2003 STORM CHASE ACCOUNTS

APRIL 6, 2003: SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA (Strong Cells...Large Hail)

Brian Thalken, Jim Kaiser, and I initially targeted the Ardmore, OK area late Sunday morning.  The pattern today appeared quite favorable for supercells and possibly a few tornadoes, with a dryline/warm front intersection moving through Central Oklahoma, and a strong upper-level jet streak spreading east across the warm sector.  Theoretically, we were hoping that cells which initiated off of the dryline would then move northeast, strengthen, and then cross the warm front, which would enhance their tornadic potential.  However, things got going early today, with cells initiating by 11am in northern TX and southcentral OK.  We got on a cell just north of Ardmore, OK and followed it east for an hour, but, plenty of other convection developed around this cell, and nothing was able to strengthen.  As we were moving east, a storm with a severe t-storm warning was making its way northeast through Marshall County Oklahoma, which was 30 miles south of us.  So we quickly made our way south, and by 12:50pm, we were approaching the base of this storm from the backside.  

As we drove south, we could see large hail along the side of the road, so we used a bit more caution when the intermittent periods of rain intensified.  There was quite a bit of turbulence along the rear-flank of this storm, and the base was slowly starting to fill in with scud.  We then parked a mile north of the rain-free base, and noticed excellent convergence taking place, with a hint of a broad scale circulation.  In addition, we found numerous hail stones the size of golf balls along the side of the road we were parked along.  What appeared to be a developing low-level mesocyclone soon dissipated, so we followed the cell northeast for awhile, albeit with much less enthusiasm.  After a stop in Atoka, OK to check out data at a library, we decided to follow what was now a line of storms moving east toward Arkansas.  It was obvious that this line of convection was for the most part pretty weak, so we called off the chase north of Paris, TX at about 3-4pm.  This day might have turned out differently if the cap would have been a bit stronger, so that convection would have fired during peak daytime heating instead of 11am.

APRIL 18, 2003: NORTHEAST KANSAS (Low-Top LP Supercell)

Brian Thalken and myself targeted northeast Kansas today.  We made it to an area just south of Marysville, KS by 3:45 pm and waited for initiation. A tornado watch was issued at 4pm, as TCu's began to build over the area.  By 4:50pm, a relatively large tower (compared to every other cell in the area) erupted southeast of Marysville, so we headed east in order to get on the eastern side of the updraft.  This cell fell apart, but a new cell rapidly strengthened over Seneca, KS and developed a mesocyclone...it had a long inflow/beaver tail and a great updraft tower which went through several cycles of intensification.  By 6pm, we let this cell move north, and observed a second low-top LP supercell over Oneida, KS.

APRIL 29, 2003: NORTHCENTRAL KANSAS (Supercell)

Jason Ehmke, Brian Thalken and myself departed Lincoln at 12pm with an initial target of Norton, KS.  By 2:45pm we crossed into Kansas, and decided Phillipsburg would be a better location to wait for initiation.  We met a couple of other chasers while we were at a gas station, and we all agreed to drive a few miles outside of town to get a better view of the developing Cu field.  Towers began developing by 5:20pm, but the cap was still preventing anything from strengthening...so we moved east with the towers, hoping something would break soon.  By 7pm, a large tower with a developing anvil went up 20-30 miles southwest of Smith Center, KS.  So, we went south down highway 281, and then back west on highway 9.  We then parked near Gaylord, KS and began taking structure shots (we were ~10-15 miles east of the supercell at 7:30pm).  

The anvil was very long, and the tower below it was straight up and down (e.g., not tilted).  Inflow bands then developed, streaming into the base.  The storm slowly moved north/northeast, and the structure only got better during the next 30 minutes.  The supercell began to take on a "mothership" appearance, with a long, rounded, stacked base, and a massive, rock hard, rotating updraft tower.  The Hastings NWS eventually issued a tornado warning for this cell as it moved north toward the Nebraska border.  By 8:30pm, it was getting very dark, and photo opportunities were basically over.  So we drove up to the base of the storm and experienced some incredibly strong RFD winds.  After that, we called it a day and began the drive back home.  This chase was a great experience...the supercell we observed was one of the best I have witnessed while chasing.

APRIL 30, 2003; NORTHWEST MISSOURI (2 Supercells)

Jim Kaiser, Brian Thalken, and myself observed two supercells in northwest Missouri during the afternoon and evening of 4/30/03.  CAPE values were very large this day (3000+ J/kg), but, shear profiles appeared to support mainly multicell storm-types.  However, as we approached St. Joseph, MO at 5:15pm, surface winds appeared to back slightly, which likely aided in providing a more favorable shear profile for supercells.  At 5:50pm, we spotted a thunderstorm moving over St. Joseph, MO.  It had a very long anvil, and the rain free base was widening.  Thus, we kept pace with this storm, taking various structure shots along the way.  This cell eventually took on LP characteristics by 6:20pm, but then it "died" rapidly by 6:30pm.  We didn't loose hope though, because a more impressive storm was located to our southwest, moving through Leavenworth County Kansas.  Se we drove back west to St. Joseph, and then took I-29 south toward Kansas City, MO in order to intercept this thunderstorm.

In order to gain an optimal viewing position for this storm, we had to drive through the forward flank downdraft.  We encountered nickel/dime size hail along the way and torrential rain.  Then, in text-book fashion, we exited the rain and hail core, with the low-level mesocyclone sitting right in front of us.  We were on I-29 at this time with no exits available for at least 3 miles, so we decided to blast south ahead of what appeared to be a developing wall cloud (time was 7:15pm).  This was an incredibly intense experience.  We observed a funnel embedded within the wall cloud, but it dissipated 20 seconds after we spotted it (location was ~2 miles north of Platte City, MO).  After we made it south of the updraft base, we stopped to take a few more pics, and then went east through Platte County Missouri.  The supercell looked terrific, from a radar-viewpoint as well as visually.  By 7:50pm, we reached Kearney, MO and finished up the chase watching the supercell moving off to the east, with a few CG's jumping out of the updraft and anvil every few minutes.

MAY 4, 2003; NORTHWEST MISSOURI (Supercells)

Jim Kaiser, Brian Thalken, and myself left LNK at 10:45am Sunday morning.  We decided to target the warm front/dryline intersection today, and ended up observing several supercells by mid to late afternoon.  We reached Marysville, KS by 12:30pm, and then spotted several towers developing to our south, so we then went east along highway 36.  By 1:40, a thunderstorm had developed just west of Atchison, KS.  We drove up to the base and immediately observed scud tags ascending into a rotating rain free base...this cell then merged with another storm and weakened within 30-minutes.  So, we headed east into Missouri...the updraft bases were incredibly close to the surface by this time, with scud literally getting sucked up into the updraft from the ground along the bluffs of the Missouri River Valley...this was fascinating to watch.

At 3:45pm, a tornado warning was issued for Buchanan County Missouri...the potentially tornadic cell was heading toward St. Joseph, MO, so we followed the cell northeast.  We observed a clear slot wrapping around the base of the storm, but it failed to produce a tornado...the decision to head northeast with this cell proved to be the biggest mistake during this chase, because it drew us away from the Kansas City, MO area, where numerous tornadoes were about to occur.  We started hearing word of all the tornadoes occurring 40 miles back to our south as we drove east from St. Joseph.  We quickly gave up on our current storm and blasted south into Clinton County, MO, targeting a tornadic supercell moving northeast.  After we exited the rain core, we immediately observed a wide, circular, rotating rain free base...a well defined clear slot was to our southwest, with rain curtains wrapping around the clear slot (a dissipating tornado was likely embedded within this rain).  We set up shop just east of Plattsburg at 4:45pm, and let the supercell move towards our northeast...a second RFD then surged around the base, with strongly ascending scud...however, this storm just couldn't produce any more tornadoes, as the RFD seemed to split the updraft in half, and the storm soon weakened substantially during the next 20-minutes.  

Another tornadic supercell was now beginning to exit the Kansas City, MO metro area to our south (much destruction associated with this storm), so we once again quickly made our way towards the south.  As we approached Excelsior Springs, MO, we finally reached the base...this thing was definitely an HP supercell.  We spotted a deeply rotating updraft tower, and followed this from behind.  At around 6pm, violent/turbulent rotation began to occur at the base, and our hopes rose quite a bit...but once again, this storm failed to produce a tornado, just like the last one.  We continued to follow the cell east into Ray County Missouri, but the storm steadily weakened during this time.  It appears that the cloudy air along the warm front persisted for much of the afternoon just east of the Missouri River, so, storms had sufficient instability to remain strong and produce tornadoes over the K.C. metro area, but then rapidly weakened as they moved east into a more stable environment.  After our chase was finished, we headed east into Kansas City so that we could take I-29 back north to Nebraska...as we got onto I-35 in Liberty, MO, cars were backed up for miles, trying to get into Liberty...but all the entrances into the town were closed due to the extensive destruction which occurred...things like that reinforce the need to keep chasing in its proper perspective.

MAY 8, 2003; NORTHEAST KANSAS (Tornado)

Jim Kaiser, Brian Thalken, and myself made it to our target of Randolph, KS by early afternoon.  Shortly thereafter, a severe storm with a tornado warning was moving through the Concordia, KS area to our west, so we decided to intercept this cell.  At 4pm, we were in great position to view the base, however, we went north on a mud-road, and Brians truck got stuck...luckily, for some miraculous reason, we got out of the mud (it took 30 minutes to travel down 1.5 miles of this road).  By this time, the tornado warned storm had moved off to the northeast (into a fog bank), therefore we decided to reposition ourselves back toward the east.  At 5:45pm, we entered Manhattan, KS as another tornado warned cell was moving east through the area.  We had no choice but to follow this cell from behind on I-70 (the FFD, which was likely putting down large hail, was directly ahead of us).  A violent wet microburst caught up with us as we were following the cell, so we had to pull off of the interstate (driving was impossible!).  

After the downburst passed, we continued east on I-70, and eventually entered Shawnee County Kansas.  A tornado warning was again issued for our cell, and we could view the rain free base from the interstate (no rotation observed).  After we went through Topeka, KS, we let our cell move away toward the northeast, and decided to target another cell south of us, which was moving northeast through Osage County (producing multiple tornadoes).  We quickly made our way to Lawrence, KS and decided to travel south down Iowa Street were we could then reach the rain free base.  As we approached 27th and Iowa Streets, a tornado rapidly developed about a mile or so to our west/southwest, moving over the southwestern portions of Lawrence.  This tornado formed at the edge of the parent updraft, where the clear slot could be observed cutting into the base...it briefly took on a cone shape (we observed it for several minutes, then the parent storm just vanished into thin air).  The city of Lawrence was pretty lucky, if the storm hadn't have dissipated so quickly, then the tornado would have moved through a densely populated region.

MAY 10, 2003; NORTHEAST MISSOURI/WESTCENTRAL ILLINOIS (Several Long-Track Tornadoes)

Steve Peterson and myself had a great (albeit long) chase today.  We targeted the Chillicothe, MO region, however, we continued to make our way further east into Missouri in order to better assess developing convection around us and to our west.  At 4pm, we decided to intercept a cell in Carroll County, which was soon given a radar-indicated tornado warning.  We missed a north road which would have put us right in front of the base, so we had to make up ground behind the cell...it had a large rain free base and a disorganized wall cloud.  By 5:15pm, we were heading back east on highway 36, and were now ~20 miles behind the storm, but managed to catch up, and at 5:40pm, we entered Shelby County, with the cell a few miles to our north (it had a large rain free base and possible clear slot).  There was another cell to our south in Randolph County which also had a radar-indicated tornado warning...it was beginning to dump precip into our cell, so we blew-off the northern cell, and dropped a bit south of Hunnewell, MO to get in front of the base of the southern cell.  

This supercell soon developed a weak tail cloud extending east from a small wall cloud...it also appeared to be outflow dominant (it turned out that this was the RFD).  We let the cell pass over us (with marble size hail falling), and then got back onto highway 36...as we moved east, we spotted rain curtains beginning to circulate around what was now an obvious low-level mesocyclone.  We followed the mesocyclone closely from behind, and at Monroe City, MO, the circulation tightened up and a tornado formed at 6:30pm (we observed debris in the air in Monroe City).  The tornado passed over highway 36, and then began to veer east, moving parallel to the highway.  We blasted east, and then stopped along the side of the highway, where the tornado rapidly intensified (awesome experience being only 1/4th of a mile from the vortex).  This tornado went from a needle, to a cone, then a cylinder, and finally a skinny carrot-shape as it dissipated.  At one point during its life span, scud near the surface was sucked in from behind the tornado, and wrapped around the vortex.  This tornado dissipated near the town of Hannibal, MO at 6:55pm (it was on the ground for 25 minutes, and tracked ~15 miles, +/- 2 miles).

After this tornado dissipated, Steve and I then tracked the supercell into Illinois.  We went north on I-172, and then went east from exit 2.  By 7:08pm, the low-level mesocyclone came back into view...it had a HUGE clear slot which towered high above the updraft base (it looked similar to the May 3, 1999 Oklahoma City tornadic supercell).  As we approached the town of Adams, IL, the circulation at the base of the storm tightened up again, and a tornado redeveloped at 7:28pm (~4 miles east of Adams, IL).  We then made our way north and east (road network was not the best).  The tornado began as a small cone, occasionally displaying a multi-vortex structure...after 10-minutes, it grew into a GIGANTIC cylinder (we were never closer than 5 miles from this tornado, but I would estimate it was easily 1/4th of a mile wide at the base...probably wider).  Interestingly, the low-level mesocyclone dwarfed the gigantic tornado below it, which shows just how strong this supercell likely was.  As we entered Kellerville, IL at 7:40pm, the tornado was now a full blown wedge, ravaging the country-side (we observed damage to several old houses as well as downed power lines when we crossed its damage path).  Our road network continued to prove difficult, and we lost our visual contact with this tornado at around 7:55pm...but we didn't give up the chase as we eventually reached highway 24, which went northeast toward Rushville, IL.  By 8:10-8:15pm, we once again spotted the tornado (which was still a wedge)...and by 8:30, we were just north of Rushville and observed the tornado becoming rain-wrapped (and most-likely finally dissipating).  Based on its visual appearance, this tornado would have inflicted heavy damage to any town it would have encountered, but thank-goodness this didn't happen...it had a continuous ground track of ~40-45 miles (lasting from 7:28pm to 8:30pm).  What a great experience to get a chance to observe this tornado for so long...it was my first wedge!...congrats to Mike Hollingshead for his catch today as well.

JUNE 9, 2003: NORTHCENTRAL NEBRASKA (3 Tornadoes/Supercell)

Brian Thalken, Mandy Aronson, and myself left Lincoln at 12:40pm today, with a target around Bassett, NE.  After passing through Burwell, we observed towers developing to our west and northwest...we checked radar/satellite/surface data, and saw that a cell was beginning to develop in Keya Paha County Nebraska...so we ignored the towers to our west and continued north to Bassett.  The cell to our north rapidly developed into a classic supercell (both visually and on radar) as we approached it from the south.  At 5:05pm, we drove a few miles east/northeast of Bassett in order to get a better viewing angle of the base and updraft (a large, circular anvil was present above the cylindrical updraft tower).  The rain-free base continued to widen, and took on a circular, bowl shaped appearance at 5:40pm.  Then, weak rotation was observed at the base, with a clear slot starting to "cut" into the updraft...a rotating column/tube of dust was observed under the rotating base at 6:01pm.  We decided to drive further northeast in order to keep up with the base of the storm, observing several more weak tornadoes during this time.  By 6:40pm, a new, more well-defined wall cloud developed, and we approached it from the west.  The circulation was very strong within this wall cloud, and appeared to be tightening up into a tornado, but it couldn't manage to produce (we were about 1/4th mile west of this wall cloud...would have been great video if it produced a tornado).

At 7pm, we repositioned back to the southeast, and then headed east on highway 20.  As we approached Stuart, NE, a new area of rotation under the base of the supercell developed, and soon led to a large funnel at 7:03pm.  We headed north through Stuart toward the low-level mesocyclone, and at 7:06pm, the funnel became more vertical and reached the ground.  The tornado widened a bit into an "elephant trunk"...it took on a ghostly-white color and we could observe the entire parent updraft column above the tornado...very photogenic.  This tornado moved east a mile or two, and then dissipated at 7:15pm.  We then made our way toward Atkinson, NE...during this time, the supercell developed another low-level mesocyclone...we went east through Atkinson at 7:30pm, and again approached the new wall cloud from the west.  The rear-flank downdraft was extremely strong, and we could observe violent rotation at the base of the storm 1-2 miles immediately east of our location...another tornado had formed, sucking up huge amounts of dust in front of us.  We kept moving east behind the tornado, and the RFD continued to strengthen, with gustnadoes forming from time to time...eventually, we couldn't go any further east because the RFD winds began to knock trees down into the road.  From here, we made our way east toward O'Neill, NE, traveling next to the clear-slot the whole time.  Scud bombs erupted several times under the flanking line, with shear funnels forming and dissipating occasionally.  We decided to call off the chase once we reached O'Neill, since it was impossible to get to the other side of the storm (we would of had to driven underneath the rotating base...which would have been a foolish thing to do).

JUNE 23, 2003: WESTERN-NORTHEAST NEBRASKA (Supercell)

Brian Thalken and myself observed several tornado warned supercells at and after sunset.  No tornadoes were observed, but chasing these storms at night was just as intense.

JUNE 24, 2003: SOUTHWEST IOWA (Supercell)

A solo chase today (storm chase burn-out had set in for me and I didn't feel like traveling hundreds of miles...thus, missed the big tornado event in South Dakota).  A supercell developed just across the Missouri River in Iowa at around 2-3 pm, so I headed east and within 10 minutes could observe a strongly rotating updraft.  This storm moved due north and appeared like it was going to produce a tornado any second.  However, precip started to wrap around the updraft and I lost view of the base...as that happened, a report that Eppley Airfield in Omaha had spotted a tornado on the ground...oh well.  Still...this storm was very photogenic...and also produced some of the most intense CG lightning I have ever observed.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2003: CENTRAL NEBRASKA (Supercell)

Brian Thalken, Jason Ehmke, and myself left Lincoln, NE at around noon and decided to target an area around St. Paul, NE.  Mid-level cloudiness was persistent during most of the drive west, which had us a bit concerned as to whether the warm sector would destabilize sufficiently for intense thunderstorm development.  We decided to sit and wait for initiation just west of St. Paul at around 3:30 pm, with skies finally becoming partly sunny, which gave us a little more hope.  At 4:30 pm, we noticed a 40 dBZ radar echo (via Brian's laptop), which was located about 30 miles to our west/southwest.  Then, at 4:45 pm, the mid-level cloudiness totally cleared out and we spotted an intense updraft tower associated with the radar echo.  We decided to move west in order to view the base of the storm.  

This storm had some nice structure, including a strong updraft tower, a long anvil, and an agitated rain free base.  The RFB cycled a few times, with scud being sucked into the base from the FFD...and a broad area of rotation developed.  However, every time a wall cloud tried to develop, it was never favorably collocated with the main updraft tower (it was skewed back toward the flanking line)...thus, this storm initially appeared to be a multicell/supercell hybrid.  The storms northeast progression eventually increased, so we moved east and north...trying to navigate an increasingly unfavorable road network.  We had to turn north into some "sand-hillish" type terrain, and our rock-road turned into a clay road, so we parked up on top of a hill and watched the storm slowly dissipate at sunset (it had a nice rounded, semi-striated base with a mushy updraft tower...and possibly a small, occluding low-level mesocyclone).