Stormchase USA 07

Manukau heads obs · Sat 21/04/2007 09:43

here is a chase tour blog that could be usefull to follow:
http://www.f5tornadosafaris.com/2007-blog/

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sat 21/04/2007 16:48

Geoff Mackley works for F5tornadosafaris.

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Mon 23/04/2007 21:05

Read the post by 'Amos' in this thread and see the photo of the damaged storm chase vehicle. These guys are experienced chasers and were caught in a Tornado in the TX Panhandle yesterday!

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12087

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Mon 23/04/2007 21:44

NZstorm wrote:Read the post by 'Amos' in this thread and see the photo of the damaged storm chase vehicle. These guys are experienced chasers and were caught in a Tornado in the TX Panhandle yesterday!

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12087

Picture of his truck there, pretty insane stuff.

Got the sigma 10-20mm lens today, so im sorted out now with a good big wide angle lens!!

Manukau heads obs · Tue 24/04/2007 21:51

check it out....close encounters by the sounds!
http://www.f5tornadosafaris.com/2007-blog/
makes you want to be over there now!

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Thu 26/04/2007 10:41

Looks delicious from Louisiana to Illinois today!

90 people injured in Eagle Pass, 6 killed by the border of Mexico in Texas!

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Thu 03/05/2007 20:18

For our first chase day keep an eye on the models for 140000Z. Thats 7pm on the 13th CDT. Yes, still too far out for reliable prediction. It can be a bit fustrating looking at models that far out.

Being May, there will be convection going on somewhere in chase alley everyday with atleast a 'slight risk' in the Day1 outlooks. Slight risks are still great for chasing.

Will be interesting to see how the set-up for this weekend pans out. Does look good.

Manukau heads obs · Fri 04/05/2007 16:42

a usefull, updated every minute, lightning strike map of the USA:
http://www.strikestarus.com/

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sat 05/05/2007 10:22

squid wrote:where abouts will you guys be and on what days? approx

That would depend on that the weather is doing, anywere in the Midwest!!

From the 12th May till the 26th for Spwill, Brian, and Ricky. Myself and Foggy are staying on till the 1st June, and I think NZstorm is also stayying on longer to chase.

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Sat 05/05/2007 10:55

Yeah.. great day in Kansas and Nebraska!!
Check out today's convection firing up over KS and beyond...
http://hadar.cira.colostate.edu/ramsdis ... geflt.html

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sat 05/05/2007 18:32

Models suggest a period 16th to 19th May could be interesting.

The south central Kansas town of Greensburg has been hit by a wedge tornado today, upto 1 mile wide with 60% of the town destroyed according to early reports.

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sat 05/05/2007 21:10

Good video here of tornado in north Oklahoma today.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DNL7ASvl4k4

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Sun 06/05/2007 14:30

Oh dear.

http://www.kansas.com/static/slides/050 ... doaerials/

Storm Struck · Unread post by **Storm Struck** » Sun 06/05/2007 17:53

Thats incrediable shows how widescale the tornado must have been and just heard it was up to a mile wide definatly an F5 there

.
So far ive heard 10 people dead and 63 others injured watch the news tonight.
Apparently the tornado was strong enough to even tear storm shelter basments apart

.
And we think our tornado's are bad when they crash through a house and throw a kune kune pig 30m into the air.
Cheers
Jason.

squid · Unread post by **squid** » Sun 06/05/2007 18:37

gosh they are getting a battering over there atm

Kansas, Oklahoma face â€˜another long nightâ€™
String of tornadoes reported after twister levels Kans. town, killing 8

May 6, 2007
GREENSBURG, Kan. - A fresh wave of tornadoes ripped through the Plains late Saturday, a day after a tornado all but destroyed this town, killing at least eight and injuring dozens more.

The Kansas Adjutant Generalâ€™s Department said it had confirmed reports of eight tornadoes touching down, including one that injured 11 people when it struck a pair of restaurants in the central Kansas town of Osborne.

Vienna Janis, spokeswoman for Osborne County Emergency Management, said the twister hit around 6 p.m., ripping the roof off the Circle N restaurant and smashing windows in a Pizza Hut.

Manukau heads obs · Sun 06/05/2007 19:12

UK chaser reports:
May 5th.

What a day. It's late again, 1.30am so this will have to be brief. We
woke up in Hays, Kansas to an amazing looking forecast. We knew there
would be tornadoes but there were 2 areas that looked to be good. One
was way up north in Nebraska, the other in Southern Kansas. The
storms would be racing off to the north at 40mph so after much
discussion we headed south. We got down to Pratt, Kansas and waited
and waited. While we waited we saw reports of Tornadoes in Nebraska,
this was not surprising but very depressing. After eating a quick
junk food lunch we finally found a storm worth chasing. Almost as
soon as we got on the storm it produced a wall cloud, the precursor
to a tornado. As happened yesterday the storm tried many times to
produce a tornado but every time it failed, eventually we blew the
storm off and dropped a little south onto another "Supercell"
thunderstorm that was moving towards us. By now it was starting to
get dark. The storm suddenly intensified right in front of us, then
almost without warning a funnel appeared. As we drove towards it the
funnel dove down and touch down.. TORNADO! At last a tornado, but the
storm was moving fast and the only roads available to us were dirt
tracks and we just could not keep up. Once again we dropped down onto
a new storm, not far from Greensberg, the town that was devastated
just yesterday. This storm was a beast! Out of the gloom we spotted a
huge wedge shaped tornado, this time we were ahead of the storm so we
able to stop and film it. As the storm and tornado came up towards us
we moved on trying to keep ahead. Just as the first tornado was
weakening another tornado formed not more than 300m from us. This was
a long slender tornado, just like the wizard of oz! When that tornado
weakened the original tornado re-appeared from behind a rain shaft,
it was stronger and very violent churning up a large debris cloud.
Again keeping up was difficult due to the bad roads. Suddenly our 4th
tornado of the evening burst from the clouds just ahead of us. We
followed the tornado until it died, only to be replaced by a big wide
multi-vortex tornado. By now it was really getting dark and once
again we ran out of roads. As we turned around to head away from the
storm we realized that another storm had come up behind us, for a
moment we were trapped between the 2 mesos. Through the rain we
glimpsed another tornado and this one was bearing down on us at 45
mph, now we were in trouble. We had to speed towards the on coming
tornado in the hope that we could reach another road, away from the
storm before it cut us off. We just made it, turned onto the road and
drove like crazy to get away. Once away from the storm we stopped,
everyone was high on adrenaline and excited, in 3 hours we had seen 6
violent tornadoes. It's a shame it was so late in the day, it would
have been nice to have seen the tornadoes in daylight. I'll send some
pictures when I get a better internet connection.
Tomorrow will be another active day with more tornadoes expected.
Must get some sleep.

Alister

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Mon 07/05/2007 00:27

Don't really like the look of the warming atmosphere in the US Southwest and the stabilising upper westerlies over the Dakotas northwards shown by the global models. Extended GFS shows an active trough develop right over Kansas and move then into the midwest.

Manukau heads obs · Mon 07/05/2007 06:13

yes,first few days could be quiet....time to get your bearings and get rested and in position for the next active period
but the ECMWF does have a upper trough over CO area when we get there, and the SPC extended outlook mentions that and says there could be a severe outbreak next weekend!
the UK chasers say that was likely to have been the best weekend of the year
100 tornadoes in total!
and they landed 1 day in advance of it!!
ps, Eastern Nebraska , got over 50 mm of rain from the system yesterday!

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Mon 07/05/2007 07:11

The Greensburg tornado has been rated an EF5. The first 5 rating since May 1999. And another very active tornado day yesterday with the SPC clocking up 93 reports!!! And to cap it off, a moderate risk forecast for today in the west of Oklahoma. I guess its the tornado outbreak we all knew was coming.

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Mon 07/05/2007 07:19

If you get the The Press, there is a small article about our stormchase team going to America on page C7.

Manukau heads obs · Mon 07/05/2007 07:35

I know the Sunday team were interested in some filming if they happen to be over there at same time...
Foggy,make sure are at the airport by 4:15pm

isnt the press online too?
(URL?)

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Mon 07/05/2007 10:32

Wouldn't be a bad idea to check out (what's left of) Greensburg on our first days then... first EF-5 since 1999?!

Manukau heads obs · Mon 07/05/2007 12:22

check out the blog update here:
http://www.f5tornadosafaris.com/2007-blog/
the national gaurd are blocking off access to the town that was leveled (but these chasers talked their way past)
maybe it will be more open in a week

gllitz · Unread post by **gllitz** » Mon 07/05/2007 12:26

Sounds like you guys are in for a treat while you are over there and I wish you the best of luck...I am jealous, for sure!

However, I REALLY hope the only tornadoes you see are the kind that are out in the middle of nowheresville in the middle of some corn field away from people's houses, etc...

In light of the recent devestation from the F5, have you guys discussed at all what you might be doing in case you run into that kind of situation? (God forbid and touch wood you don't!) I'm sure common sense and humanity will prevail, but just thought I would throw that out there...

(You guys are gonna get sick and tired real quick of corn fields and long dirt roads

)

Forgive me for asking this if it has been asked before, but for how many of you is it the first time to the States?

Cheers,
Glenn

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Mon 07/05/2007 13:51

To answer Glenn, it will be mine and Steve's first visit to the states. Not sure if Ricky has been yet. Excitement building!!