Jeff left from Omaha, NE shortly after he was able to get out of work. His initial target was just east of Sioux City. CU started to develop and Jeff followed them to the east as the became storms. Jeff noticed that the storms would go up quickly but then never gain enough strength to sustain itself. Being disappointed with driving that far and seeing weak storms, Jeff decided to make a break for the tornadic storms around the MN/IA border. After awhile of driving, Jeff finally made it to the cells just south of the MN boarder. He then saw some good roatation to the south east of him and decided he needed to go more east to let it come at him and follow them from behond so he went on 500th street (dirt road to go east). Shortly after a tornado came down and was on the ground only for a few minutes. Jeff continued driving toward the roatation as the same torando came down on the road in front of Him. A beautiful lighting strike lit up the area just behind the tornado. Just as that tornado began to die off and new lowering was taking place. This lowering produced two very nice tornadoes and then became a multi vortex shortly after that. Jeff stuck with the storm as it began to get stronger. He was alittle worried being on a dirt road with only 1/8th of a tank left, but he didn't want to abandon the storm. The storm quickly gained strength and became a large multi vortex tornado just north of Keister, MN. Jeff continued with the storm despite the gas situation hoping to be able to make it to Alberta Lea to fill up there as he followed the storm. Jeff stuck with the large wedge and it continued until he noticed it hit some houses. Jeff decided to break off the chase and check on the houses that got hit to make sure everybody was ok. Powerlines and trees were down. Jeff arrived at a house and was able to help two ladies get out of their basement. They were ok, but their house took some damage but still standing and their barns and cars were destroied. After Jeff checked on the houses, a new storm came through and produced a breif tornado. Jeff was able to make it to Alberta Lea, MN and filled up.
Jeff headed out with friend Bryan and Nate and headed west from Omaha to wait for storm development. We were able to get to a beautiful cell that had amazing structure. The cell was severe warned and had some slight rotation. We ened up staying infornt of the cell as the shelf cloud came towards us. The storm quickly became outflow dominate and eneded up dying of. However more storm development was happening to our south west. We then decided to head south toward Central City, NE to let the storm come to us. The storm ened up becomeing tornado warned for a short time as it headed toward us. A beautiful wall cloud formed but shortly dispated. The cell had amazing structure. When it got near us, we headed to stay infront of it. The cell was moving to the south east so we had some good position. Alittle further south, we stopped to watch another wall cloud. A breif funnel was seen lowering from the wall, but never touched the ground. We then noticed in the gust front a nice gustnado. We headed toward it and let it pass behind us. Shortly after that the storm weakened and slowly died.
Jeff teamed up with Randy Cooper and John Moon and headed down to Oklahoma for a high risk system. We stayed in Oklahoma City the night before and in the morning headed west to wait for development. We headed to the first cell which was exploding. It went tornado warned and there was a report of a breif tornado. When we go to the cell it seemed to be recycling. We then had to back track to the west some due to bad roads. When we got to a good road we were about in the middle of two torando warned storms. We decided to head to the one to our southwest so it could move toward us. The cell ended up become an HP supercell. We got ahead of the storm and saw some great rotation. We saw a breif funnel that was half way to the ground but never ended up becoming a tornado. Alittle later we had a breif needle funnel as the meso crossed over the road. The storm then dropped a multi vortext tornado and just as we saw it drop we got hit by the strong rain filled RFD. A wedge tornado formed and quickly became ran wrapped. We could see the tornado had became a wedge inside the rain curtin. We followed the storm as it continued to move to the east. We noticed a nice funnel formed close to us that had some amazing rotation as it formed ahead of the rain curtin. Shortly after that, the storm becaome outflow dominate and ended up dying out.
I left from Omaha, NE on Sunday evening to join up with Randy Cooper of StormChaseMO.com. We then headed to Wichita, KS where we stayed at a Motel 6. While we were there we hung out with chaser Scott Bennet as we waited for the updated models to come out. On Monday we decided to head south and hang out in Blackwell, OK to wait for development. While there, we ran into a few other chasers including: Roger Hill, Steve Polly, Cory Sloan, and James Skivers. Most of the morning and into around 1:00 cloud cover seemed like it would be a problem. However, it soon cleared and we were able to get storm development to our south west once the cloud cover cleared in that area. We all headed west to intercept the storm as it matured and moved into our area.
We arrived near the cell and decided to head north so we could get ahead of it and watch it come to us. A quick short lived tornado touched down as we watching from the side of the road. Only using my streaming camcorder, since my HD camcorder is out of commission, I was able to stream and record that tornado live, being careful not to pop out any cords (power cord and firewire). As the meso got closer, multiple funnels started forming close by and one directly over head, so we decided to go east on hwy 11, since vortices were starting to touchdown to prevent us to go west to get behind the storm. We ended up have to try to out run the storm. Just behind us, a multi vortex tornado dropped down on hwy 11 just as we had turned east. Trees were snapping near us and dust being blown up.
During that time I had a hard time getting my camcorder out to shoot because the power cord was stuck in the door since we hopped in the car really fast when we saw the funnel over head. After I managed to free the cord held the camcorder out the window to try to recorded and stream what I could while Randy drove away. One suction vortice formed just to the north of us in a field across the road. After the storm passed away from us, a wedge tornado was seen in the field. We decided to try to blast north east to keep up with the storm because it was still looking amazing. We saw Reed Timer had the same idea as he passed us trying to get ahead of the storm.
The storm movement ended up being to fast to keep up with so, Randy and I decided to drop to the south east to make a play on the tornadic storm just to our south. We ended up intercepting that storm in Osage County Oklahoma, where data was very bad. We did manage to see a brief thin tornado in the field. We then decided to head north of try to make a play on the next storm. However, storm weakened as it got closer. As we watched that storm go by, we ran into Shawn and his TIV. As it got dark, Randy and I decided to head back and hope to have a nice lightning show on the way back. Video and pictures have already been upload on TRC.
Jeff met up with Randy Cooper of StormChaseMO.com and headed to Dodge City, KS at 12:20 early morning of 4-22-10. Finally arrived at 5:00am and stayed at a hotel there. In the morning Jeff and Randy headed west out toward KS/CO boarder for the tripple point play. Jeff was able to catch up to a tornado warned storm at the boarder, but it quickly died down. They then decided to head toward a severe storm to the south west of Lakin, KS. Jeff and Randy quickly got to the south east side of the storm just as it became tornado warned. Jeff noticed a large wedge shape in the horizon where the storm was. It was too far to tell if it was a wall cloud or a large wedge tornado. As it turns out it was a 1 mile wide wedge tornado. As it got closer to Lakin, KS the tornado became rain wrapped. Jeff and Randy headed toward the rotation where there was violent rotation seen within the rain. Jeff continued north east with the storm where he saw 2 different nice short lived stove pipe tornadoes. As they continued with the storm, another large wedge shaped tornado was seeing in the rain. Just as that tornado died, a storm to the south east had a newly formed stove pipe tornado. This tornado lasted for about 10 minutes while a small satalite tornado touchdown breifly. Jeff was able to stream this tornado live. Jeff will be posting video and photos of the chase soon.
TRC left from Lubbock, TX around 1:30 and arrived in San
Jon, NM around 4 just as storms were getting severe. Jeff continued west on
I-40 to intercept a large severe warned storm. The storm looked great and just
as we got in front of the storm the storm changed directions from due east to
south. There were no roads leading south for at least 30 miles, so we decided
to head to another severe warned storm just to the north east. This ended up
being a good decision as the storm we were on became outflow dominate and
choked itself out. We got in front of a
nice storm and followed it to the SE back toward I-40. The storm had a nice
small meso that dropped a few wall clouds. As he storm continued to the south
east the gust front picked up a lot of dirt and spawned a few gustnadoes just
north of Hereford, TX. As we continued to follow the storm to the southeast, it
started to combine with two other storms just as it was getting dark. Jeff
noticed a meso with some lowerings just west of Muleshoe, TX and headed in that
direction until it got to dark. Once it got too dark to chase we headed back to
Lubbock.
We left from Omaha, NE around 2:00 heading toward Kansas
City to the Moderate Risk area for the day. Jeff and Julie ran into a lot of
traffic just north of Kansas City, due to a car wreck. After the traffic, we
had to punch through the storm to get in position just south west of Kansas
City. Shortly after that the storm formed into squall line making it very
difficult to chase since the storm speed increased. This storm had a beautiful
roll cloud. Dime size hail was seen with this storm as we let it pass over.
Over all this day was a very disappointing chase since the moderate risk for
the day gave high expectations.
We headed to San Antonio around 6:00 am. We headed out
around 5:00pm to chase some developing storms just south west of San Antonio.
The storm started to die around the Hondo area. Jeff decided to head north as a
new storm was developing. By the time we got there the storm was severe. The inflow
was very wide. As we got to I-10 at Boerne, the storm had showered quarter sized
hail. A lot of cars had skidded off the side of the road and were stranded in
the mud. Some cars also had busted out windows. We arrived at a good spot to
watch the storm pass by. A wall cloud was seen. Lightening was amazing on this
storm as well.
The day started late around 7:00 as we targeted a storm
developing just south of Lubbock, TX. While we pulled up to the storm, there
was not much room on the roads so we were had to pull on in the grass. It was
very muddy and we got stuck for about 10 minutes. We were able to spin the
tires out and continue the chase. The storm ended up dying quickly after so we
decided to head north to catch another developing storm. Just as we got north
of Lubbock, the storm became severe and had some rotation. We pulled up to the
storm and saw a brief funnel. Dirt was in the air as we encountered 65 mph
winds. We followed the storm until 9 as it got too dark.
TRC left Lubbock,
Texas around 10:30 and arrived in Wichita Falls, TX about 2:30. Storms started
to fire up on to the south west around 3:00, so we headed to them. We caught up
to the storm at Haskell when the meso could be seen. A funnel was coming just
as we got there. We continued to Rule, TX where we got in front of the storm in
perfect position. Another funnel produced as the wind began to pick up and
quarter size hail began to fall. The funnel pick back up while a wall cloud
began to form. A tornado came and a large plum of dirt was in the air. We were
about 500 yards from it when it touched down. The tornado was on the ground for
about 7 min before it died. We followed the storm to Stamford, TX where the road
stopped going east and met up with US-277. Jeff noticed another supercell that
had formed to the North. We decided to go after this one as the one we are on
begun to die off. By the time we got to it, it too was dying. A small funnel
high up could be seen as the storm started to dissipate. After this is seemed
like activity had stopped early. We headed back to Seymour to get gas and
eat. Just as dark was approaching, cells to the south west began to fire
up. We decided it was too far to the south to reach before it dark so we headed
back toward Lubbock. Video and pictures will be added son from this chase.
The chase day started very late. Jeff had work and could not get out of it until 6:30. By 6 the storms really started fireing, and two tornadoes were reported just north of Floydada, TX. Jeff headed out around 6:30 and caught up the the storm just as it was entering Matador, TX. By then it was getting dark and it was hard to see. The storm passed over and darkness came. When the storm passed very nice supercell structuer was seen as well as very nice mammatus clouds. Once it got dark we headed back to Lubbock and called it a day. Pictures and video will be up soon.
Chase Logs 
Jeff left from Omaha, NE shortly after he was able to get out of work. His initial target was just east of Sioux City. CU started to develop and Jeff followed them to the east as the became storms. Jeff noticed that the storms would go up quickly but then never gain enough strength to sustain itself. Being disappointed with driving that far and seeing weak storms, Jeff decided to make a break for the tornadic storms around the MN/IA border. After awhile of driving, Jeff finally made it to the cells just south of the MN boarder. He then saw some good roatation to the south east of him and decided he needed to go more east to let it come at him and follow them from behond so he went on 500th street (dirt road to go east). Shortly after a tornado came down and was on the ground only for a few minutes. Jeff continued driving toward the roatation as the same torando came down on the road in front of Him. 
A beautiful lighting strike lit up the area just behind the tornado. Just as that tornado began to die off and new lowering was taking place. This lowering produced two very nice tornadoes and then became a multi vortex shortly after that. Jeff stuck with the storm as it began to get stronger. He was alittle worried being on a dirt road with only 1/8th of a tank left, but he didn't want to abandon the storm. The storm quickly gained strength and became a large multi vortex tornado just north of Keister, MN. 
Jeff continued with the storm despite the gas situation hoping to be able to make it to Alberta Lea to fill up there as he followed the storm. Jeff stuck with the large wedge and it continued until he noticed it hit some houses. Jeff decided to break off the chase and check on the houses that got hit to make sure everybody was ok. Powerlines and trees were down. Jeff arrived at a house and was able to help two ladies get out of their basement. They were ok, but their house took some damage but still standing and their barns and cars were destroied. After Jeff checked on the houses, a new storm came through and produced a breif tornado. Jeff was able to make it to Alberta Lea, MN and filled up. 
Jeff headed out with friend Bryan and Nate and headed west from Omaha to wait for storm development. We were able to get to a beautiful cell that had amazing structure. The cell was severe warned and had some slight rotation. We ened up staying infornt of the cell as the shelf cloud came towards us. The storm quickly became outflow dominate and eneded up dying of. However more storm development was happening to our south west. We then decided to head south toward Central City, NE to let the storm come to us. The storm ened up becomeing tornado warned for a short time as it
headed toward us. A beautiful wall cloud formed but shortly dispated. The cell had amazing structure. When it got near us, we headed to stay infront of it. The cell was moving to the south east so we had some good position. Alittle further south, we stopped to watch another wall cloud. A breif funnel was seen lowering from the wall, but never touched the ground. We then noticed in the gust front a nice gustnado. We headed toward it and let it pass behind us. Shortly after that the storm weakened and slowly died. 
Oklahoma City the night before and in the morning headed west to wait for development. We headed to the first cell which was exploding. It went tornado warned and there was a report of a breif tornado. When we go to the cell it seemed to be recycling. We then had to back track to the west some due to bad roads. When we got to a good road we were about in the middle of two torando warned storms. We decided to head to the one to our southwest so it could move toward us. The cell ended up become an HP supercell. We got ahead of the storm and saw some great rotation. We saw a breif funnel that was half way to the ground but never ended up becoming a tornado. Alittle later we had a breif needle funnel as the meso crossed over the road. The storm then 
dropped a multi vortext tornado and just as we saw it drop we got hit by the strong rain filled RFD. A wedge tornado formed and quickly became ran wrapped. We could see the tornado had became a wedge inside the rain curtin. We followed the storm as it continued to move to the east. We noticed a nice funnel formed close to us that had some amazing rotation as it formed ahead of the rain curtin. Shortly after that, the storm becaome outflow dominate and ended up dying out. 
During that time I had a hard time getting my camcorder out to shoot because the power cord was stuck in the door since we hopped in the car really fast when we saw the funnel over head. After I managed to free the cord held the camcorder out the window to try to recorded and stream what I could while Randy drove away. One suction vortice formed just to the north of us in a field across the road. 
Jeff met up with Randy Cooper of StormChaseMO.com and headed to Dodge City, KS at 12:20 early morning of 4-22-10. Finally arrived at 5:00am and stayed at a hotel there. In the morning Jeff and Randy headed west out toward KS/CO boarder for the tripple point play. Jeff was able to catch up to a tornado warned storm at the boarder, but it quickly died down. They then decided to head toward a severe storm to the south west of Lakin, KS. Jeff and Randy quickly got to the south east side of the storm just as it became tornado warned. Jeff noticed a large wedge shape in the horizon where the storm was. It was too far to tell if it was a wall cloud or a large wedge tornado. As it turns out it was a 1 mile wide wedge tornado. As it got closer to Lakin, KS the tornado became rain wrapped. Jeff and Randy headed toward the rotation where there was violent rotation seen within the rain. Jeff continued north east with the storm where he saw 2 different nice short lived stove pipe tornadoes. As they continued with the storm, another large wedge shaped tornado was seeing in the rain. Just as that tornado died, a storm to the south east had a newly formed stove pipe tornado. This tornado lasted for about 10 minutes while a small satalite tornado touchdown breifly. Jeff was able to stream this tornado live. Jeff will be posting video and photos of the chase soon.
