Recap of 5-22-10

NWS rated the wedge tornado an EF-4!!! NWS report HERE, the other report for the rest of the tornado's are HERE. The total for us observing goes as follows:

EF 0 - 2
EF 1 - 2
EF 2 - 2
EF 3 -
EF 4 - 1

I'm still in awe of this day, it will always be a firm memory in my head. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone that was affected by these storms. We hope and pray that all recovery goes well.

5-22-10 North Central South Dakota

Well the setup was looking like a gamble leading up to the 22nd, the CAP that was forecasted was fairly stong and we knew that we could bust but you can't score if you don't play. We ended up scoring big time! A total of 7 touchdowns, including a large wedge and a stovepipe.

We took off from Sioux Falls, SD at noon and headed west on I90 to our original target of Chamberlain, SD, while on the road we talked the forecast over with KELO's Meterologist team and we decided on a target of NW of Pierre, SD. After considering this new target we jumped on it and by the time we got to Pierre towers were already starting to form, we took our time and headed East on Hwy 14 towards Highmore. We got to Highmore and grabbed a little bit of food and watched those towers just explode and start to anvil. We took off north on Hwy 47 and got to Hoven, SD and the storm went tornado warned. The storm was very rapidly rotating and we knew that this one was the storm to jump on and chase until it died. We pulled off of Hwy 47 and observed the storm and we could not believe the inflow at this point, this storm had a ton of energy and was ready to go nuts. We got in the car and as soon as we got back on Hwy 47 we witnessed our first tornado, we took some gravel roads to avoid traffic issues and got 2 more quick touchdowns. We then got to Hwy 12 where we way "THE WEDGE" aka the biggest one of the day (Rated EF4) we flew west on Hwy 12 towards Bowdle, SD. When we got to Bowdle we turned off onto a gravel to get a better angle of the massive wedge, we sat there for about 3-4 min while the tornado rapidly grew and became extremely violent.

The wedge then became rain-wrapped and we decided to get East, we wen't another 5 miles east and sat about 1/2 mile north off of Hwy 12 and from there we witnessed 3 more touchdowns, 2 stovepipes, and a rain-wrapped cone.

We then continued the general Easterly path and got pounded by RFD many times. We also found a new "Bob's road" aka CO Rd 13 right next to Richmond Lake, NW of Aberdeen, SD. I highly recommend that nobody ever drive on that road! I need not explain, just trust me, stay off of it!
We then played the gust front for a little bit while it was getting dark because the updraft area was so wrapped in rain it wouldn't be safe to be in at this point. Along the gust we witnessed many funnels.

Overall it was a great and very sucessful chase, we scored 7 out of 8 reported tornados. Who knew a CAP bust possibility could succeed so well? Credits to Greg Rardin for the photos, I was busy with the video camera.


Links for the video: Part 1  Part 2

 

4-29-10 Western IA Chase

Well to start off I swear God was telling me not to go out chasing but as the sinner I am I decided not to follow his signs. The final blow that was telling me not to go was when we were 20 miles away from home I got a call from my wife (Jill) saying that her car broke down in Sioux Falls, it over heated and the cooling fan wasn't running. I should have turned around then and there, but we pressed on knowing that the car will maintain a decent temp if you keep it moving and don't run the AC. The car did make it home where it sits in our garage waiting for me to fix it.

Ok, now with the chase, ugh what a deal! We took off at 3:00 with an initial target of Onawa, IA. We got to Onawa around 4:30 just as the SPC issued a tornado watch further south, so we pressed onto Missourri Valley, IA. We sat there, grabbed supper and then checked data, we noticed there was a cell SW of Sioux City, IA that we could easily get to with strong rotation. We didn't really want to risk going back north too bad as we knew if we went up north and this storm dies that would be the last of chasing for the night because it would be too late to get to the southern IA storms that were rolling in. We then got a call from a nowcasting EXWX team member saying... go go go, so we listened and took off North!

The whole drive up to this storm I was really nervous knowing that this could be a complete bust and die on us when it hits the Missourri River but if it survived past the river it would really take off and go crazy, it was a risk that we took. We got back up to Sloan, IA and watched the storm die off :( It's part of chasing, you bust sometimes so we weren't upset, just bummed. We met up with Marc Hicks and Brent Koops in Sioux City and shot the shit for a little bit before heading home. Here are the pictures right before the storm died.

4-23-10 SE Nebraska Chase

We took off from Sioux Center, IA at 7:00AM with a target of Marysville, KS. We arrived in Marysville, KS around noon, grabbed a bite to eat topped off our tanks and reviewed data. The SPC issued a torndao watch to our NW, even though I'm not one to chase "dots" after reviewing the data on the 18z model run we knew we had to run a little NW so we took off and ended up in Geneva, NE we were further south than most chasers, this gave us a great vantage point to see towers shooting up. We decided to head east and ended up in Crete, NE where we sat and watched the major storm to our SE develop. We sat there until it was SVR warned, when it went warned we took off to Lincoln, NE not too long after getting into Lincoln it became Tornado warned, we then flew to the updraft area by Waverly, NE. We did see a wall cloud and a ton of scud action. Overall it was a successful chase with us ending up on the strongest storm in SE NE. Here are some pictures of the event.