US Storm Chasing 2012

[NZstorm]

Tornadoes over central Kansas today.

[Orion]

A nasty-looking blighter indeed.
Why should the funnel form practically a right-angle and keep "functioning", can anyone say?

[jamie]

Yes roger said in his Facebook page they watched one for 46 mins that went from elephant trunk to cone to wedge to stove pipe to an amazing rope out. Can't wait to see the pics from that one.

[Manukau heads obs]

Why should the funnel form practically a right-angle and keep "functioning", can anyone say?

sometimes a tornado starts as a horizontal rotating column of air, due to helicity and wind shear
and then its the strong updrafts that tilts that column verticaly
as that weakens, it goes back to the originaly horizontal
just a theory

[NZstorm]

I thought this was a great clip from last weekends Kansas tornadoes.

[Richard]

Great clip alright,boy it suddenly got big after it crossed the road

[Willoughby]

Sorry for being a bit quiet on this thread - will have to upload photos at some point soon.

Last Saturday in southern Kansas bet all expectations with a number of tornadoes dropping. The Italian group and Cloud 9 tours did especially well getting close - but with damaged cars and windscreens!

Shot south that night and ended up in Oklahoma City to target Lubbock for the Annular Eclipse Sunday evening. Big storm around OKC around 1AM Sunday thanks to the potent low level jet in action that trained and developed new storms over the region all night. Here's a clip of the close bolt - just flash and BANG!



Here are some photos of Sunday's Annular Eclipse from west of Lubbock, Texas at around 8:36PM CDT. About 3 miles from the NM border. We had to shoot west from Lubbock because of cloud cover worries.




Chased eastern NM the next day and missed the Vega, TX tornado and supercell due to being behind a line of severe storms and failing to get in front in time.

Friday in Kansas was really good with amazing structure from a supercell spawning the above rope tornado on the video which NZstorm posted (we missed the tornado due to being at a bad angle arrgh and just not being alert enough). Some insane photos from that night from the southern cells around La Crosse, KS with twin night time tornadoes illuminated by lightning.

Moderate risk of severe storms today from central Kansas to southwest Minnesota. The main threat being very large hail. Sitting in Hays, KS waiting for initiation but may head slightly NW closer to the boundary.


http://www.crh.noaa.gov/gid/

[Orion]

Great photos of the eclipse, thankyou.

[Richard]

Great photos of the eclipse, thankyou.

I'll say ive even added one of them as my screen saver.

[NZstorm]

Interesting eclipse pics Foggy.


Check out the forecast sounding for SW Oklahoma(Altus) for Thurs 00Z. Forecst lifted index 12.8!
EHI 8.8.

[Manukau heads obs]

I saw this NWS message posted on another forum
..STRONG WINDS FROM POTENTIAL HEAT BURST EVENTS POSSIBLE FOR
LOCATIONS ALONG AND EAST OF HIGHWAY 83 THROUGH 2 AM CDT...

A LINE OF SLOWLY DECAYING THUNDERSTORMS MOVING INTO FAR WESTERN
KANSAS WILL FAVOR STRONG DOWNBURST WINDS UP TO 55 MPH AND A RAPID
RISE IN TEMPERATURES. THIS RARE WEATHER PHENOMENON CALLED A HEAT
BURST WILL CONTINUE TO BE POSSIBLE THROUGH MIDNIGHT CDT.
HEAT BURSTS ARE CAUSED BY DECAYING THUNDERSTORMS AND ONLY
DEVELOP IN AN EXTREMELY UNIQUE ENVIRONMENT. THE RARE SETUP
FOR A HEAT BURST IS DRY AIR DIRECTLY BENEATH A WEAKENING ELEVATED
THUNDERSTORM. WHEN A THUNDERSTORM IS WEAKENING AIR WITHIN THE
THUNDERSTORM BEGINS TO SINK. IF THIS SINKING AIR IS VERY DRY
AND HIGH ENOUGH IT WILL BEGIN TO ACCELERATE TOWARD THE GROUND
SINCE IT IS MORE DENSE. ANY REMAINING PRECIPITATION WILL FALL
THROUGH THIS DRY AIR AND QUICKLY EVAPORATE. AS THE AIR CONTINUES
DOWNWARD...IT WARMS RAPIDLY DUE TO COMPRESSION.

[Richard]

That's so interesting i wonder just how warm the air becomes?

[Tornado Tim]

That's so interesting i wonder just how warm the air becomes?

Unofficial reports of an stated an increase in temperature by 11°C in a few minutes.
I usually dont use Wikipedia to back up statements but this article here is very well cited on the documented cases across the world.

Quite interesting reading.....

[Manukau heads obs]

I remember we did experience sudden warm outflow air at one time when chasing in Montana I think it was
I wonder if the concepts can be flipped for the scenario in the day after tomorrow movie?, hehe

[Willoughby]

Holy heck - the last two days of storms have just gone off it's nut! Will post some from the other day but here's a few from Tuesday 29/5...

We left from Fort Worth, TX early this afternoon and kind of made it on time for some great structure on the southern most cell in northern Oklahoma.

Near Loyal, OK...


A bit further south 5 mins - you can see the dust being pulled by strong inflow.


Further southeast in Kingfisher - check out the hail shaft; it was where the 5" hail was recorded! Just nuts.


Looking SW at the severe storm about to hit OKC Metro, from 6 miles south of Kingfisher


Gapped it south more towards OKC because we didn't want to get near that possessed thing! Amazing structure.


Bit of video of the menacing structure and the tornado that popped out. Unfortunately had the wide angle lens on!

[spwill]

Thanks Foggy for the great photos + footage.

[NZstorm]

Nice stuff there Foggy.

[tgsnoopy]

Well done, sounds like you two are having a blast.

[Manukau heads obs]

great stuff!
sure beats anticyclonic gloom were are getting here!

[NZstorm]

Tomorrow still looks very good for Oklahoma with models showing a LLJ 30-40kts.

[NZstorm]

Interesting clip here of a structured supercell over Texas in May.

[tgsnoopy]

This video is private - Sorry about that

[Richard]

Bugger looked like it was going to be a ripper too

[Willoughby]

In Goodland, KS this morning and will be heading for the vicinity of Pine Bluffs, WY or Fort Morgan, CO shortly.

Montana to Alberta has seen monstrous tornadic supercells the last couple of days upstream of this vigorous western US trough - well done to those few that made the big rewarding journey up there like Roger Hill.

Today looks very reasonable around the WY/CO/NE intersection with a near-stationary cold front lifting north towards Cheyenne, WY by mid-afternoon and being the focus for strong convection as it slides east off the Laramie and Front Ranges. Low-level upslope moist southeasterlies, combined with less-than-desired H5 southwesterlies at 25 knots and an unstable airmass with CAPE up to 2500j/kg should be sufficient for a few supercells and the odd tornado. The dewpoint in Burlington, CO is 57F (14C) which is the equivalent of a 70F (21C) dewpoint in Oklahoma due to the elevation of 1300m+. There's a very good chance the DCVC (Denver Convergence Vorticity Zone) will get into gear today - which normally means magic!

[Willoughby]

Well the last two days in CO have been spetacular thanks to the DCVZ. Brief tornadoes on the southern cells the both days we chased. Will add some photos up in due course... right now making a bt of an overnigh drive towards Montana/ND for Friday's play.