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6-01-07
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! Wow. What a frustrating day. We FINALLY get the storms we have been waiting for all spring and we have to work. MAN...it's really tough watching a supercell develop basically right outside your back door and you can't do ANYTHING about it. I let my frustration get the best of me as I just needed to get out and see something. So an extra long lunch was in order. The SPC had updated their SLGT outlook to put us basically smack dab in the center.
Soon after, a mesoscale discussion was issued. If this had been a saturday, you can bet your last dollar Joel and I would have been on the road. Hell, we might have already been in position. But, it's a Friday and we were stuck working for "the man".
So I slide out the door around 12:45 to start my long "lunch". I had originally planned on bringing my stuff with me in the morning, but I had a late start and just decided to forget it. I mean, come on, we NEVER get anything interesting around here. I grab the video camera, digital camera, and my laptop and set back out. Before this I took one last look at the radar and the still tornado warned supercell in Louisa County. I knew there wasn't any chance at shooting after that cell, but I noticed a small discrete cell firing to the southwest of the tornadic cell. I could see them already starting to line out shortly before entering the QC, so I opted to skip east and wait for it. I could hear rolling thunder as I set back out toward Joslin. The skies were starting to turn dark and the winds had shifted direction and were now blowing parallel with the storm. I was sitting on the extreme eastern edge which is exactly where I wanted to be.
I decided to head toward my favorite back road in Barstow to scope things out. Before I left, like I said, I noticed the storms starting to congeal and sort of line out, but it was in the beginning stages. As I sat here, I noticed an interesting "lowering" that I thought required attention. I really didn't think there would be a shelf just yet, but as it turns out, that's just what it was. As I was shooting video, I even said "it looks very interesting back in there". I know that I'm going to go back and watch that and laugh at myself. I was just too hopped up over the tornado warned cells so close to home that I was very over-zealous and excitable.
What I was really trying for here was a lightning bolt off to the right. I SUCK at daytime lightning shots, even when the bolt stays there for me for a good second. There were numerous cg's right to where the camera was pointed, but I couldn't get one to drop while I had it up there. As soon as I would snap a shot, sure enough a nice bolt would drop straight in the frame. I'll just stick to low light lightning attempts I suppose. Oh, and thanks Amanda for getting the sticker for me!
Around this time I had many people ringing on my phone, but I was too busy with the stills and video to answer. I finally called my brother Dave back (at our workplace) and he said it was raining sideways there. Work isn't too far away from where I was positioned. As I was talking to him, I was shooting video at the same time and the plow was just absolutely screaming toward me. It was actually sort of freaky watching this thing rapidly change as it barrelled its way almost straight east now. I gathered that the storm was really starting to line out now.
I realized it was getting WAY too close now and I didn't want to be done just yet. I also noticed the bright blue up in the clouds. Yep, hail. It was mainly to the north, but it was also present to the south. I wasn't sure how large it was but I could tell it was fairly heavy. So, I turn around and shoot back east. Sure enough, the main road was CLOSED. I think someone was just trying to have a little fun with me. It's a conspiracy. Anyway, I had to take a left (north) and this really worried me now. I knew that there was going to be strong winds with this and the precipitation was evidently heavy. The road I was on was gravel. I needed to get off, but the road just kept going and going. What made matters worse was the storm was angled at a northeast direction, which was now directly in front of me. For some reason, I stopped on this road about halfway through to grab some stills. I almost didn't make it back to the main road in time.
In the image above, you can actually see the wind pushing that scud in a right direction. The wind was really starting to pick up.
I finally make it the main road. What you see in that above picture was now directly overhead and I could see the blue hail shafts almost over me. I then shoot east to get ahead of the storm again. I am damn near in Geneseo now and I knew I couldn't stay out much longer, so I pull off the road and grab just a few more.
As I was sitting here some very wicked cg's hit the field just past that tree line. Again, I pointed the Rebel that way and waited for another strike, but once again it didn't want to cooperate with me. I finally decided to give in to the storm and bust a U-turn. It was time to get nailed by something. I thought for SURE I would be running into some hail. I filmed the entire drive straight into the teeth of this thing, but surprisingly never got any hail. I was pretty disappointed actually. I wanted something interesting for the video camera. However, I did drive through some blinding rain and high winds, probably around 40 mph. What was also very surprising is how short it lasted. Before I knew it, I could see a clear slot just to my left with bright blue sky. Sure enough, I punched through the other side in a matter of 3 minutes. Pretty disappointing. Wanting to get something more, I actually shot back into the backside of it and finally got some hail, albeit pea size. I barely scraped the tail end, but nevertheless finally got my hail. I eventually started my trek back to work, but pulled off to shoot some stills of the backside. Notice the rain shaft and how sharp of a cutoff there is to the left and right of it. It was quite a heavy but short-lived rain storm.
After I had punched out of the back side of this storm, I finally saw the enormous anvil accompanying this supercell. It was definitely a beast.
Heading back on the back road once again. I love the structure in this shot, it has just about everything. You can see the nice billowing updraft leading up to the anvil. There was also some mammatus here, but it wasn't very well defined.
Almost back to work now, I notice some more cool features. The mammatus was now gaining more definition. Although mammatus aren't really too rare, they still make for some amazing scenery shots. There was also another nice rock hard tower going up just to the south of this cell, as seen right above the treeline.
So, the "chase" was over. Although I didn't see ANYTHING really, I was still lucky to get out and at least see something. I really wish this would have happened on a saturday that way I could have another tornado under my belt, but oh well.
Later on I noticed some more cells firing back to the east on radar. I take a look outside and sure enough, there was a nice fat updraft going straight up, towering over my workplace. I had to head out and grab some more. As I got out to my spot, I noticed it was already dying. It looked really "soft" and showed signs of becoming an orphan. But, there were some other very hard towers starting to shoot up just to the south of this one.
As you can see, the edges of this anvil are just soft and junky. This updraft started dying off right after it started going up.
So, 5:00 finally rolls around and it's time to head home. Sure enough, that anvil that I thought looked really weak and dead, was in fact now dead. It was now an orphan anvil and was just fading away into the blue sky.
Ok, now back to the tornadoes that plowed through Louisa Co. This is an aerial damage photo from WQAD of Fruitland. Notice the house wiped clean off its foundation. The twister has already been rated an EF-3.
These are some GR2Analyst images. I found these pretty awesome. Technology astounds me.
This first one is the storm just entering its tornadic stage approaching Grandview. Notice the hook echo just starting to form.
This image shows the rotation involved with this. Notice the core (red) of the storm approaching 30K feet. Keep that in mind.
At this time Grandview is getting slammed. Note the hook echo now passing directly overhead.
3D image looking at it from the northeast. Note the hook and the core spreading through the storm.
Fruitland now in danger. This is the tornado that eventually went on to be rated at EF-3. Fruitland appears to have suffered the most damage out of the three towns in succession. There was also an on-air report from the field of a dog that survived even after the tree it was tied to was uprooted.
This image I thought was really amazing. Look at the ball shape at the very tip of the hook echo. That would be a debris shroud. The tornado right now is tearing through the town of Fruitland and is elevating the debris high enough that the radar is reflecting it. This is a well pronounced hook.
Here is a 3D shot from the northeast once again in correspondence with the above image. Look at that rotating updraft still hovering around 30K feet. As this image was grabbed, the same exact thing was happening as the above scan. This shows clearly the tube that would be attached to the ground.
This was also a grab after it had passed through Muscatine. Now look at the core's elevation topping 40K feet. That is an indication of a very powerful updraft.
The storm reports for the day:
So...it was very disappointing that we weren't able to get out there and get on this tornado, being so close to home, but I am also glad to hear that there were no fatalities with this storm.