Turbulent Storm
  • Home
  • Storm Chasing
  • Media/Licensing
  • Travel
  • Photography/Video
  • Resources
  • About/Contact Me

November 17th, 2013 - NE. Illinois Chase

12/9/2013

0 Comments

 
This event was one that was shown for several days on model guidance, and was one I was watching for a potential chase. There were some differences in timing, with some model guidance much faster than others. This difference in timing had a significant impact on what locations would experience the significant severe weather that was to occur. As time rolled on and we moved to within a day or so of the event model guidance came into better agreement on timing, with initiation of storms expected to occur near the IA/IL and MO/IL border, sweeping east through the day, with most of the area between the Mississippi River and Appalachian Mountains in play for a significant late season severe weather event. 

The day of...I was prepared to chase, but decided not to head south out of the Chicago metro area as my home turf was also in the highest risk area. Severe storms quickly developed near the aforementioned border region during the mid-morning hours. These storms quickly became supercells as they raced northeast. Storms had made it to about a DeKalb-Peoria-St. Louis line when numerous tornado warning started to be issued. Shortly after warnings were issued, what ended up being a long track EF-4 tornado moved through Washington, IL. At this point up north where I was at home activity was becoming increasingly linear, thus I made a last minute decision to make the drive to the far southern suburbs of Chicago. My target was where the Washington tornadic supercell would likely track, somewhere in the Joliet-Frankfort area, which is along the rural/urban border of the metro area. I knew waiting to the last minute would be cutting it close, but it was worth a try. Driving down to my target area I pretty much drove through the core of a severe warned line of storms almost the whole way down, which ended up being slightly over an hour drive. I encountered some wind, wind damage and blocked roads along the way, which added some time to the trip.

I made it down to just southwest of Frankfort, IL just as the tornadic supercell was moving in. All I was able to see was a wall of rain, with signs of wrapping rain curtains. I then turned east on Seger Rd where I was over taken by the storm. Wrapping rain curtains where now clearly visible at my location, in addition to debris, and changes in wind direction. I continued to push east where I then encountered damaging inflow winds, likely in the range of 70-80MPH, with damage occurring all around and flying debris. Conditions eventually improved after a while.

After the storm passed I re-traced my drive back west to check out damage from the inflow and see if there was any tornado damage. There was widespread tree damage, some damage to houses/outbuildings and of misc things in the area that was affected by the inflow winds. Zig-zagging around to the west I hit the tornado path. Houses and outbuildings were damaged and several high tension metal electrical towers were folded over. The damage was was not terribly wide, and it was oriented in a southwest/northeast direction, and went off in the direction of where I encountered aforementioned conditions.

The NWS Chicago completed a survey of this area the following day and found that an EF-2 moved from south of Manhattan to southwest of Frankfort. The end-point and end-time of the tornado in their survey was where I was located (Based on GFS data) when over-taken and experiencing the aforementioned conditions. Thus, as I thought at the time might be the case, I likely was either very close to or directly hit by the weakening tornado. 
Chase Statistics:
Tornadoes: 1
Wind: 70-80MPH
Hail: 0.25" (Pea size)
SPC Severe Weather Reports:
Picture
0 Comments

October 4th, 2013 - E. Nebraska/W. Iowa Chase

10/9/2013

0 Comments

 
Many had been watching this day well in advance as a possible chase day. Heading into the day models were struggling at first with the exact placement and timing of the system, but eventually came to agreement the day
before the event. All ingredients were in place, including moisture and instability, which are many times a question mark this far north at this time of year. The biggest concerns were the possibility of lingering cloud and convective debris from the previous night’s storms, storm initiation timing and frontal speed. In the end none of the possible concerns ended up being a significant issue. 

I ended up partnering up with Adam Lucio and a friend of his. We left his house around 3:30AM with sights set on the NE/IA border area. Usually with a chase in that area you wouldn't expect so early of a start, but models had been trending west/slower with the system, thus we wanted ample time to reach our destination and additional "wiggle room" to move around if needed. On our way out to the target area we started out the day with a "pre-chase".
Interesting severe warned elevated storms greeted us on I-80 east of Des Moines. These storms had some nice structure. One of the storms which was just south of I-80 looked interesting enough for us to make a detour south to take a look at it. The storm had some interesting structure, a lowering for a time and penny sized hail. 
 
We then continued west and made it to Council Bluffs by late morning, where we grabbed some food and sat for a bit. We then decided to make a jump north to Missouri Valley, IA. We sat at this location for a brief time before deciding to head west towards a developed agitated CU field. While heading west a few storms started to develop just ahead of the cold front, and near the warm front. The storms struggled for a time, but eventually started to
mature. A storm near Stanton, NE looking interesting and we decided to make a run at time. While closing in on the storm a second storm had developed immediately to its south, and both showed some rotation. As we approached the storms the northern storm had a wall cloud, as did the southern one. We took a jog south to make a play on the southern storm, but it started to weaken and ended up being ingested by the more dominant northern storm. We make the quick turn-around and jumped back north on some side roads, eventually making it to the north/south Route 15, which goes through Wayne, NE. Driving northward a rain-wrapped tornado quickly developed off to our
west. As we continued north the tornado quickly grew in size, and quickly approached. Our initial plan was to get ahead and north of it, giving us a nice view. The forward speed and width of the tornado didn't allow that happen
though. We ended up having to throw it in reverse as we were not going to make it north before it hit. While in the process of moving back south we ended up getting caught in the outer part of the circulation and low level inflow, which blew out the back window and ripped a rain guard off the driver’s side window. We ended up watching the tornado pass and pull away to the northeast. We ended up making a quick drive west to the nearest town to make a quick patch for the back window. 

While in the process of making the fix two new tor warned cell were close to us, one to the north moving over the same areas affected by the previous storm we were on, and another was to our east pushing across the Missouri River. We decided to hit the road again and make a play on the northern cell, which was a bit closer. We made it to this cell as it pushed towards the SD border, west of Sioux City. The storm had a lowering, but it wasn't doing much and it was going to push across the Missouri River and into a more populated area, so we dropped off of it. We then continued east on Route 20 to try and make a play on the far eastern tor warned cell. Along the way we crossed the damage path of the Moville/Correctionville EF-4 tornado, which hit just a short time before we made it there. We eventually were able to get even with the storm, but ended up calling it a chase after the other storm development started to make things messy. We ended up meeting up with several others in Fort Dodge, IA for a celebratory dinner, before hitting the road for home.

​
Some pictures and video from this chase can be viewed below.
Chase Statistics:
Tornadoes: 1
Wind: NA
​Hail: 0.75" (Penny size)
SPC Severe Weather Reports:
Picture
0 Comments

July 20th, 2013 - NE. Illinois Chase

10/9/2013

0 Comments

 
The day featured an impromptu chase. There was a chance for some storms, but nothing significant was expected. During the late afternoon a storm developed near the intersection of a southeastward moving boundary and a southwestward moving lake breeze. The storm struggled for a while as it passed east of Rockford, but before too long it matured and strengthened. Given it wasn't too far away and it was moving southeast towards my general direction, I decided to head west and make a play on it. While heading west the storm continued to strengthen and showed some mid-level rotation, as it pushed southeast long the intersection of the boundary and lake breeze. After jumping around and trying to get ahead of it, I let the storm pass over as I sat near South Elgin. The storm featured hail up to around penny size, near 60MPH winds, tons of CTG lightning and heavy flooding rains.
Chase Statistics:
Tornadoes: 0
Wind: 50-60MPH
Hail: 0.75" (Penny size)
SPC Severe Weather Reports:
Picture
0 Comments

June 12th, 2013 - N. Illinois Chase

6/13/2013

0 Comments

 
Going into the chase for this day the models had shown some risk for several days in advance, but the threat really didn't start to look chase worthy until a day or two before.  What was a moderate risk ended up being upgraded to a high risk the morning of the 12th.

Given this was going to be a local chase I decided this would be a good opportunity to take my grandfather out on his first chase. We left just after 2PM with an initial target just west of Oregon, IL. While making the drive development started to occur to our west. We ended up making it to Oregon around 3:30PM as some of the initial storms started to become severe. There was a warned storm just to our south near Paw Paw and another up north near Rockford. I quickly decided to head back east to make a play one of the storms. After trying to decided if I wanted to make a play on the northern or southern cells, both of which were now tornado warned, I decided to head to southern one as it was closer and would have more time to interact with the boundary in the area without being disrupted. We ended up making it down and decided to sit northwest of Sandwich, where we had a nice view of the storm. We encountered a ragged lowering, which had some inflow, along with rising motion, some rotation and a gustnado. Continuing to follow the cell east, we allowed the cell/line to catch-up as we entered Plano. We stayed within the line along Route 34 from Plano to Oswego...Along the way we encountered winds around 60MPH and hail up to around quarter size. After this point I decided to call it a chase and head home.

Some pictures and video from this chase can be viewed below.
Chase Statistics:
Tornadoes: 0
Wind: 50-60MPH
Hail: 1.00" (Quarter size)
SPC Severe Weather Reports:
Picture
0 Comments

May 20th, 2013 - C. Oklahoma Chase

6/4/2013

0 Comments

 
This was the third and final day of the three day Plains chase. We started off the day in Ponca City, OK where we had started the night before. Heading out during the morning we had an early target area around and south of the Oklahoma City area, more likely just south to stay away from the metro area. We made it down to Norman just after noon, where we stopped and met up with a few chasers. After sitting in Norman for a short time development started to rapidly occur to our southwest, with numerous discrete cells popping up.

We decided to make the short drive southwest to make a play on a cell that was set to pass just northwest of Purcell, OK. On the way down to this cell another storm quickly began to develop and take on supercell characteristics to our northwest, west of the OKC/Moore/Norman metro area. As we continue to advance southwest to make a play on the Purcell storm, the rapidly strengthening storm to our north started to show rotation and ended up being tornado warned. We quickly made the decision to head north to make a play on it.

While making the drive north I was following what was going on with the northern storm, and watched as the tornado initially touched down west of New Castle. Shortly after this we made it into the town of Newcastle, where
we were going to head north to get ahead of the storm, and let it follow just behind us, which would give us a good view. That plan was quickly scrapped as police blocked off the interstate, thus we were forced to take rural roads to
the east of Newcastle…The only problem with this was the Canadian River ran just to the east, and there were no river crossing other than the blocked interstate or a highway well to our south. Thus we decided to just take the rural roads and view what we could. While making our way northward on the rural roads east of Newcastle to tornado came into view, large and violent. We came to a stop just about as far north as we could, and watch what was now a violent EF-4 tornado move from our northwest to north. Pushing across the area in front of us, you
can see the strong outer winds of the tornado, showing up as a haze-like appearance near the surface and wrapping into the tornado. There was also the roar…It’s not like a freight train as many say, it’s more like the mixture of a
jet engine and a growl. That sound is something I’ll never forget. Still in view, the tornado continued to move east, now pushing to our northeast. By this point the tornado was becoming rain wrapped from our view, just as it was moving into Moore, where it was its strongest…an EF-5. Wanting to keep up with the storm/tornado, we quickly dropped south to Route 9 and then started to weave our way northeast. We finally caught back up with the storm west Shawnee, OK, but by this time the storm appeared to have weakened a bit and was no longer producing
a tornado. We decided to drop off of this storm and head south to what was another tornado storm to our southwest.

Making the quick drive south we made it to the next cell as it approached Stratford, OK. Upon arriving there was rotation and a funnel cloud, but it dissipated as the storm started to weaken. By this point it was evening and we decided to call it a chase. We ended up heading back north to Shawnee where we had dinner with a few other chasers and then stayed the night. We drove back to Chicago the following day.

This chase day also provided more firsts for me, though one unfortunate given the outcome…The Moore, OK tornado was the strongest tornado I’ve witnessed, rated an EF-5. This was also the 3rd chase/day in a row with a tornado, which was also a first. I’ll never forget the Moore tornado…The sound, the size, how violent it was and the unfortunate outcome.


Some pictures from this chase can be viewed below. Additional pictures can be found in the 2013 photography section.
Chase Statistics:
Tornadoes: 1
Wind: 40-50MPH
Hail: 0.25" (Pea size)

SPC Severe Weather Reports:
Picture
0 Comments

May 19th, 2013 - S. Kansas/N. Oklahoma Chase

6/3/2013

0 Comments

 
This was the second day of the three day Plains chase. We started off the day in Great Bend, KS where we had stayed the night before. We hit the road with a target area near the KS/OK border…Eventually choosing the
town of Medford, OK.  We made it down to Medford, OK just after noon, where we only sat for a short time before
development started. The initial development occurred just over the KS/OK border, moving northeast. We decided not to go after this activity, which eventually went on the produce tornadoes put towards Wichita. 
 
More development soon started to occur to our west, thus we decided to head west of town and set up on it. This activity was unorganized and slow to develop for quite a while as it pushed northeast. Eventually as activity crossed the KS/OK border and into far S. KS things became better organized. While driving on rural roads northeast of Caldwell, KS we witnessed a funnel cloud that appeared out of nowhere in front of us. There was a report of a tornado with this, but there has yet to be any confirmation. 

At this point storms had started to back build down into N. Oklahoma, with things becoming a bit more linear with embedded cell structures. We decided to jump south towards and interesting embedded structure moving towards South Haven, KS. After a short jump south we made it to the west side of South Haven just as the cell was moving in. There was an area of broad rotation, which quickly tightened up. Shortly thereafter a funnel cloud formed; follow by a needle/pencil tornado, which bounced around as it pushed east. The tornado lasted a few minutes as it passed through the field to our south, before lifting. We also had some nickle size hail. Heading back east to get out ahead of the area that was still showing rotation, we encountered very strong winds that were snapping tree branches around us.

Making it out ahead of the line, we sat on a rural road southeast of South Haven for a while watching the line of storms approach. A few storms at the tail end of the line in N. Oklahoma started to catch our eye, so we decided
to head down that way. At this point there were tornado storms occurring northwest of the OKC metro area. For a time there was some thought on whether or not we should attempt to jump south and make a play on them, but we decided not to given the uncertainty and unfavorable terrain they were moving into. Instead we dropped south and sat in a rural area northwest of Billings, OK, west of I-35. Watching the activity in this area for a while, most struggled, but eventually one cell became interesting enough to pursue as it pushed northeast. This cell showed some interesting structure at times and was tornado warned, but we struggled to keep up with it and eventually called the chase after following it to the KS/OK border, north of Ponca City, OK.

We ended up heading to Ponca City for dinner, where a few other chasers ended up meeting us. During dinner a new line of storms developed to our west and pushed east, eventually back building and training just to out south/east. At this point it was dark and we decided this would be a good opportunity to head just outside of town for a lightning photo op. We ended up with a great light show, as we viewed and snapped some photo’s from a few
locations outside of town. After things started to die down we headed back to
town where we stayed for the night.

This chase day also provided another first for me…It was the first time I’ve had back-to-back days and chases with
tornadoes.

Some pictures and video from this chase can be viewed below. Additional pictures can be found in the
2013 photography section.
Chase Statistics:
Tornadoes: 1
Wind: 40-50MPH
Hail: 0.88" (Nickle size)
SPC Severe Weather Reports:
Picture
0 Comments

May 18th, 2013 - C/S. Kansas Chase

6/3/2013

0 Comments

 
May 18-20th had shown some potential for several days, but looked somewhat iffy early on before looking fairly good as the days approached. The trigger was pulled on Friday, May 17th when I found out I would be able to partner up with local based chasers Adam Lucio and Danny Neal. The chase on May 18th was only my second chase day of what was a slow season thus far. 

We departed Chicago around 1AM Friday night/Saturday morning, set for the marathon drive to West-Central Kansas. The initial target area was just north/east of Dodge City, KS. We made it out to Greensburg, KS in the early afternoon hours of Saturday. After doing a little driving around the area figuring out where we wanted to sit, we decided to set up shop at a gas station on the west side of Greensburg. This location eventually became willed with the many chasers that were out and about, which allowed me to meet up with some familiar faces...along with some new ones. 

After sitting around for a while, a CU field developed to our west along the dry line. With a cap in place nothing too interesting happened for a while, but eventually a few cells did develop a push north...eventually becoming severe and tornadic. Even with this, we decided not to pursue them as more development was expected farther south in a better environment. After sitting around for a little longer more development started to occur to our west and southwest, as the cap continued to weaken. Now was the fan part...Which storms do we go after? Adam wanted to head north to the initial development from earlier, which was now well to our north. Danny wanted to play some of the middle activity, which was to our west. I wanted to stay put and wait to see what activity moving north out
of Oklahoma was going to do. After going back and forth for a while, we decided to make a play on the middle activity, which by now had pushed off to our WNW. When made it to the cell in a short time...It appeared to be struggling and didn't look great on radar, so we quickly decided to head south to make a play on the severe storms that had pushed put of N. Oklahoma and now into S. KS. We had driven about a mile or two south at most when all of a sudden numerous reports of funnel clouds started to come out, from the middle storm we had just left. Looking a bit better on radar, we quickly turned back around and back north to make a play on it...Which ended up being a good decision.

Driving north several miles, we finally were able to get a good view of what now was a nice supercell storm. The base of the storm was somewhat high, but this would change. We pulled off on a side road off of highway 183, to the
northwest of Kinsley, KS where we had a great view. The storm's base continued to be high, but started to lower with defined rotation starting to show up to our west. A persistent funnel cloud quickly formed, and eventually touched down. After this point, the tornado stayed on the ground for over 20 minutes, taking on many shapes, as it was back-lit by the lowering evening sun. We never had to move, as we were in perfect position to see the full life cycle of this tornado, which was rated and EF-4 based of DOW radar data. This tornado eventually lifted and we started to head northeast to get into position for another tornado.

Driving a short bit north and having trouble with police and DOW blocked roads, we sat on highway 183 and watched as another tornado formed and drift around in a field to our east. This time with the setting sun to our west and
the tornado to our east, it made for another back-lit display. After watching the tornado for several minutes, it started to occlude and back up towards us. With no east/west options available, we had to head north, but not before a close call with what was now a rope tornado. After getting a bit north we stopped once again where we witnessed a very long and roped out tornado, as it continued to the WNW under mammatus filled skies, before weakening.

We ended up calling it a chase at this point, as activity had started to from into a solid line. We ended up heading to Great Bend, KS for the night, where we met up with several other chasers for a quick dinner before shacking up for the night. 

There were a few firsts for me on this chase...
These were my first tornadoes of the 2013 season, and the first in over a year (4/14/2012). This was the first time I had gotten clean/tripod-ed video of a tornado from start to finish. The first tornado, which was rated and EF-4, was
the strongest I had witnessed up until this point.

Some pictures and video from this chase can be viewed below. Additional pictures can be found in the
 2013 photography section and additional videos can be found in the 2013 video section.
Chase Statistics:
Tornadoes: 2
Wind: 40-50MPH
Hail: None

SPC Severe Weather Reports:
Picture
0 Comments

April 9th, 2013 - S. Oklahoma/N. Texas Chase

4/13/2013

0 Comments

 
My chase partner and myself had been watching the potential for a multi-day period of severe weather for several days. Unfortunately due to work obligations Tuesday April 9th would be the only day we would be able to chase. We booked a round trip flight to OKC, which would allow us a full days chase. Sitting several days out, there were a few different potential target areas, but as time went on the dryline is SW. OK/N. TX, ahead of the southwestward moving cold front looked to be the best play.

We left Chicago/ORD Tuesday morning and arrived in OKC around 10:30AM. Looking over data on the way to pick up a rental car we saw the cold front moving in from the northwest was well ahead of schedule and already pushing towards the E.Texas/W. Oklahoma border. We picked up the rental car and a quick lunch, and quickly hit the road to our initial target area of Lawton, OK. We made it to Lawton by early afternoon, by which time the cold front was already pushing through W. Oklahoma. Sitting in Lawton for over and hour we watch a capped cumulus field develop around our area and to the south. There were a few attempts at storm initiation across N. TX, but storms were developing behind the front and quickly faded. Around mid-afternoon the cold front started to approached, thus we decided to head south towards Burkburnett, TX.

After making it to Burkburnett, TX we sat there for a short time before noticing a cell developing to our WSW along the cold front. We started to make the drive towards it when it quickly became undercut by the cold front and
started to fade away. On our was back towards Burkburnett we noticed the CU field had diminished across the area and to the north, thus we decided to call it a chase. There was still a CU field to the south, but it was clear that the
cap was preventing any development ahead of the front/along the dryline and that any initiation that occurred was along/behind the front and didn't pose any real chase potential.

On our way back to OKC we decided to make a stop in the Wichita Mountains outside of Lawton for a photo op. On our way up we passed the cold front and watched our temperatures fall from the mid-80's to the 50's. While driving through the mountains a few post frontal storms developed. We encountered high winds, heavy rain, small hail, graupel and melted hail/graupel...and temps fell even more, down into the upper 40's. From there we shot a few pictures and continued back to OKC for dinner and the night, until our flight back to Chicago in the morning. During the overnight and early morning hours several rounds of storms moved through, some which produced small hail.

Event though the chase was a disappointment and didn't produce any real chase action, it was nice to get out there again for the first time since 4/14/12 and it was interesting to see the drastic change in weather as we headed to the Wichita Mountains on the way back, as well as the hail at that time and the storms during the night/early morning.
Chase Statistics:
Tornadoes: 0
Wind: 40-50MPH
Hail: 0.50" (Marble size)
SPC Severe Weather Reports:
Picture
0 Comments

    Categories

    All
    2011 Storm Chases
    2012 Storm Chases
    2013 Storm Chases
    2014 Storm Chases
    2015 Storm Chases
    2016 Storm Chases
    2017 Storm Chases
    2018 Storm Chases
    2019 Storm Chases
    2021 Storm Chases
    2022 Storm Chases

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly