May 10, 2008 Chase
The Racing Tornado Day

Map of chase. Two dots represent where pictures were taken.

This chase can be summed up in just one statement: "Couldn't Get In Front Of It".

May 10th was a very interesting severe weather day as it had a variety of target areas. Most chasers were in the Moderate Risk area that comprised of most of Arkansas and points ESE-ward. Some chasers were out in the McAlester, OK area. But there was a sleeper target that proved to produce the most, and unfortuantely, deadly tornadoes. Though all target areas did in fact have a few tornadoes, there wasn't much discussion on the StormTrack forums about the potential for supercells in southeast Kansas, into northeast Oklahoma/southwest Missouri. It wasn't until the morning of the event when only a handful of people mentioned the possibility of severe weather in the aforementioned area. Model forecasts for the day showed instability reaching 2,000 to 3,000 J/Kg in extreme southeastern Kansas into Oklahoma. Combined with more backing H85 winds than further south targets, low LCL's, and a moisture surge were more than enough ingredients than necessary for the formation of long-track supercells, which we saw in SE Kansas/NE Oklahoma/SW Missouri.

One supercell stood out of the bunch. The storm formed north of Bartlesville, Oklahoma around 4:00PM and quickly moved to the northeast. No convection really formed to the immediate south of the storm for most of its life allowing it to harness the moisture and ingredients it needed to sustain itself. This storm was right turning and was moving to the east-southeast as it produced tornadoes from Chetopa, KS to Barry County, MO. This sole storm was responsible for at least 19 unconfirmed fatalities in several different locales, including in the towns of Picher, OK, and Racine, MO. I attempted to chase this storm but I could not get myself in front of or to the south of the storm as best road options of the day were to the north of the storm.

Instead, I did manage to intercept the first tornado warned storm of the day in the target area in Labette County, Kansas. Leading up to the intercept, I traveled south on US Highway 75 through SE Kansas as the storms started to fire in Cowley County and then to points eastward along the frontal boundary. As the first storms blobbed together, I raced east to US Highway 59 and then south through Parsons. As I reached US Highway 160 east of Altamont, the storm I was following was showing signs of rotation. Headed west, I had the sight of a wall cloud and some slight rotation as the storm was showing a slight hook echo on doppler radar. This storm moved east-southeasterly and I continued to follow. As I was then behind the storm a few miles on a gravel road between US Highways 160 and 166, I had a sight of a tornado for all of a few seconds between the terrain and vegetation prevented the viewing of the life cycle of the tornado. For the few seconds, I witnessed the tube as it extended from the cloud base to the ground. I managed to get 2 pictures of the tornado as I headed east on the gravel road. I lost sight of the tornado as the road curved into a creek valley. I then dropped south to the storm that was on the KS/OK border, which ended up being the storm of the day. On the way south, there was a Labette County Sheriff car that slid off the road north of Chetopa and was pretty banged up. For the next few hours, it seemed like I just followed the storm as between obstacles in the roadway and its rapid southeasterly movement, I did not have the opportunity to get in front of or get to the south of the storm. I called it a day as near Verona, Missouri as it was realized that the storm was lining out and was moving into unfavorable chasing areas in southern Missouri.

I did not get much of any pictures from this chase, what I have below is pretty much what I got today as there was really no time to stop and get pictures as the storms were moving at a fast pace.

Total Miles Traveled: 497

Pictures
(Click thumbnail for bigger picture)

	First tornado warned storm moving southeast. Storm was showing rotation at time of this photograph. Taken just south of the US-160/K-101 intersection. 4:59PM
	Another shot of the storm as it was moving to the southeast. 5:00PM
	Faint tornado visible as the storm moves to the southeast. Taken SW of Oswego, looking to the east. 5:20PM
	Visible tornado as picture above is zoomed in revealing white tornado. 5:20PM