Gorky

I'm in Orienta at the moment. Cell to me WSW seems to be trying to root. Best so far after a number of failed attempts. I'm in a good position if this does go severe. You can follow my icon on Spotter network for those who want..

A few photo's from my chase. Guess we pretty much saw the same storms. I'd originally been camped at Fort Morgan and would have been on the Northern Tor Warned cell if I hadn't gotten impatient. As it is I went too far south so only saw the tornadoes from a distant. Tornado 1 started a large Dust swirl about 15 miles NW of me. At this point, my camera was still in my bag and I tried to video it whilst driving but at that range I doubt you can see anything. It was starting to wrap in rain when I got my camera out and changed lenses (all whilst still driving :o) so the shot is about the best I got. The next tornado was a very brief dust swirl followed shortly by a needle funnel. The pic is pretty crapppy so I didn't upload it. I possibly saw another but I'm gonna call it a rain shaft for now. It just appeared to be connected to a slight lowering and it may possibly have been rain wrapping around a weak rope tornado. The rest of the day was about the lightning. As I was driving towards Kirk, Co, a massive bolt came down right behind town from my vantage point. Almost immediately a massive plume of smoke was visible. As I drove into town the volunteer fire officer was leaving his fire station (just a hut) in a 40 odd year old ancient firetruck to race to the scene. I followed to the end of the road and at the far end, pretty much the entire field was ablaze. I can only assume a petrol tank was hit and exploded big time. As I sat some distance away at the end of the road, about a dozen fire engines from across the county turned up to help fight the blaze. As I left to give them some room, an armada of chasers descended on town, including a DOW, the Weather Channel news car and a few others. I spent the rest of the evening taking various lightning shots with not much to show. I was either too far away, too close and in too much rain, or plain pointing the wrong way at the wrong time. Still got a handful of shots of which the best are attached.

What is it with you guys and tires.. Got a saboteur in your midst? :o Anyway, yet again, 2% Tor in Colorado works out a treat. I swear a 2% Colorado is equivalent to a moderate anywhere else... Had a pretty rough day with lots of teething issues but now resolved. I was hoping for a leisurely chase to ease me in but never mind... I'll take what I got. Everytime I had a 50/50 decision I took the wrong one it seems and ended up seeing the tornadoes from a long way off when I really shouldn't have needed to. Not too impressive from that distance. I even managed to only get 3 decent lightning shots in Goodland as bolts were crashing everywhere I wasn't aiming at and I was having trouble keeping the camera out of the rain. Can't complain with that result from a See Text though

I'm at a rest stop east of Burlington midway to Goodland. Not sure I'll risk a coring to get back. Gonna decide on whether to stay here and do lightning photography, or head to Goodland and set up there. It's only 10 miles away but this line is advancing so slow.... Did any of you guys see the oil tank explosion by Kirk btw? got hit my lightning and went boom Half the field was on fire after that!

Saw a couple of high based rope tornadoes just after my last post. Literally clicked submit, looked up and saw a distant dust swirl. 15 miles away so not got great photos :/

I spent about an hour at Fort Morgan earlier. was my original target for the day, but I bailed due to the grunge in the area... just wasn't feeling it thought it'd be better to head south and at least get closer to tomorrows target! Ooops....

I liked the look of the models for today so left Yellowstone a little earlier than planned to put a few more miles in and made it to Laramie, Wyoming overnight. Going to take a short trip east to Cheyenne where I know I have a 3G connection rather than the slow one I have right now and I'll check the models properly. I've seen plenty of tornadoes last year on May26th which started as a 2% day so I'm never going to rule out anything on a day like today. Wouldn't be surprised to see an upgrade to a slight risk.

I'm aiming to be back in the plains for Wednesday Evening. Will be leaving Yellowstone late Monday and staying in Either Cody, if they've cleared the 20ft deep avalanche off the road from the East Entrance, or heading south to Jackson. I'm keeping an eye on a more northern play for Wednesday with upslope flow just east of Denver as that would be easier for me to travel to. 50 dews would be enough for some storms there. However, I have very poor signal here in Yellowstone so cannot really check the models (a minute or 2 per image to load) and this has likely changed by now Amazing up here.. Had some light snow earlier and the walkways were covered in ice this morning. When I got onto the SPC earlier, I was on the outer edge of a See text 5% hail and wind risk too! The avalanche West of Cody added an extra 200 miles to my journey unfortunately... Just a small detour by American standards!

Looking at the models at the moment and the GFS is a bit more promising with a potential decent chase day or two Wednesday onwards. Still imagine it's going to be a trip to Yellowstone for a couple of days to start my trip off though Sat in Toronto Airport at the moment awaiting my connection to Denver and then the chase begins tomorrow!

Aye.. a bit of a nightmare for me as whilst the NW guys are in position to follow the current storm east perhaps chasing into Arkansas, Mississippi and through to the East Coast, I land too late and too far west to chase any of that. Think the first week for me is going to be sightseeing with the chance of some upslope towards the end of the week. On the plus side, if I'm up in the Yellowstone area, there's a reasonable chance of non severe or borderline severe thunderstorms with a backdrop of stunning scenery for a few days with that trough sat off the NW coast providing reasonable upper support. The lack of surface moisture being mitigated by altitude and very cold upper air temps. The day after I land there's 2.5K cape forecast in Idaho :o Models have consistently shown this ridge only lasting for about 5-6 days so plenty of opportunities for me later in the chase at least. Occasionally, the GFS has shown a completely different output with the northern plunge on the jet over Eastern US being no where near as pronounced and a return to activity by the 18th or so but I'm starting to doubt that now!

I was going to make a comment about the weather models showing nothing but blue sky death ridge for my entire trip but I just looked and the 12z model looks pretty good now! Model upgrade and a thunderstorm at home.. This day gets better and better

Heh... I just got in from work as it started to chuck it down (walked home with no coat so nicely timed). Unfortunately, the only windows with a decent view on my house face into the wind and as soon as I had the camera set up, sideways rain and very blustery winds came through the open window and drenched the camera and my bedroom carpet Lightning was pretty epic! Great storm though. Gotta wonder why I'm paying to go to the states to see this sort of thing when it's so active over here lately.

Hoping the 12z comes off as it shows the low staying a bit further north, and not scouring out moisture allowing for multiple chase days in Texas and OK for the first week. Sucks I'm flying into Denver on my chase heh! Could be an 8 hour drive for me on the 14th if that comes off! Was already planning a trip to Yellowstone in case of a ridgy period.. Hoping I can put that on hold now!

Bit of a shocker with the 18z model last night showing a nice death ridge from the 13th through to about TT360. Not a good time to look at the models for the first time in about a week The 00z is much better thankfully and hopefully more realistic. I'm sure there's going to be a down period of 3-4 days right at the start of my visit from the 13th as next weeks system will probably push the good stuff back into the Gulf but hoping the 0z is correct with it just being temporary before a recgharge!

Just been announced that a 3rd tornado has been rated EF5 from this outbreak. Interesting damage info has been bolded. 133 NOUS44 KJAN 051837 PNSJAN PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT...TORNADO DAMAGE SUMMARY UPDATE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSON MS 135 PM CDT THU MAY 5 2011 ...TORNADO FROM NESHOBA COUNTY TO NOXUBEE COUNTY ON APRIL 27TH UPGRADED TO EF-5 BASED ON ADDITIONAL ANALYSIS OF INFORMATION... BASED ON A REVIEW OF DAMAGE SURVEY DATA COLLECTED IN NESHOBA... KEMPER...WINSTON AND NOXUBEE COUNTIES BY METEOROLOGISTS WITH EXPERTISE IN VIOLENT TORNADO DAMAGE ANALYSIS...IT HAS BEEN DETERMINED THAT THIS TORNADO SHOULD BE RATED AS AN EF-5. THE BASIS FOR THE UPGRADE IS FOUNDED UPON SEVERAL OBSERVATIONS: IN TWO LOCATIONS...THE TORNADO ACTUALLY GOUGED OUT LARGE SECTIONS OF THE GROUND. IN ONE SPOT IN NORTHEAST NESHOBA COUNTY...THE GROUND WAS DUG OUT TO A DEPTH OF AROUND 2 FEET OVER AN AREA APPROXIMATELY 25-50 YARDS WIDE AND A COUPLE OF HUNDRED YARDS LONG. SIMILAR GOUGES... ALTHOUGH NOT AS LONG OR DEEP...WERE ALSO OBSERVED IN EXTREME NORTHWEST KEMPER COUNTY. WHILE THE EXACT MECHANISM THAT CAUSED THIS DAMAGE IS UNCLEAR...INDICATIONS ARE THAT THIS TYPE OF GROUND DAMAGE IS TYPICALLY ASSOCIATED WITH THE EXTREME WIND SPEEDS ASSOCIATED WITH EF-5 TORNADOES. IN THE AREA OF NORTHWEST KEMPER COUNTY WHERE THE GROUND GOUGING WAS OBSERVED...THERE WAS ALSO AN AREA WHERE PAVEMENT WAS REMOVED FROM THE GROUND. WHILE THIS TYPE OF DAMAGE CAN BE CAUSED BY TORNADOES OF LESS THAN EF-5 INTENSITY...THE FACT THAT PIECES OF ASPHALT WERE FOUND AT A SIGNIFICANT DISTANCE AWAY...BOTH UPWIND AND DOWNWIND OF THE ROAD...ARGUES FOR EXTREME WIND SPEEDS. SIMILAR TYPE DAMAGE WAS ALSO OBSERVED IN SOUTHWEST NOXUBEE COUNTY. FINALLY...EXTREME VEHICLE DAMAGE OF THE TYPE NORMALLY ASSOCIATED WITH EF-5 TORNADOES WAS OBSERVED. THIS INCLUDED NEW VEHICLES BEING MOVED MORE THAN 100 YARDS FROM WHERE THEY STARTED...AND BEING LEFT IN A NEARLY UNRECOGNIZABLE STATE. THE UPGRADING OF THIS TORNADO TO AN EF-5 MEANS THAT THIS IS THE FIRST EF-5 TORNADO IN THE NWS JACKSON SERVICE AREA SINCE THE CANDLESTICK PARK TORNADO ON MAY 3...1966. ADDITIONALLY...THIS MARKS THE FIRST TIME SINCE STATISTICS HAVE BEEN KEPT THAT TWO EF-5 TORNADOES HAVE BEEN RECORDED ON THE SAME DAY IN MISSISSIPPI...WITH THE TORNADO IN SMITHVILLE ALSO RATED AN EF-5. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS TORNADO...INCLUDING PICTURES AND VIDEO OF THE DAMAGE...PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/JAN (LOWER CASE) AND CLICK ON THE APRIL 25-27TH TORNADO OUTBREAK LINK IN THE HEADLINE SECTION AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE. COUNTY/PARISH: NESHOBA...KEMPER...WINSTON...AND NOXUBEE BEGINNING POINT: 1 N PHILADELPHIA AT 230 PM ENDING POINT: 6 SE MASHULAVILLE AT 300 PM RATING: EF-5 MAX ESTIMATED WINDS 205 MPH PATH LENGTH: 29 MILES MAXIMUM WIDTH: .5 MILE FATALITIES: 3 INJURIES: 8 (AT LEAST) SUMMARY OF DAMAGE: THIS TORNADO CAUSED A PATH OF EXTENSIVE DAMAGE IN NORTHEAST NESHOBA, EXTREME NORTHWEST KEMPER, EXTREME SOUTHEAST WINSTON, AND SOUTHWEST NOXUBEE COUNTIES. THE MOST INTENSE DAMAGE OCCURRED IN A SEVERAL MILE AREA FROM EXTREME NORTHEAST NESHOBA COUNTY INTO EXTREME SOUTHEAST WINSTON COUNTY. THE THREE FATALITIES OCCURRED IN NORTHWEST KEMPER COUNTY WHEN A STRAPPED DOWN DOUBLEWIDE MOBILE HOME WAS THROWN A DISTANCE OF APPROXIMATELY 300 YARDS INTO A TREELINE, AND THEN OBLITERATED WITH THE DEBRIS AND FRAMING SCATTERED MANY HUNDREDS OF YARDS DOWN THE PATH. THERE WAS NO INDICATION OF GROUND IMPACTS BETWEEN THE ORIGINAL SITE OF THE MOBILE HOME AND WHERE IT ENDED UP TO INDICATE THAT THE MOBILE HOME BOUNCED EXTENSIVELY AS IT TRAVELED. TWO TRADITIONAL FRAME BRICK HOMES IN SOUTHEAST WINSTON COUNTY WERE COMPLETELY LEVELED WITH ONLY A FEW SMALL PARTS OF INTERIOR WALLS STANDING. NEW VEHICLES WERE THROWN OR ROLLED HUNDREDS OF YARDS BEFORE BEING WRAPPED INTO TREES AND LEFT ALMOST BEYOND RECOGNITION. IN PARTS OF NORTHEAST NESHOBA AND NORTHWEST KEMPER COUNTIES, THERE WAS VERY HIGH END TREE DAMAGE WITH EXTENSIVE DENUDING AND DEBARKING OF TREES, ALONG WITH AREAS WHERE THE GROUND WAS SCOURED OUT TO A DEPTH OF TWO FEET IN PLACES, AND ASPHALT WAS SCOURED OFF PAVEMENT. THE NWS WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE METEOROLOGISTS THAT REVIEWED THE DAMAGE INFORMATION TO ASSIST IN MAKING THIS RATING...AND ALSO THE EMERGENCY MANAGERS WHO HELPED IN GATHERING ALL OF THIS INFORMATION. $$ AEG

Horribly fake The cars are still casting shadows from the street lights with a bolt of several million degrees and god knows how bright next to them so there's no chance this is real. Probably a viral video advertising something but what... I don't know. Daily Fail continues to impress with how crappy it is! If it was real, I want the tech from that CCTV camera which doesn't blow out the image completely so close to that bolt

Stream is working great. Looks like a nice storm you guys are on!

The RUC is promising showing a fair few cells popping in TX from north of DFW down into Central Texas. This would be a late show with initiation possibly not until after 6pm. The latest HRRR shows the cap winning however at least in Texas. If things do pop, the Texas play will be a good chase. Slow storm speeds, possible isolated cells and late initiation would mean for some nice photo ops. Outside chance of a tornado though I suspect it would be a structure, lightning and possibly severe hail chase if you fancy risking the nice new cars already

Getting in your car and outrunning it is fine if only a couple of people do it, but the worse place to get caught it in a car and most places would jam up if everyone tried to leave at once. There was an exception with Picher a few years back which was decimated by an Ef4. 75 people fled houses which were totalled, in their cars as they had a lot of warning and the storm was quite visible. That however was a town which used to be 20,000 and had dwindled to a few hundred people in size over the years. Not many people leaving and an over abundance of roads to escape on meant only 6 people died from that very violent tornado in that town. However, as a counterpoint, that tornado did then cross into Missouri where many people were killed mostly in cars. At this point, the tornado was rain wrapped and going through a heavily wooded area. Most people died in their cars after accidentally driving straight into the tornado some fleeing from houses which weren't even hit.

Chilling fact about this storm: More people were killed by tornadoes in 24 hours than in the previous 5 years combined Crazy when you realise that includes the Super Tuesday Outbreak and the rest of 2008, this years NC High risk outbreak, Greensburg Outbreak etc.

Sorry to hear about your friend. So many people have been affected by these storms it's unreal... As a complete weather geek who generally loves severe weather, this whole event leaves me feeling pretty confused. I feel guilty because I was actually looking forward to a bit of virtual chasing yesterday but didn't want to see anything like this :/ I've been ramping up to my trip stateside for the last month or so and now I feel somewhat indifferent about the whole thing. I'm never frightened for my own safety out there but my biggest worry is that I'll come across something like this. I do think stormchasers do a lot of good though so it isn't going to stop me chasing. You never know whether your report might make the difference between people being warned in time or not.

Tuscaloosa was only just hit by an Ef3 tornado 2 weeks ago, which was visible from the same tower cam coming through the same neighbourhood. That itself was a mirror of another F4 tornado which came through about 10 years ago also shown live on the same cam. Talk about Deja Vu. There were too many stong couplets going through Georgia last night for the toll from that state to not rise. It's still only just starting to get light over there so the full extent of the damage will not be known for some time. Makes me numb watching this. I was shaking so hard I could barely type whilst that Tornado was going through Tuscaloosa... You'd have thought we'd be immune to the effects of such things after all the tsunami stuff this year but it still gets to ya.

159 confirmed dead now according to CNN with 128 of those being in Alabama. Sickening... As much as I can't wait to get out there and start chasing, I hope to hell I don't witness anything like this. It's one of the reasons I've been pushing back my chases till later in the season. I'm much happier chasing in the Upper plains of the Dakota's later on than out in the jungles early season, even if the weather is less severe.

http://216.52.240.165/channel/helena-weather Stream just mentioned by the chaser on 3340 Has the wedge on camera

40 tornado warnings at the moment!