Chase Log: 2007: Week 1

5/5/07, Pratt County, KS (1 Tornado)
5/5/07, Stafford County, KS (6 Tornadoes)
5/5/07, Kansas numerous funnels all afternoon and evening from Comanche County to Stafford County
5/9/07, Archer County, TX (1 Tornado)

Details:

5/4/07

Left Chicago on 5/3/07 at 8pm.   Stayed overnight in Des Moines.   Left Des Moines early, go south on I-35.   Pass through KC and get on I-70 west.   We get on 156 southwest to Great Bend.   We ran into some chasers and were conversing with them for a while.   Dew points started to drop so we went east on 56 to Lyons.   It is still relatively early and a storm is developing in the Texas panhandle.   SW Kansas is where I am targeting and dew points in Pratt are still in the 60's.   So I started heading south on 14 to 61 going SW.   Near Pratt we took 54 west.   The radar and other data was showing that the storm in Texas panhandle moved into Oklahoma and produced a tornado.   Several cells were north of the tornadic storm and they were working their way towards Kansas.   I was thinking that if the tornadic cell gusts itself out that its energy would transfer into the storms approaching Kansas.   We pass through Greensburg and turned south on 183.   The cell we targeted had CU blowing up into it on the west side.   I had seen this before and we tried to get around to the west side of the storm.   The “dirt” road we took west was more of a consistency of sand.   Able to only go 25-30 mph we were not making good time to get around the storm.   Then the storm split and our updraft started rotating and moving north at 50 mph.   We unfortunately were due north of it because of being slowed by the sandy road.   So we headed north to keep out of the hail and ran into a paved road that took us into Mullinville.   We took cover under a canopy in town to keep from getting hail damage.   We watched the rotating updraft move north, it didn’t look like it was going to produce a tornado so we let it go.   I decided that it was to close to dark to try and get on to the cell just south and a little east of us, at the time we didn’t know how close we were to a very important event.

5/5/07

We start out in Dodge City and go to survey damage in Greensburg, KS.   We are just amazed at how bad and widespread the damage is.   We get back to positioning and go north on 183 to Kinsley.   Storms start initiating around Dodge City.   We are in good position for intercepting.   No tornado warnings and the cells start to weaken.   So we go back south to the southern cell.   Back down 183 towards Oklahoma.   As we pass 54 we see the path that the tornado carved along 183, and it looked quite different than the day before.   The damage was overwhelming, but it reminded me of why we chase tornadoes.   They all had a warning and that saved many lives.   We cross into Oklahoma and start chasing the cell there.   We turn back north and end up seeing a funnel west of Coldwater.   We try to keep up with the cell and end up going toward Wilmore on a paved road and then onto dirt roads to get to Belvidere.   Then we take a paved road out of Belvidere to 54.   A nice wall cloud forms and immediately starts rotating rapidly.   Funnels start forming beneath the wall cloud.   One funnel after another.   This is just the beginning so we go into Pratt, turn north on 281 and top off gas tanks.   While moving north we see a funnel drop through some light rain to the ground.   It doesn’t last but a minute and it lifts.   We keep following and get very close to the rotating wall cloud on the west side.   (On this storm we were able to chase from the back side.)   A needle like funnel is visible, and as we start moving north again a land spout tornado pops up right beneath the funnel.   We turn east on 50 and get closer to the rotating wall cloud.   It produces another funnel just to its south.   We slow down as we pass the wall cloud on the south side.   Then we turn north on a county road that goes through Stafford and go through Stafford.   While going through Stafford that funnel must have been doing damage while it went through town because there was some slight damage in Stafford.   Small trees snapped and shingles missing on roofs.   The storm about 7 miles north of Stafford produces a large rapidly rotating funnel.   We video tape it and then let the storm go.   We head back into Stafford and had pizza at an nice mom and pop pizza place.   We take our time talking about the events of the day.   After we finish it is time to get back in to the game, we have several cells to the south that we target.   From analyzing the radar I direct us to a storm just west of Byers.   Just as we get near the storm tornado warnings are issued for the storm.   We find the wall cloud on the storm just north and west of Byers.   Both the wall cloud and the flanking line are very active so we start to chase it north.   The storm quickly puts down a large wedge tornado.   Then twins, a satellite rope tornado just south of the wedge.   That tornado lifts and then an elephant trunk descends just east of the wedge.   Then a debris cloud forms beneath the funnel.   The funnel then connects with the debris cloud.   The two tornados skip across the landscape for 15 to 20 minutes.   We end up stopping at a road closed by the previous days tornado damage.

5/6/07

Starting out in Hutchinson we know that we will need to head south.   We target the Oklahoma/Texas panhandle border, and possibly south of there.   Leaving in the AM we are out in western Oklahoma when the SPC issues a Tornado Watch box for us.   Storms start to fire and we find ourselves on a severe thunderstorm with a wall cloud near the Quartz mountains.   This is short lived though, because the wall cloud is not very active and gets gusted out quickly.   Later after some post analysis of the days events we didn’t get enough heating, the sky cleared but storms fired quickly without a cap.

5/7/07

Today is going to be a repositioning day.   Nothing looks good so we head to Lubbock and rest up a bit.

5/8/07

Now we are going to be doing some upper level low storm chasing.   We head to some clearer and warmer air to the south on 87.   It is morning but storms are firing.   The air is cold but a tornado warning goes out for an area west of us.   It is in an airmass that temperatures are in the 50's, so we decide to keep on our same heading.   We go through Lamesa and when we get to Big Springs we turn onto 33 south towards big lake.   A tornado watch is issued for us again and we get into chase mode at Big lake and head west on 67 towards a severe thunderstorm.   We catch up with the storm at the intersection of 349.   We watch a broad based updraft for an half hour and then head south on 349.   Keeping moving to the most south point on the line will give us the best chance at seeing a tornado.   The line keeps building south and we see a ouflow boundary form from a further north storm.   It ends up intersecting the southern most storm, but shortly after the south storm starts to gust itself out and turns into a great shelf cloud.   Very picturesque and severe, but not tornadic.   We head to Sonora for the night.

5/9/07

This is going to be another upper level low storm chase day just looking for clear skies and warmer temps.   In the morning storms are initiating in the cool air by us so we head north towards Wichita Falls on 277.   Through San Angelo and Abilene.   North of Abilene a storm starts to fire east of us so we turn east on 180.   The storm heads almost due north towards Throckmorton.   We can’t follow it because of rear flank rain, and all of the flood warnings.   So we start to work our way further east and north to get out in front of the storm.   This works and we end up picking up an isolated cell and following a wall cloud for a half an hour north.   We end up in Archer City and end up going north on 25.   The wall cloud is impressive and keeps getting severe warnings with the weather service talking about funnels possible.   We get up close to the storm on 25 and then head east on 277.   The storm keeps building and finally a funnel drops.   It is apparent for several minutes when a dust whirl rises up beneath it.   Tornado!!   Well the storm continues to intensify and the wall cloud keeps getting larger.   The storm turns east towards Wichita Falls.   We were figuring that something bigger was going to happen.   However luckily for Wichita Falls the wall cloud gusted itself out over the town and no more tornadoes, just wind and plenty of rain.

5/10/07

The upper level low has exhausted its energy and we started to head for Nebraska just in case something would come together.

5/11/07

Things don’t look like the are going to fall into place and we hang up our chase hats for this week long adventure.