph. At the same time, our video caught another possible funnel cloud nearly on top of us. Soon after, we got the hell out of dodge and started heading eastbound at high speed, attempting to get out from the "bear's cage". While driving through Litchfield, we immediately could tell we were underneath the circulation as the wind shifted direction constantly and suddenly (kind of hard to tell on video). It was soon after this point when Rocky took another screen shot from GRLevel3 where the couplet had just passed over us. On our video, you can see the wall cloud right above us that we were fighting to get away from. This was a very precarious situation to be in! Had something touched down, we would have been VERY close to it, if not on top of us.

You can see in the picture above how close we were, even after the circulation went past us. Our car icon is where we were at at that exact time right behind the mesocyclone marker in Irving, IL. As we passed through Hillsboro, IL there were unconfirmed reports of a couple tornado touchdowns from a news station in the area. We didn't see anything...but I wouldn't be surprised if there was something there.

It was soon after this point we broke off our chase. One, the storms began to die down to below tornado warned status and it was 1am. We were exhausted at this point!

We learned a lot from this chase. Its hard to spot features at night and lightning is your best friend. For now on...we'll have our CB radio with us, in case we run into data holes. It has weather radio built in, so we can have a general idea where the storms are at. I think this coming winter we'll be investing in a cell amplifier too!

March 10th 2010 Chase Log

The day started out with me being skeptical anything would happen severe weather wise, so off to school I went. When I got home at 10am though, I saw everyone asking me excitedly if we were going to chase today. As a new chaser...that perks your ears up a bit and I started checking the computer models. Sure enough they were showing a good amount of CAPE (1000j/kg or higher), fairly good moisture return, and good low level hodographs. Once I saw those...we needed to get going ASAP. In 20 minutes I was ready and out the door.

Our original target area was West Plains, MO mostly due to distance. I didn't think we could get any further quick enough. As we drove through St. Louis I rechecked initiation time the models were depicting and sure enough...it was a late initiation. If we stayed in West Plains, MO it would be as late at 10pm before severe storms rolled through. To have any chance of seeing tornadic storms in daylight, we would have to shift west. I changed our target area to Springfield, MO

We arrived in Springfield, MO around 530pm with initiation most likely going to occur around 6 or 630pm. I got the chase vehicle fueled up and we paused for some food and drinks. As we were sitting on the west side of Springfield, MO, I could see a line of showers beginning to intensify as they entered MO. My first mistake was made here...I sat at our spot for too long! Even when they became severe thunderstorm warned, I still waited. I wish I hadn't. Once it became tornado warned, we started heading west to intercept it. Much to our shigrin, 20 minutes away from a storm other storm chasers began telling me they had a tornado on the ground. By the time we arrive to the storm around 7pm, the first tornado has already dissipated.

One thing was for sure though, another tornado was definably possible. As we approached, we could see a very well defined wall cloud over the interstate, with the storm moving NNE. We get off on the Stotts City exit and head north to watch it. Around 7:15pm we stopped at a junction between two state highways and waited. It was at this point we could see a fair amount of rotation and could see the RFD trying to wrap in to form a tornado. My second mistake was made here...I didn't move further north! Although we saw a good amount of rotation, I was reluctant to move any further north due to unfamiliar territory and nighttime quickly approaching. As we watch to our northwest, law enforcement in a nearby town reported a tornado on the ground (730pm). It was at 7:32pm on my video camera a tornado may have been caught behind some trees in the distance. Had I moved further north, we would have seen it much clearer! All in all...we didn't chase much longer with it getting dark so we began to head back home

Although a tornado on video is still up in the air at this point, our video camera shows its fairly certain we had one. And even if we didn't get the tornado law enforcement reported, it was still a completely successful chase! We saw some amazing structure. I can't wait for our next chase!