2004-05-29 Osborn / Cameron, Missouri Tornado

Tried to take a vacation…”Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in”

I don’t chase at night?

Saturday, Memorial Day Weekend—when everyone worthy of the name stormchaser was arrayed from Beatrice to Oklahoma City, looking for and catching hoses aplenty. And I would have been out there, too—except this Saturday was the day I hauled the family to Chillicothe, Missouri for our annual family reunion. I read the 1300Z SWODY1 and noted that North-Central Missouri was in ‘only’ a MDT risk…This had MCS/flash-flood written all over it.

And I must admit that I was somewhat relieved, since I was away from home, in lousy storm-chase terrain, and driving Wifey’s 2003 Ford ‘Red Barchetta’ Windstar. I found out the hard way November 2003, chasing the Weeping Water TOR, that Windstars make good sails but lousy storm-chasing vehicles.

All afternoon EAX was saying ‘storms in the CWA after 4 A.M‘, confirming what I suspected—those supercells in KS and NE would head east and become a squall line overnight. Therefore, we went about our business, radio off, TWC ignored, but watching the winds and clouds. I did manage to cadge an Internet connection for about 15 minutes and took a look at SPC’s 2000Z SWODY1 (which was more optimistic than EAX) and the Stormtrack.org forum, which hadn’t mentioned North Missouri at all.

I came out of Wal-Mart about 5-ish to see CU off to my southwest, SVRs and TORs in a Kansas City-Atchison-Saint Joseph triangle, and us in the middle of a Red Box! Six O’clock—camped out in front of the television at the house we were staying—watching Kansas City television stations going ape…and sending up helicopters!

Two thoughts were going through my head: I hope whatever is causing these storms to trigger doesn’t unzip further to the east and vector toward Chillicothe (since we were on the second floor of the Worst Western); and these news-crews and helicopters are making this just like being there! Kansas City’s coverage makes Omaha television seem like a community college AV department by comparison.

I wandered outside to get my only digital photo—and my only structure shot of the day:

Eight O’clock, and I make two decisions: Wifey and the kids will be okay in Chillicothe, and I’m going to head to Cameron on US-36 to see what I can see. Told Wifey that I would do Cameron and back, no back roads, no Kansas City, no Lamoni, no divorce…

Chillicothe to Cameron is only forty miles, but even with the light fading, I didn’t see any lightning until twenty miles from Cameron. There were two separate mesos paralleling I-35 up from the KC metro, Plattsburg got whacked by a downburst long before the first tornado hit there. A Saint Joe station’s reporter had to take the ditch when a TOR said hi in Plattsburg. I couldn’t believe that these storms were both TORs, and both long-track and consistently producing. And heading generally toward Cameron…

EAX updated the TOR for the Cameron area, saying the storm would cross I-35 just south of town…extrapolating that meant crossing US-36 on the east side of Cameron…and I was on the east side of Cameron at the time… However, the rain had stopped and I was getting a great view of the cloud bases, and there was nothing to the immediate south or southwest that looked like anything other than stratus. I needed to find a high spot. Took BUS-36 into Cameron, crossed I-35, still nothing S-SW.

Nine O’clock, west side of Cameron. Within seconds: I finally see a lowering—off to the southwest of Cameron, EAX nowcasts the tornado on the ground near Osborn, and every fire/rescue unit in the Cameron fire barn bails out like a jailbreak right in front of me. Sooo, west on 36 for a little bit…

That’s not a wall cloud…that’s a bloody wedge! Okay, Damon. Time to use your brain around this bad boy. Sure, I could drive right up to it—but limited-access means you have limited-ability to turn around! I looked for lanes in the median…continually driving west…oh, yeah, there’s a wedge coming across the highway—which will I come across first—a ‘nader or a cut-across?

Found a lane, banged a u-ie. Top of a hill, frogs croaking and Cameron sirens…atomized rain and the ‘waterfall’ sound off to my west. First time I’ve been close enough to hear it! Way too dark for stills, so I locked the autofocus on the camcorder and pointed it west:

The first EAX survey said this storm continued on and wound up in Weatherby and Santa Rosa. These ‘caps from I-35 north of Cameron were impressive but I couldn’t see any ground circulation:

Drove up to the next exit on I-35. Weatherby is about five miles to my right—this wasn’t the meso that whacked it. EAX’s second survey found a gap, and indeed there was about an hour between the two storms, (More on that later…)

By this time, I was getting rain showers between me and the wall cloud, and it was becoming more sub-parallel with I-35 with time. I was heading back to Cameron when the girl on the Cameron radio station sighed and related another TOR warning for around Osborn! I went back to the same spot I’d been an hour before, noticing tree debris that hadn’t been there…a small tornado had just gone through, dissipated, then reformed and went on to whack Weatherby and Santa Rosa. I did see another tornado form NNW of me. I waited for five minutes to make sure, then called 911. Five minutes later, EAX issued another TOR, cop-reported west of Maysville—this would have been it:

(EAX never confirmed this.)

Back to the motel to await the middle-of-the-night MCS.

BOANUS COVERAGE; 2004-05-30

Sure enough, the MCS woke me up at 5AM. Later, I looked at the tree damage from a tornado that had hit Chillicothe five days before while I watched what I assumed was the cold front finally coming through. The wind shifted, cloud bases rose, it felt drier…

1130 CT, I was at the Golden Trough—Corral…noticing a rain shower and a little thunder. Elevated, I assumed, post-frontal…but the sirens went off! Everyone looked at me like I was the freaking Storm King as I headed back to the car to listen to local radio. I had packed the cameras and the NWS radio away—after all, the front had gone by, right? But Red Boxes don’t lie…

Here’s a digital shot of a wall cloud that had passed already:

Nothing to the west, I told the family to get their sunblock as I resumed my raid on the dessert bar…

2004-05-22 Western / Swanton / Dewitt / Wilber, Nebraska Tornado

Left Springfield at 2:15, heeding a number of other chasers who posted that they wanted to get to US-136 between Tecumseh and Hebron. Took NE-50 to get as far south as soon as possible, then west on 136 with an initial point of Beatrice (good NWS radio coverage, and a good place to kill time if things took longer to get going.) I was smack-dab in the middle of the Red Box that was issued at 3:50. Hit Walmart for Rain-X, Dasani and M&M’s, then I headed a little WNW to wait for the towers to go up.

Ran into a bunch of chasers (KS/OK/TX peeps) and I played data-ho like usual. Sure, a laptop would help, yeah—cell phone modem—of course…got $5000 (in 2004 dollars) you’re not using? Looking at the data showed TORs in far SW Nebr which was a bit too far…but more TORs leaving Columbus heading toward Fremont—and that was pi$$ing me off! By the time I got through Lincoln on US-77, those storms would be near the Quad Cities! So by default, my target remained the same—and the other chasers more or less agreed that there were no glaring negatives in the BIE area.

They headed back to town to hit the library one more time, and I went looking for high spots for photography. Another Red Box for N KS—another reason not to leave. Still the towers wouldn’t go, still the TOR’s were in far SW Nebr. One way to cause initiation—head to Burger King. Twenty minutes later, towers were going up! Back onto NE-4, lightning coming out of anvils—lightning coming out of fractus! And finally, TORs for Fillmore/Thayer counties, to my SW!

I just knew paydirt awaited me just one or two hills to the west, but I had to stop in Plymouth to take a couple pictures of an old ALCO switcher at the town grain elevator, then back on NE-4—which detoured onto gravel roads! Son of a puppy…however, the gravel isn’t like it is back home, more like pea gravel—and it was dry! Good for 60 MPH…

Made the end of the detour at NE-15, south of Western, SE of Daykin, SW of Swanton. Ran into whom I guess to be Angie Norris (Tennessee plates, at least), who was watching what she termed a cyclic supercell about 5 mi. west of us. After about two minutes, it…ahem…cycled…and I headed about 3 mi. west on that good gravel:

(Note to self: Next time you use your camcorder, make sure there’s a cassette innit! Missed taping this ‘nader, and it was getting too dark for digital stills.) Why couldn’t this have happened an hour earlier?

This TOR got wrapped; just in time I remembered to ‘check the southeast for another tube’ and this was durn near in front of me!

Switched to video, finally:

The wall cloud became this dusty monstrosity, angled about 30 deg to the NW:

First time I had actually been in an RFD. Wow. There’s still a tornado in there, along with a gustnado to the south:

Sixty MPH RFD deposited pea gravel in my front seat…Quit this area, trying to head NW, generally following the meso but also in the general direction of home! The staties had other ideas, closing NE-15 south of Western.

Here was another chaser convergence, ran into Doug Kiesling with mud all over one side of his truck; and at least one of the caravan from my first convergence. I remarked that I should have gotten my ass kicked for staying southeast of a RFD occlusion, we clucked about that for a second…

This was the end of the day for a lot of chasers. Only a couple of people got photos or vid further north, and what they saw made me glad I got trooper-screwed.

I took NE-4 back to Plymouth, then county roads N to Dewitt. I pulled over to take a last few shots, not knowing a tornado somewhere in this mess was whacking the area between Dewitt and Wilber:

Amazing how you drive for hours in your own world, then suddenly you see corn cribs where they shouldn’t be—on the shoulder of NE-103, a Labrador dog walking down the road wondering what the hell hit him, the smell of propane, a score of tractor-trailers on their side, sheetmetal caught in fencing along the highway.

And one power line down on the road is interesting, but twenty is sobering. Interesting societal observation—one would make the assumption that a line down with no one official on hand telling you not to drive over it means that the line is dead—but in reality there’s no way of telling whether it’s live or not—because all of a sudden there’s more disaster and not enough officials! Similarly, the danger of driving into a meso is the same on a state highway as it is on a gravel road, but the staties can turn more people around on the state highway. They’re picket fences—trying to save as many people from themselves as they can, while knowing some people aren’t going to take no for an answer…like me…

Tried to take NE-41 east to get out of Wilber, even though broadcast radio said it was closed…! Before I could get to Clatonia—in other words, in the middle of nowhere—I got turned around by a VFD because of another power line—but this one was a transmission line! 50kv is nothing to screw with…but when I turned around, I got my first rain of the whole day, followed by hail and 40 MPH wet inflow! That meant another tornadic storm off to my SW…heading NE…a fatalistic attitude helps in times like these, I suppose…

Made it to Crete, then east on NE-33 to Roca, then just outside of Bennet I came across my fourth damage path of the day. Between Bennet and Syracuse along NE-2 the power was out. Even as close to home as NE-50 betweeen Louisville and Springfield, power poles were bent over the highway.

What a night. Equal measures boredom, satisfaction, tedium, with a sprinkling of panic thrown in just to keep the arteries clear…

1999-05-16 Treynor, IA Tornado (my first intended chase)

And so, with one last look at Intellicast radar, with an All-Hazards radio velcroed to the dashboard along with KFAB and KMA radio, I headed through Omaha, grabbed IA-92 east hoping to get in the way of whatever happened!

I had seen one low-contrast tornado west of Treynor while I was south of it, and I found a spot with good views to the east as another cell moved to the northeast:

Bypassed the wall-cloud, went from stratus right to funnel:

and then tornado:

I don’t take damage photos anymore and I only show these because of the next tornado off to the west!

1991-05-24 Cameron, MO Landspout (my first ‘chase’, on accident!)

Memorial Day weekend, 1991. I surprised Wifey by renting a Lincoln Continental for our annual family reunion trip to Chillicothe, Missouri. If there was ever a day where I didn’t want to see severe WX, this was it!

West of Cameron, Missouri on US-36, I saw this CU off to the south. Saw the needle-funnel and said to myself ‘if that were an actual thunderstorm, that’d be an actual tornado’…

And son-of-a-gun if the Highway Patrol didn’t go off screaming off toward town, Cameron sirens went off…but I seriously doubt that the funnel touched down, and it is unlikely that there would have been any damage anyhow. NWSFO Kansas City/Pleasant Hill never issued a SVR or TOR for this, and it does not show on any NOAA database. But My Camera Was There…

Thirteen years later, another Memorial Day weekend, I sat in darn near the same spot while I watched another tornado cross US-36!

Doppler-Indicated Is A Joke (911 Is A Joke)

Hit me

Going, going, gone into a MCS

Now the tone went off a long time ago

Drove all the way to Wilber, Neb to see the show

Them rain-wrapped HP’s they come when they wanna

So get the Tow Truck yank out the mudder

NWSFO’s don’t care ’cause they stay paid anyway

They run ya like a yahoo they can’t be betrayed

I know you stumble with no vector, people

If your SDS is on the line then you’re dead today

Outflow-dominated with the late comin’ vort-max

That’s a flash-flood in disguise y’all betcha

I call ’em tube-snatchers quick they come to fetch ya?

With the Lycos ™ Storm Team just to dissect ya

They are the kings ’cause they swing self-aggrandization

Lose your road-cash, your windshield, to them it’s congratulation

I can prove it to you try and clock some rotation

It all adds up to a bust-y situation

So get up get, get get down

TVS is a joke in yo town

Get up, get, get, get down

Doppler-Indicated wears the bust crown

Every three days the short-waves don’t never come correct

You can ask my man right here with the cow/grille wreck

He’s a witness to Mother Nature’s job never bein’ done

Claims he was core-punchin’ Andover in 1991

Doppler-Indicated is a joke ’cause there’s never any ground-truth

But Channel 3’s ratings are going through the roof

They need to go back to chasing ambulances

88D is a joke we don’t want ’em

I call Tom Grazulis cause TVC will come quicker

The girls in the Apco see me and they snicker

The reason that I say that ’cause they think I’m stranger

“Get more out of stayin’ home and watching ‘Walker, Texas Ranger'”

They be laughin’ at ya while you’re crawlin’ on your knees

“Gatorade, SuzyQ’s and Powerball, please!”

Thinkin’ you’re at Ground-Zero when you’re really behind the dryline

You better wake up and smell the burrito flavor

Cause 88D is a fake chase saver

So get up, get, get get down

Ain’t gonna be no hose in yo town

Get up, get, get, get down

Playin’ the warm front wears my tires down

2009-06-17 Grand Island / Phillips / Aurora, Nebraska Tornado

Took long enough, I was resigned to not bagging this year…

Wasn’t the perfect setup, but I had taken off work at 3PM, by that time there’d been tornadic storms along the NE/KS border around Beatrice and Fairbury, and I was worried that I’d missed the show. Especially since upon leaving work and getting my eyes on these storms, they looked like crap and getting worse by the second.

So, I went home, changed, took a nap. Bill on Channel 7 said ‘north of Omaha’ and Jimbo LeFleur on Big Six really didn’t have much to say but took five minutes to say it! SPC issued a new MD which widened the area of concern, which meant to me that they were uncomfortable with picking an area or even if anything would happen! At least they were being honest…

So, by six-thirty I wasn’t really happy, but the general consensus was that something might get going around Kearney, I could intercept around York at eight o’clock with 90 minutes of light left. That ain’t much of a drive…

Between Lincoln and York, I could see towers trying to get going and Grand Island radio told of SVR warnings in the area, and TORs west of Kearney…and in the Sand Hills well north of I-80. I don’t want to drive to effing Kearney…when I have to work tomorrow, I thought. My plan was to get to York, like I had promised myself, borrow some internet or see if there was a chaser convergence.

Check out the bottom of the anvil!

That G.I. radio station was letting me know that the TOR west of town had been replaced by a SVR and according to them, the storms were getting weaker. In the back of my mind, I was aware that storms can cycle and maybe that’s what was happening, but here was my exit, let’s get some Shell and head back home…

Guess what: The storm did cycle, good ol’ All-Hazards tones interrupting the radio broadcast, TOR for just west of G.I.! Got my gas, and decided that if I didn’t drive that last forty miles to G.I., I’d have until next May to kick myself in the ass. The southernmost tower–and the warned storm–was right ahead of me, over I-80, and even better, US-34 was four miles north of the Interstate, both roads ran west-east and so was the thunderstorm! Moving at ten MPH. If it held together, I could pace this bish on a Segway, LOL.

Look at that inflow band! Getting close…

I was worried for a second that it was beginning to gust out. I’ve seen so little structure this year that I couldn’t be sure…

Turned off at the Giltner exit, pulled up to a VFD who was on spotter duty, we could see the wall cloud, rotating, about five miles away. I allowed how I was going to keep going up to 34, they wondered, “You’re going to drive into it, aren’t you?” I mentioned that the photos aren’t so good that close to it!

West a couple more miles on 34, where at least one-hundred chasers had the same idea as me. Sky boiling above me, and in a couple of minutes several rotations had made their way to the ground. I was parked with Tony Laubach, with whom I had shared a Interstate shoulder last year. There were two spinups to the north of 34, and one right on the highway, then a fourth started up further to the south, all within a quarter-mile of us. Tony told me he was bugging out, and that was good enough for me. I wasn’t worried about the forward speed, but I was concerned that I had multiple rotations and didn’t want to be boxed in. So this was how I spent the next twenty minutes, drive a half-mile, shoot a minute of video, repeat. And 100 other chasers did the same thing, leapfrogging each other, but all of us watching out for each other.

(This was very fortuitous. How often to you get a storm that’s moving W-E, not SW-NE, moving so slow, NOT rain-wrapped, on flat river-bottom and 1×1 gridded roads? And Vortex2 had called it quits earlier that week. Two weeks ago, there would have been twice as many chasers, plus Weather Channel and their attendant leeches.)

The storm had consolidated, a huge dusty tornado just south of 34. Still moving dead east, I was comfortable in being 100 yards to the north of it, confident that it wasn’t going to get closer and that I could keep up with it–and keep in front of it. Never chased a tornado from the front before, I can’t see it happening too often!

(Another hundred chasers did stay back near the Interstate interchange and got some jaw-dropping structure shots from the wider perspective. This storm had something for everybody!)

Can barely see it, but here’s a center-pivot in need of an insurance claim. I could hear it getting wrecked over the sound of the tornado!
Sorry about the raindrop. I got ten drops and no hail until well after I had intercepted.

One-hundred yards away.

Moving east, I was starting to pass light industry, and went over railroad tracks–I was getting to Aurora. Being 100 yards to the side of a tornado that’s doing nothing other than whip up dust is one thing, but I didn’t want to be within a block of the same tornado as it was demolishing houses and bouncing them off my car! Similarly, it would have made for great video to see the tornado derail the train that was parked west of Aurora, but you can’t compose your videography in the middle of the damn tornado! Discretion being what it is, I sped up, made it to a county road in Aurora and went north a mile, just to get out of the way of the path. Found a hill and upon looking west I found that the storm had dissippated into ‘just’ a wall cloud.

I turned off 34 between Hampton and Bradshaw, got out and let the rain wash the dirt off me while I caught my breath. That was half an hour of hard work! The storm was looking less worrisome, but it had cycled before…now on I-80, I kept my eye the wall cloud as we passed Bradshaw, York, Utica before it finally dissipated.