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5-13-09
Good news: finally got the first chase out of '09 out of the way.
Bad news: We followed a rain-wrapped tornado for about 40 miles without ever seeing it.
Today's parameters looked very, very nice for around here for a change. Everything was set in place to support tornadic supercells. At one point (chart above) we were even in a 45% hatched. We were even thinking a high risk was everything short of inevitable. Well, that never happened, but we once again did get on the right storm with hardly anything to show for. It is getting extremely frustrating to get SO close every time and drive home with just a little.
Before I get started, I need to thank co-worker Mike Wilshusen for helping me get out of work at noon. He came in early specifially so I could cut out a bit early. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have even been on this cell.
One big mistake was made....missing a turn around Keokuk and shooting straight west. The shot above is looking straight west at a newer updraft plume/anvil west of the Kirksville monster. Yep, flanking it from the south. Here is where we went somewhat wrong...but it wasn't completely our fault.
Now we are positioned just to the south of the hook on the Kirksville supercell. Our hopes were through the roof at this point. At this point we knew there was a large, destructive tornado on the ground somewhere in there, but we needed to get better visual. Here's where the road options really sort of screw us over.
Panning up to the northern portion of the hook. We are sitting on a gravel back road here that shot east, where we wanted to go, but the road was terrible and there was a high uncertainty that it wouldn't lead to anywhere. At least where we wanted to be anyway. So, we turn around, head back to the main road to shoot back north again, straight into the RFD. Kids, don't try this at home. It was our only option at this point. It was either try a new cell which did not look promising at all punch through the RFD from the west and try to gain on it again, hoping we wouldn't punch out of it and run smack dab into the tornado. This is the first time we've ever done this, but like I said, our options were extremely limited. The tornado ended up being north of us anyway, so it turned out to be a good decisionl.
That notch back in there is where we needed to be to have any chance at seeing anything. At this point though, I don't think it would have mattered since it was rain-wrapped by this point anyway.
Still punching east. We were sort of screwed here. Do we head north and get pouned by that RFD or keep heading east to keep gaining on it? It was a tough decision, but we kept shooting east to see what we could do. That tornado is on the ground at the time of this picture tearing up the northern edge of town.
This entire cell was visually spnning like a top, which was pretty darn impressive. That tornado HAD to be close to in this one since those rain curtains were whipping around the front of that pretty well. Inflow was also prevelant at this point, probably around 35-40 mph.
Still shooting east, trying to find options.
This is where we sort of ran out of real estate, so to speak. We figured there wasn't a chance of getting anything good on this one, so we pull over about 20 times, this being the first.
Great structure, but no tornado.
This was taken about 45 seconds after the one above it. The features were constantly changing like this, which would have made for a pretty nice timelapse. But, at this point, we didn't have time to set up the tripod unfortunately.
.
The cell to the extreme southwest portion of this radar scan is the one we were on, though later on in its stage. It has already destroyed parts of Kirksville by this point, but still showed a pretty nice couplet.
We give up. It's pretty much over here. We finally realize there was no shot at filming the tornado, so we pull over to get some stills and more video.
Here is a 100% crop from the image right before it. It really isn't as grainy as it looks here, it's that dang "save for web" function in Photoshop Elements that makes it look terrible. This was shot at ISO 100, AND on a tripod. Anyway, the reason for this crop was to show the very tight rain shaft back in there. You would be completely dry one second, then the next be in an extreme downpour. I thought that was pretty sweet. It was also still tornado warned at this point apparently and would be even after crossing the Illinois border.
Joel getting some incredible footage of yet another shelfy storm. Neat. Our chase videos are going to sell millions. That tornado is, I guess, still on the ground here too.
Checking the velocity scans, it briefly showed a new couplet on the southernmost portion of the storm, so we thought maybe we had one last chance, albeit slim. Nope.
Like I said, at least we have the first chase of 2009 out of the way. Next time we need a classic supercell to go after. I'm about tired of this HP stuff. Looking forward to next time!