Chase Log: 2009: Week 1

5/05/09, Stephens County, TX (4 Funnels)
5/07/09, Livingston County, MO (1 Funnel)

Details:

5/2/09

Saturday - Pick up tour group in KC.    We leave the hotel at 8am and head towards Texas.    As we head south through Oklahoma our targeted area moves from NW Texas to more towards Dallas/Fortworth metroplex.    As we are entering DFW on 35 south we were in a tornado watch box and there is a severe t-storm crossing the metroplex.    Later we will find out that storm produced a microburst in Dallas and collapsed the Dallas Cowboys practice arena.    Behind that storm a follow up storm is heading the same way so we position the chase group out in front of the storm near Burleson.    As the storm passes we see a non-rotating wall cloud.    This storm just will not have it because of the outflow from the previous storm was moving south so quickly.    So we decide to head south and hope another cell pops further west.    Well after an great dinner at Cracker Barrel we checked the radar again and just a cluster of weak showers started up just north of the outflow, so we called it a night.    Overnight the energy we were hoping would move out of the Rockies that would give our storms a kick in the evening finally did in the overnight hours.    So we were woken up at 4am by some wicked lightening and crashing thunder.

5/3/09

Sunday - Over night convection kills chances of any good storms today so we head to Childress and meet up with Mark Humphrey and Phantom Jim.

5/4/09

Monday - Today is just another waiting day, for the atmosphere to recharge and realign.

5/5/09

Tuesday - We wake to a moderate risk area just to our east.    We have very little in positioning to do today.    We take our time and leave the Childress area when we see the panhandle has not cleared or warmed (I thought that there might be a chance there) When we leave we head south on 83 to Aspermont.    From there we are just waiting for Cu to fire up.    Just after dinner 5:40 we decide to start heading east, as we do Jeff sees a Cu to the East.    Mark H. and Jim had positioned themselves back by Throckmorton.    So he is first to the developing storm by Breckenridge.    We head east on 283 to 6 to 180 east.    Mark H. calls us and tells us the first storm is falling apart.    I tell him that a second Cu is going up quicker than the first.    Mark H. Says he will wait for us at Breckenridge.    Well after we pass through Albany We are getting pretty close to the developing storm and we decide to watch it with the local sheriff.    A little while later we start to head east again.    We call Mark and tell him that the radar returns show he should be getting into the storm.    Just then he says he has to go due to some hail falling.    Shortly after we are entering Breckenridge with a rotating wall cloud hanging down in the SW quadrent of the storm.    Just before we enter Breckenridge a funnel drops and then lifts after about 15 seconds.    Mark and Jim confirm seeing the funnel.    From their point of view they saw a stacked plates formation above the wall cloud.    As we near the center of the town a curtain of rain wrapped around the wall cloud and I decided to head south.    Mark H. and Jim were following behind.    South of town on County road 151 we get treaded to a beautiful show.    A rapidly scud sucking and rotating wall cloud at extremely close distance (less than a 1/4 mile).    This storm slowly moving SE produced a funnel (Pictured).    We follow south on 183 to 576 east then to south on 1852.    Stopping to look at the storm occasionally.    The storm looked like it could produce a tornado, but we didn’t have eyes on it at all times due to hills and trees.    We finally got just south of it when it produced another funnel (Pictured).    Due to loss of daylight we broke off the chase and watched the supercell head SE from I20

5/6/09

Wednesday - Well we are going to have some fun today.    We go to a batting cage.    Matt and Mo want to see what it is like to hit American baseballs.    Then after an hour of batting practice we play a round of putt putt golf.    Jeff wins.    Then we drive north to Perry, Oklahoma for the positioning part of the day.    NE Kansas is our target for tomorrow.

5/7/09

Thursday - This day we start heading north and the winds are moving moisture north rapidly.    We end up in Topeka, KS and a Tornado Watch box is issued for North and east of our location.    Well after waiting until after 6 a storm starts to fire near St. Joe.    It dies.    As a second storm starts to fire directly behind it, we start to head to KC.    We finally have good towers going up and a developing storm.    The only problem is that it probably won’t go tornadic until after dark.    Right about then as we were driving north on I-35 just south of Cameron, one of the cells that started up in Iowa and was heading south east, was severe but has now become tornado warned.    I look up at the storm and radar again and decide that we will go up to 36 and then east.    I figure we may get into some hail but just under severe limits.    On 36 east bound we get some small marble size hail and finally clear that storm.    At this time the storm has a tornado confirmed on it near Gallatin and Lock Springs.    We can see the wall cloud and have a funnel come out of the storm.    Then the storm weakens.    We head south and keep spotting the wall cloud which did get intense again near Grace.    I decide that the chase is over, due to darkness and bad road network.    We were on a couple of roads that were like being on a roller coaster.    We start heading south on 65, I finally restore cell connection just in time.    The storm that we cut through still to our west has become a monster that is tornado warned and we were heading right for the worst part.    We pull a 3 point turn and then make our way back around that storm and call it a night in KC.

5/8/09

Friday - After getting in late, I decide to chase in the area we are in now.    We head up to Iowa and get into a severe t-storm watch box.    There is a line forming and nothing severe.    An Isolated cell blows up in NW Missouri.    So we head south on I-35 to intercept.    These storms end up getting a couple of severe warnings.    They have nice structure so the group appreciates the fact that we can just sit and watch the storm and updraft as it runs over us.    We see some scud sucking and that developed into a weak wall cloud.    Then outflow from another developing storm killed our cell.    We cut through the rain shaft and watched that cell.    We ended up in KC again.

5/9/09

Saturday - Nothing is going to be happening today so we go to Pitcher, OK and look at the town that was hit by an EF - 4 tornado last year on 5/10/09.    On the way we run into damage from the derecho that started in KS the morning before.    After touring Pitcher, we take some pictures and video of some of the fresh damage in the area.

5/10/09

Sunday - Chase 1 is over.