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Note: This blog is generally NOT updated during chasing activity. To find out the latest happenings when we are out chasing, including live streaming video and current GPS position,
visit VORTEXpursuit.com Live.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Yesterday
 
Yesterday was a chase day for me (no tornadoes), but was also a devestating day across Iowa and Kansas as tornadoes kill 6 including 4 teenagers in a boy scout camp north of Omaha/Council Bluffs. My heart goes out to those affected with these tragedies. This line of storms produced tornado warning after tornado warning from Iowa to Kansas including warnings which blared the tornado sirens in Omaha.
I chased the storms yesterday and intercepted several tornado warned storms. Here is the report that I posted on StormTrack:
No tornadoes yet again for me but an interesting chase to say the least as I again bounced around from tornado warned storms from Valley, Nebraska to Plattsmouth, while chasing through the metro Omaha area during rush hour! I intercepted the tornado warned storm near Valley where strong rotation was observed. I continued east on this storm along Maple Street in northwestern Omaha where the rotation continued to be observed as it headed into Omaha. As the storm moved further north and then to the east, I broke off of the storm as it headed towards Iowa to try my luck on storms developing to the south and west. Noticing a few minutes late that the OAX radar was not operating, switched over to the Hastings radar and tried to intercept the storm near Lincoln. I didn't make it that far as I then intercepted a newly warned storm near Gretna where a funnel cloud might have been observed. Headed back into Omaha and then south on 75 to intercept another tornado warned storm headed towards Bellevue and Offut AFB. Realizing I was in the path of the storm, I quickly headed south on 75 while observing some rotation. Did not see anything really from this storm and as darkness fell, decided to call it a day and head home.
While tornadoes occured in Nebraska and Iowa, another Kansas town falls victim to a tornado as the town of Chapman (between Abilene and Manhattan) had many businesses/houses damaged and/or destroyed. The pictures above shows a picture of downtown Chapman and a picture of the city limit sign of the city I took in 2002. Tornadoes also hit the northern part of Manhattan severely damaging several buildings on the Kansas State University campus. The storms don't even appear to be done yet as another day of severe weather with possible tornadoes appear probable today in southeastern Kansas through Missouri and Iowa/Wisconsin/Illinois. For those wondering about my live streaming, I have temporarily disabled it as my video capture device hardware which links my camcorder to my laptop is not working correctly. That and I will be purchasing an amp for the sprint card which should allow for a better signal and better video quality. The streaming should be up again sometime soon. # posted by VORTEXpursuit.com Storm Chasing @ 6/12/2008 10:40:00 AM 0 Comments
 
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Sorry for the lack of updates
I have been pre-occupied over the last week or so between the kids, work, and storm chasing that has been occuring. As for storm chasing this week, I will be watching today's potential but I doubt I will be heading out. Tomorrow looks more like a sure thing for heading out to chase. Thursday, though, has my doubts as storms will be rocketing to the northeast at or over 50 knots (according to Bunkers). That and I have planned to be headed towards Saint Louis on Thursday afternoon for a trip with my kids and my parents for the weekend. My last chase on May 29th involved intercepting the Kearney, Nebraska supercell. I intercepted at the southern edge of town. Though I did not see a tornado, power flashes in the city provided evidence of a possible tornado. More later...
# posted by VORTEXpursuit.com Storm Chasing @ 6/03/2008 10:05:00 AM 0 Comments
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Chase of May 22/23
Wow, so many things I did wrong and quite a few tornadoes I missed out on due to positioning and getting stuck in the mud...but I did manage to see at least 1 tornado (the other was a rain wrapped tornado with numerous power flashes, though could not confirm a visual) May 22 ended up with me being stuck in the mud for 2 hours in the middle of nowhere Kansas! I didn't have a cell phone signal to boot, but I had my internet connection working so I loaded up the storm chasing chat room and asked people in there if they could get in contact with somebody for me to get me pulled out. Low and behold with their help, volunteer fire fighters and a nice gentleman with his tractor pulled me out. NW Kansas hospitality is wonderful and a life saver. Needless to say, no tornadoes observed that day as I missed the Hoxie wedge by a minute as I encountered down power lines along US-24 just west of town. May 23 ended up being a little better as I did get to see a tornado or two but a wealth of positioning mistakes and mistakes on my part cost me a few more tornadoes. If I would have been patient and followed storms that I had originally been on, I would have tracked the tornado near Quinter, and one near Shields, along with countless others... But I ended up in Ness County where I had very friendly encounters with LEO, especially with a sheriff and his wife who were in a marked patrol vehicle who I chatted with and provided radar updates for about 5-10 minutes showing him a supercell that was tracking northeastward into his county. He went off to the SE towards Ness City, and then I followed to boot a few minutes later. I intercepted this storm S of Ness City and then followed it north and then west, and then east, and then back north again where I reported a tornado on the ground NNE of town on the Spotter Network. I followed the storm east on K-4 where all I could see was power flash after power flash but no visual on a tornado. This tornado, I believe, turned into a wedge and headed for the Cedar Bluff lake. With nighttime falling, I discontinued the chase and drove back home. It was a scary site driving through the communities of Hays and Ness City with sirens going off, also with hearing reports of a large tornado near Greensburg (and I thought, not again..). Overall, if I could repeat this chase, I would change so much on what I screwed up. Even though I did not come out empty handed, I am not too happy with this multiple day chase. Oh well, there is always more to come this year... I met up with Fred Plowman from Olathe (he says that he sees me all the time on chases...and this is very true!). He showed me video of the wedge he got near Hoxie, KS from Thursday, quite impressive I could say. He also told me how he also got stuck in the mud on Thursday, not for 2 hours like my experience, but for 18 HOURS! Wow, I would have lost my mind then... I also waved at the TornadoLive team with Dick McGowan at the wheel as I always seem to see them every chase now-a-days too! There are always a lot of chasers out in these storms but these two I seem to always see all the time! Wicked! Tomorrow looks like a doozy forecasting, but I might be heading out for the chase, regardless, as it seems that a closer to home risk may be in store for some tornadoes along a southward moving front. A frontal chase...I am going to have to take a second look at that...more to come soon!
# posted by VORTEXpursuit.com Storm Chasing @ 5/25/2008 01:25:00 PM 0 Comments
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Chasing Today/Tomorrow
Be sure to check out VORTEXpursuit.com Live for the latest status on today and tomorrow's chasing activities! http://www.vortexpursuit.com/live.html12Z NAM from this morning showing slower storm motions, 500mb winds veering more to the SW (instead of the due S winds) for targets south of I-70, and dewpoints in the middle 60s. Instability is lower than on previous model runs, but should still definitely be a worthwhile day in terms of chasing. Stay tuned on VORTEXpursuit.com Live for the latest updates as the blog is usually not updated during chasing activity...
# posted by VORTEXpursuit.com Storm Chasing @ 5/22/2008 09:21:00 AM 0 Comments
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Upcoming Severe (THU-FRI)
It so far appears that I will be chasing a severe weather setup that is poised to impact the western portions of Kansas into southwestern Nebraska this coming Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, a surface low pressure system will deepen during the day as the 18Z NAM model run from today shows a reading of 982mb centered somewhere in SE Colorado or SW Kansas. Each model run has been moving this system a little more to the south and east which is good for me as that means a shorter drive than what was forecasted previously. A concern about the setup on Thursday is the high LCL levels which could lead to a much lower chance for surface based storms. I feel that the best chances for storms will be near the warm front/dryline intersect where LCL levels will be at the lowest; target as of right now will be along the Kansas/Nebraska border somewhere in the rectangle of Oberlin, Kansas and McCook, Nebraska to Smith Center, Kansas and Franklin, Nebraska. Any storms that fire along the dryline will most likely be elevated as LCL levels exceed 1000m. I will keep tune to the models and adjust targets accordingly. Friday appears to be a better day for obtaining tornadic supercells than on Thursday. LCL levels appear to be lower than on Thursday, but there is quite the difference between the 12Z and the 18Z model runs that has me scratching my head. I'll divulge more about Friday on future blog entries. So far, it looks like a go for storm chasing on Thursday and Friday as I intend to leave Gardner by 8AM on Thursday, hoping to head back into town early Saturday morning. Unless Saturday looks more interesting than what it does now, that is the plan. In other news, these blog entries are being cross posted onto my blog on the MyFOXKC Community Blog section. The official blog is on the VORTEXpursuit.com Storm Chasing website at www.vortexpursuit.com/blog.html . There is a video on LiveLeak that has caught my eye as my kids think it is funny! Check it out as a girl screams for her mom as she was caught shoplifting and being held outside of a store: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cbc_1210935918
# posted by VORTEXpursuit.com Storm Chasing @ 5/20/2008 03:15:00 PM 0 Comments
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Today's Severe
I have decided to sit out any chasing today... This comes after a lot of factors that weren't coming together to warrant any tornado potential. There were a lot of things that turned me off to the system, most notably was the unidrectional wind profile above 850mb. This thing was screaming at my face as a potential squall line. Also of note is the very relatively dry 700mb layer, with relative humidities at or around 10-30% for the extent of the frontal system. Surface moisture was there, but the mid layer moisture just wasn't around to help the storms sustain themselves. Looks like nothing on the horizon for a while, severe weather wise, so it'll be back to playing GTA IV and Mario Kart.
# posted by VORTEXpursuit.com Storm Chasing @ 5/13/2008 05:40:00 PM 0 Comments
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Severe Events of May 10, 2008
 It is always unfortunate to hear of the loss of life when it comes to tornadoes. It appears as though, that there has been 19 unconfirmed fatalities in Missouri and Oklahoma as a result of a single long-track supercell that spawned multiple tornadoes from Chetopa, Kansas to the Ozarks of Missouri. This long-tracked supercell was just barely inside of the original Day 1 SPC Convective Outlook area for tornadic activity (right on the edge of the 2% line--see map on left). This supercell and spawned tornadoes did extensive damage to the town of Picher, Oklahoma, which is located right on the Kansas/Oklahoma State Line along US Highway 69. 5 people were killed in the community. As the storm progressed eastward into Missouri, it did a number on westbound cars on I-44 as many had spidered windshields and the such from the golf ball sized hail reported along the highway. The storm went on into Newton County, Missouri, causing at least 13 unconfirmed fatalities near the towns of Racine and Seneca. The very deadly year for tornadoes continues...my thoughts are with those who were affected by the storms. I managed to get out and chase this event. I managed to photograph one tornado near Oswego, Kansas and tried my best to intercept the long-tracked supercell near Chetopa but the speed of the storm combined with the east-southeasterly movement made it impossible for intercept. Chase log is up at: http://www.vortexpursuit.com/2008-0510.html# posted by VORTEXpursuit.com Storm Chasing @ 5/11/2008 01:44:00 AM 0 Comments
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