Something of Interest

Something of interest I "borrowed" from a message board.

2008 so far..

Super Tuesday Outbreak - 57 fatalities, 84 tornadoes
May 10-11 Tornado Outbreak - 24 fatalities, about 60 tornadoes
2008 Plains Tornado Sequence - 11 fatalities, 38+ tornadoes
May 1-2 Tornado Outbreak - 6 fatalities, 50 tornadoes
January Tornado Outbreak Sequence - 4 fatalities, 72 tornadoes
Atlanta Tornado Outbreak - 3 fatalities, 29 tornadoes

And they just put up a tornado watch for eastern Kansas.

Chase Log 052408

I'd been watching a cell develop since around 2pm near Enid, OK. Personally, I was hoping that once it got to strength, it would travel NE to us. It didn't.

I called my oldest brother, Jeff, and asked if he wanted to go on an adventure.

We left Wichita and headed to Oklahoma. At the Oklahoma Visitor Center we met a group from Wichita trying to get to the OKC airport. After a little discussion and finding radio with a storm chaser feed, we found out that the storm was moving toward Perry. With the shape of the storm, that meant we had to core punch to get to the tornado.

I hate core punching. It's dangerous, stupid, and leaves you blind, but my brother was hellbent on seeing a twister. Damn it if he wasn't talking about the movie too.

We left and started to hit some rain and very small hail. Although the interception in Perry, OK was happening sooner or later I started slowing down to avoid hydroplaning and damage from the hail once it got a little bigger.

We arrived in Perry and found the tornados.

Two wall clouds positioned themselves close to one another, but were heavily rain wrapped. In other words heavy rain fell in front of the tornados obscuring our vision.

We had a nice stovepipe funnel reach out of the rainshaft and dance around for a while before it dissipated. The chasers closer to the storm said there was a fairly large tornado inside that was rainwrapped. The rain stopped and the wall clouds seemed to die out.

The entire area was cloaked in rain and the Perry Police started getting nervous. They told us we needed to go to shelter or go north on I-35. We went about a mile to the next stop. Another convince store with an overhang and a Subway. My brother had the munchies so he went in, paced around, and said their were about 50 people all trying to get into the women's bathroom for shelter.

We hung out as hail hit the area and then went a little further north to get out of the rain. Before long, the national weather service reported that the storm was dying and had lost rotation. In other words, heavy, heavy, heavy rain.

Jeff and I headed back to Wichita pausing for gasoline.

The final shots are out of Tonkawa, OK. There's a Dairy Queen and a truckstop here, and it seems that this place has a special ability to pull storms to or near it. I've seen about three tornadic situations here.

It scares me to think about what has happened over the last five days. There has been a large loss of life, property, and 172 reports of tornados. This isn't normal.

Be aware and keep your eyes to the sky. Today's probability is overhead in Wichita.

New chase log soon

I'm tired and going to bed.

As my wife said in shock "What do you mean you're in Perry, OK?"

B

Greensburg part deux

Stayed up last night watching the crazy weather all over Kansas.

In all there have been 111 tornados in the midwest Thursday and Friday.

Greensburg had a near hit. Watched the doppler feed going into town and thought that Greensburg rebuilding Green was going to be a distant memory.

Somehow the tornado lost its punch before entering town and became a mesocyclone. They got real lucky.

Storms hit everywhere else last night. Here is the article from The Wichita Eagle:

http://www.kansas.com/news/updates/story/414234.html

Storms in the forecast

And I am rested up!!!

Let's do this.

B

I got nothing

It's beautiful outside.

There isn't anything even remotely possible until late next week.

That's okay, I'm being a lazy stormchaser.

This is my old truck I used to chase in. Sold it when I paid $60 bucks to fill it up.

My small car cost me $42 this week.

Greensburg Chasers

Found this on YouTube.

I think these are the guys with the only documented picture of the tornado.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBSps3VviB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1f9w7DXlgU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=couSqNjIjGU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4zuh9DgouA

I did a huge post on GreensBurg and the computer ate it.

So the long and short of it . . .

At 9:45 p.m. CDT on May 4, 2007[11], Greensburg was hit by an EF5 tornado. The tornado was estimated to be 1.7 miles (2.7 km) in width and traveled for nearly 22 miles (35 km). Ninety-five percent of the city was confirmed to be destroyed, with the other five percent being severely damaged. The National Weather Service estimated winds of the tornado to reach 205 mph (330 km/h).

Stole it from Wikipedia.

I was in Pratt that Friday, decided to come home to see family. As I left Pratt, I noticed a lot of chasers staging on the East side of Pratt. The National Weather Service issued a high chance of severe/tornadic weather, something they only do a couple times a year, for the Dodge City area.

I came home and at 9:30 turned on the TV.

On doppler radar, a glob came out of the storm and ate Greensburg.

While working in Pratt, I met several people from Greensburg

I was told by one of the locals that a 92 year old man hid out from the storm in his basement. The storm roared overhead and lifted his house, threw his truck into the basement, and it killed him.

What mother nature wants, mother nature gets.

If you have the money in these tight economic times, please donate to the American Red Cross. They had stations in Greensburg and Pratt well over six months after the storms hit. They have already been very active this year too, and the seasons only getting underway.

Off Topic

Man dies after motorcycle hits deer

BY STAN FINGER
The Wichita Eagle

A 55-year-old Pretty Prairie man died at a Wichita hospital this morning after hitting a deer with his motorcycle in Reno County on Thursday night.
Robert Crandall was riding his Harley Davidson west on Pretty Prairie Road in southern Reno County just after 9:20 p.m. when a deer came out of the south ditch, Reno County Sheriff's Capt. Wayne Baughman said. The motorcycle hit the deer and carried it for about 165 feet before stopping on the shoulder of the road.

A passing motorist noticed the accident and called 911. Thursday's severe weather prevented a rescue helicopter from flying to the scene, so a Pretty Prairie ambulance brought Crandall to Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus.

The case remains under investigation, Baughman said, but there are no indications that alcohol or drugs were involved. Crandall was not wearing a helmet, he said.

Wow, This is what I saw Thursday night. Man, this bums me out. Five people have died this week on motorcycles and this was a stones throw from the accident the night before on K-254.

I really want to ride again. Yeah falling off a motorcycle and freaking bumming out your knee changes a little bit of an outlook. So do kids . . . and I known a couple people hit deer on a bike and live. Then I think of my dexterity and maybe I should stay on four wheels.

050108 storms

Those who know me know I can't go great distances to go chasing right now.

I ran up to Towanda and got these pictures of a rather tornadic squall line.

I'm not sure what was going on there, because this happened too and it was serious.

The cold front sounds like it caught up to the dry line and we have a nasty storm overhead. I'll post more, later. Good night.

Uncertainty

Uncertainty.

That word kills me. In the last few outbreaks anywhere near here, that word has popped up.

Today is no exception. Hell, we're smack dab in the middle of the tornado anniversaries. Hillsboro, Greensburg, Udall.

It’s been kind of a dry chase season in Wichita. Heard about another chaser going down to Oklahoma and going on a night chase. He told me that he couldn’t see it, but heard it, and then the transformers started blowing around him.

So far, we have moisture from the south and a cold front/dryline forming to the West. They are guessing some super cells forming then turning into a squall line and heading into Missouri.
I like the foreboding words at the end of the analysis . . . AND PERHAPS A COUPLE TORNADOES.

Guys, I’m like a kid at Christmas.

B