February 10, 2009 C OK Moderate Risk

Started of the day changing my tires at home in Glenpool, OK. Randy Rhea and I scooped up Josh Gregory(progress in color) and headed S. Our original target was Denton, TX but before we could get that far S, the dryline started to blow up. We were in walmart in McAlester, came out to the truck, and the radar had gone from dead to 3 supercells in a matter of 15 minutes. So we backtracked to I40 and headed W. The first cell had already smashed cars with baseball hail in Yukon, OK, and was in the process of tearing up mansions in Edmond, OK. We jumped N off of 40 to intercept near Langston. We could see the monster wall cloud, and it was a ground scraper(see video). There was definitely a tornado on the ground, but I'm not sure we were seeing it. We were about 1 minute late crossing the Cimmaron River, so we were behind the tornado, driving through quarter sized hail to catch up. I'm pretty sure the tube crossed 33 about thirty seconds ahead of us. Which is REALLY scary seeing as how no one on our side of the tornado(a few chasers, spotters, AND A FREAKING SCHOOL BUS) could see it due to the rain/hail core. We finally got through the hail, and noted a damage path that was about 300yds wide, before noticing that the tornado was roping out right next to us(check video). We report the tornado and damage to KTUL, and follow the cycling wall cloud into Stillwater. At this point, KTUL wanted me to stop and send the video in. The storm was looking cold and rainy by this time, and we decided to hang back and wait for the second cell while uploading video for Frank. The next cell had a very impressive wall cloud, and the storm snuck up on us faster than expected. We had parked in front of a home on a county road, and the owner came out and chatted a bit, and another local had driven past us. I was finishing the upload when the guy took off running for his house, and we all looked ahead and saw a brief spin-up about 100yds down the road. It was a very small, but very intense vortex. I couldn't film, because the tape was in a bad spot, but luckily Randy snapped this picture.

At first we thought it was a gustnado, but we noted a bit of cloud-base rotation with a lowering seen in the picture. It was only on the ground for about 5 seconds before disappearing, none-the-less, I called 911 and reported it. We headed E to reposition, and followed the storm to ok51 and decided to let it go, as the terrain N of there gets pretty bad, and the storm was looking just as cold as the first one. So we dropped back and waited for the next one. It never did anything, and we decided to head S and hope for some more cells to go up ahead of the line. The storms never fired, so we jumped on to 44 in Stroud, and headed home.

461 miles. 4 supercells, 2 tornadoes at close range, and 1 hell of a first chase for 2009.

May 24th tornadoes NC OK

I started this day at work, watching the OFB situation unfold, and expected another day of tornadoes to the north, with BS storms on my end of the system. As the day went on, I realised i needed to be on I35 and 412. With it being Saturday, I couldn't just leave work. So I watched all the chasers streaming video of ever shape of tornado possible. My boss even watched with me, as the trunk twister destroyed a pig barn. live from a helicopter. The groans of agony finally led my boss to let me off work. A week previous to this, I blew the engine head in my Tahoe(im an idiot) and was now completely broke, and could only drive my 2000 rear wheel drive Crown Vic. I love ole' blue. we've been through some storms, but I really am not comfortable chasing muddy OK county roads with a RWD vehicle. But I had missed hundreds of tornadoes this week, so I was tired of it. I picked up my girlfriend Daniele, and we busted ass to Stillwater, OK. We met the storm near 35 and 51, with a stovepipe starting to occlude/rope and a new truncated cone on the ground just N of the occluding tube. Here you can barely see both tornadoes

I set up on a hill to shoot video and admire Daniele's first 2 tornadoes. We stayed out ahead of the monster, watching for new tornadoes. There was one more quick rope-of-a-spin-up about a half mile W of us at one point, when we were struggling through the mud trying to avoid hail. Pretty scary, but we made it out. Followed the storm all the way to Red Rock, then lets it go at sunset.

320 miles. It was awesome to get Daniele her first 3 tornadoes on her first chase. She must be good luck. It's kinda cool that I didn't miss out on the entire week. 3 is better than none. Of course i know people that saw 15 tornadoes this day, and 25 more in the days leading up to this. Lesson learned. Vehicle maintanence is key to a sucessful season.

May 1st, Pawnee/Osage Co. Tornado-fest!!!

What a day. Started off at work in Jenks forecasting throughout the morning. My savior showed up to work for me, to whom I owe this entire chase, Joshua Giddens. So I left at 1pm to get the car ready and head N to Coffeyville, KS. I stopped in Caney to eat some Sonic. Met up with Michael Ratliff, and we watched the cap erode and eventually break. We intercepted the first "cell" just S of Sedan, KS. The northern one looked better, so Michael went after it, and I stayed to watch the southern cell struggle, and to watch the northern cells line together. So I dropped S into Oklahoma where the cap was breaking with a storm in Oklahoma Co, and some storm just firing right over Stillwater. I went south despite the terrible terrain, so that even if I did bust, I would be in the KTUL viewing area and get paid for any video. So I drop down to Fairfax, where I meet a left-moving LP supercell that was splitting off of the now Tornado Warned cell. She was a beauty.


I keep punching S through Osage Co and eventually cross the Arkansas River on the worst bridge I had ever seen. I mean, had there not been a tornado reported on the ground, I wouldn't
have crossed this bridge. The whole way across I was white-knuckling the steering wheel. So i get across the bridge, and turn W to intercept the wall cloud. It was very nice.


I get to within about 2 miles and stop in a good clearing. It displayed very good motion and finally debris becomes visible. Tornado #1


So I call 911 and report it, and take off to the West to get closer to it. It picks up for a minute, then puts down another tornado, that went from just debris to wedge in a matter of seconds. Tornado #2


I blast through some stop signs to get even closer, hoping it will cross the road within 1/2 of a mile of me. It picks up again and I set up about a mile E of the wall cloud. It cycles for a few minutes, then spins up a skinny little rope for about 10 seconds, then its gone. Tornado #3


About a minute later, a rather large cone funnel appears but isn't on the ground. It had the "Im gonna be a multiple-vortex monster" look to it, but only spun up one quick debris swirl before dying out. Tornado #4


after another 2 minutes of good motion, a nice stovepipe hits the ground within 2 seconds of appearing. #5

It quickly grows into a fat cone with multiple-vortices screaming around it.


This was a strong tornado, luckily it was in a rural area. I keep filming while repositioning, following it N up muddy-ass county roads. The Meso becomes smaller and smaller and eventually wraps itself around the top of the now truncated-cone-stinger. At this point, the tornado was coming sideways out of the updraft, and then dropping straight down to the ground.


With a new meso to the E, I watch this bad boy rope out, and reposition to the E. Theres already a tornado on the ground with this new meso when I find a clearing. So I set the camera up and let it capture the next few tornadoes. Tornado 7 happens and dissipates while #6 rages on


#7&8


#8 ropes out and 9 appears
#7&9

cycling again

and the #7 still going as the storm is moving out of reach.


342 miles. What a day. My video of #2 and #5 was aired on KTUL, and then on The Weather Channel, numerous ABC platforms such as GMA, and World News Tonight. I also sold it to the Associated Press, who aired it on CNN Headline News. Over 6800 miles without a good tornado will make you feel like its a bad year, then with one slow-moving cyclic-supercell, the season is salvaged.

Disclaimer:For the haters and neigh sayers, there were actually 9 different tornadoes. Not 5 tornadoes that skipped a few times. If I counted tornadoes like that(some people do) there would have been over 15. Some didn't show any visible damage during surveys. Some people say that the 7th tornado was on the ground for over an hour.

2007 year in review

Well, I didn't keep track of statistics this year as well as I would have liked. I guess that's a good New Years resolution. So I'm going to try off the top of my head.

CHASE days: 9
MILES: ~?
TORNADO DAYS: 4
TORNADOES: 11(3 on March 28th, 1 on April 12th, 2 on April 21st, 5 on May 4th)
STATES CHASED: KS,OK,NE,TX
TORNADO STATES: KS, TX
TORNADO MONTHS: March, April, May.

Summary: Started the year off with a bust on Feb 24th. I had some buddies with me and we messed around in OKC for too long, left late, and missed the tornado.
3-28: Chased with Tyler Costantini and Chris Wilburn. Saw my first tornado near the town of Hedley, and saw 2 more as we were repositioning. Probably missed a few this day due to bad contrast and nightfall. Saw some really cool funnels out of the side of the updraft as well as "anvil zit" lightning. it was very eerie.
4-11: Wasn't a tornado chasing day, but we wanted to take a shot at lightning photography, so we went to the Childress area. Met Tony on a dark side road. They stayed in Wichita Falls, we went to Decatur(My Moms).
4-12: Chased with my partner Randy Rhea. Missed the Seymour tornado as we were too far East. Caught the line just west of Decatur. Got chased to Denton, we screamed East, to drop south in front of the weird Sup that was not really imbedded, but within the line. Intercepted a "cell" just East of Lake Ray Hubbard. Called in a bowl-shaped lowering with powerflashes. Confirmed damage to barns and a fence. Pretty disappointing for a High Risk. But I'll take what I can get.
4-21: Chased with Joey, Russel Parsons, and Chris Wilburn. Got on a good looking storm near Hereford, couldn't produce. Headed north to 40 to see if we could catch another storm. I was taking pictures out the window of a weird cloud structure, and later that night, when looking over the pictures, saw what seemed to be a tornado in a rain curtain. When we got to 40, we headed East, everyone lost Radar data, drove threw some small hail, then a tornado hit us. It was weak. once we got the hell out of there, i took a picture looking back. scroll down to see that picture on the 4-21 summary. Then we regained our composure, Caught an LP cell, drove home in a squall line.
5-4:Waited around in SC KS. Got gas in Greensburg. Went East to Medicine Lodge for Wifi, turned our asses around when we saw the Greensurg cell getting cookin. Got our first glimpse at the Tornado(es) just N of Coldwater. Took pictures as we mosey'd N on 183. Didn't know the town took a direct hit, but knew there would be damage so we tried to take a clay road around town. Got stuck. Got unstuck. Decided not to go to Greensburg thinking that we would only hamper rescue efforts. I regret that decision EVERY DAY and will probably regret it every day for as long as I live. The next day at work, I found out about the town being completely destroyed.
5-6: local chase. not looking for naders. Got my best lightning shot ever.(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...ke/mike005.jpg)
5-29: Chased with Tyler Costantini, and his nephew. Messed around all day. I was in a goofy mood and I think I pissed Tyler off by being goofy all day. Finally got on a storm late in the evening out in BFE in the OK panhandle. Good lightning, decent rotation for about 10 minutes. Then we came home.
6-6: Met up with Bart Comstock and Chris Wilburn in NE. Targeted Broken Bow. later met up with Eric Flescher. Saw really nice structure, repositioned, more good structure. Saw a horse-shoe vortex on top of a roll cloud. that was cool. They all got the last 2 rooms at a hotel in Grand Island, i went down the street. Randy Hicks and Lisa stayed with me.
6-7: Parted ways with everyone in the morning and I headed home. Hoped for a storm to go up in KS, but didn't happen. Got home, took some buddys on a local chase, hoped for a storm to go up west of Henrietta, OK. Got free root beer floats at sonic. went to the Skatepark and did some tricks on the fruitboots. No storms. Did see a ton of good lookin girls at WalMart with goofy looking guys.


No real chases since June. Depressing. Come on Spring!!!

new

well i had an account at chaseblogs.com but that didnt work out. awesome. so now i have lost most of my pictures and chase reports for this year and i am exteremly excited to get to re-do them. so this is a work in progress. stay tuned. even though no-one cares.

May 4th Greensburg, KS

Wow. What a bittersweet chase for us. Randy Rhea and I basically farted our way west slowly waiting for storms to go up. I didn't want to wait for the south cells to move into our area, so we just tried to keep from getting bored and held our ground. It paid off. We were heading west toward the new cell west of Coldwater when we heard the first TOR warning. The only equipment we had was a weather radio. So we were already scared. Night chasing with no radar is not a good idea. So we're about 8 miles east of Coldwater flying west when we hear the first funnel reports. SHOWTIME! Not even 2 minutes later that funnel turned into a large tornado with a small(er) tornado forming under a new meso. Well, that newer "small" tornado grew at an alarming rate. As we were turning north onto 183 in Coldwater, we could see the southern area of circulation, and it looked iffy. We get up onto a hill, to see a large cone to the west, and a growing stovepipe on the east side of the updraft base. With each lightning flash, the stovepipe grew into a moster. Absolutely massive. We were at least 10 miles away and it was a beast. As we got closer, the western tornado weakened, but at least 2 satellite tornadoes were dancing around the wedge. There were at least 4 on the ground at this time, 2 strong ones. My buddy Randy Hicks was very close to these tornadoes and saw 6 at once. 2 more satellites on the north side of the wedge. As we followed it north, it only got bigger. At one point, it looked like it was wrapping up in rain. We stopped, i got out and took some pictures, and it looked at least 1.5 miles wide. we were more than 5 miles south of it and it takes up the whole frame. We continued to follow it north as it went through Greensburg. We were sure the roads were blocked due to significant damage, so we tried to take a county road around town. Bad idea. Stuck in the mud. With a new meso trying to funnel to our west. Luckily, we're awesome, so we got unstuck, and got the hell out of there. We watch a new wedge move NE and decide we can't catch it(we thought it was the same one, but damage paths and radar say otherwise). Then we decided to go home, due to damage reports and basically knowing we couldn't get to it. We left the wx-radio on just to hear damage reports. It produced numerous strong tornadoes for somewhere around 5 hours. Amazingly there were only 12 confirmed deaths as Greensburg sustained a direct hit. The warning system won the battle tonight. 95% of the town was destroyed, and only 12 people lost their lives. thats amazing to me. Props to Mike Umshied, the Warning coordinator for the NWS in DDC. He was in touch with spotters and issued a "Tornado Emergency" for Greensburg and saved countless lives. Its just amazing how well the spotters, chasers, NWS, and local TV Mets worked together tonight. If the warning system worked this well all the time, tornado deaths could be cut in half.

Another death was confirmed as an on-duty police officer was spotting around Macksville. The damn tornado was so big he didn't know it was there. He died protecting his town and he is a hero. Our hearts and prayers go out to all of those affected by this outbreak.

2 day chase-cation. kind of.

Well. Randy Rhea and I drove 1152 miles this past 2 days. Road trips with Randy are always fun. However, for a high-risk, i feel kind of empty...

Thursday(slight-risk) we went out west with hopes of catching 1 or 2 very low-precipitation supercells. We got to Shamrock, TX in the panhandle, went south towards Childress. Watched and followed some BS multi-cluster storms. Saw a decent looking base with a "wall cloud." Weak upward motion. Not bad considering lack of moisture. As it got dark, lightning picked up, and we got excellent footage/pics. Watched lightning for an hour, then started our 3 hour drive to Decatur to set up for the high risk Friday.

Friday morning we decided to play the dryline/TriplePoint. There were storms firing early out west toward Wichita Falls. I was absolutely sure that this wouldnt be the main show. Tony Laubach and his crew caught an elusive wedge around Seymour, TX. that storm went to crap shortly after as the storms went linear. the center section of the line started to grow ahead. The cell moving through Ft. Worth looked very interesting. I have seen many embedded "supercells" but this one was different. It had propagated out ahead of the line enough to develop a hook. So we drove 75 miles through the north suburbs of DFW to get ahead of this one cell. Sat and waited for it to cross whatever lake is just east of Rockwall. watched it come in, dropped south ahead of the cell, found a clearing, saw what appeared to be a rain-wrapped wallcloud. Saw 2 or 3 powerflashes under it. i reported it to NWS. We're calling it a tornado since i found some reports of tornado damage in that area. the DFW local weather office sucks at doing reports so I'm not even going to try and find it. Got East to a gas station to let it pass over. Got hailed on. I was interviewed by tyler texas' nbc station. link: http://www.ketknbc.com/home/ticker/7025557.html

so. 1152 miles, for some lightning pictures, a possible rain-wrapped tornado, and some hard to swallow lessons.

1. Go with your gut. This means if you think you should be setting up west of the risk area, do it. We missed out on a 1/4 mile wide wedge tornado. We would have been there had we stayed the night in Wichita Falls.
2. Even professional severe storm meteorologists can and will be wrong. For some reason, there was a high risk issued. All the upper-air dynamics were there for a huge tornado outbreak. the shear profiles were more than favorable for large and violent tornadoes. long-track violent tornadoes. But for some reason it all went to hell.
3. Never chase in a metroplex area. With larger populations come larger population of idiots on the road.
4. Leave early. Always leave early. A lot of things can go wrong. Especially when you're depending on wifi.