Tour 1 Tornado Alley 2024

[Tom Lynch]

As the team are arriving and everything is being put in place for the start of the tour, there are a lot of sleepy eyes.  However some of those sleepy eyes may be studying the outcome of the tornado risk in Oklahoma over the next 3 days.   It does look like some areas that have seen a lot of tornado damage may have another couple of days.  The SPC wording is '.SUMMARY... Numerous severe thunderstorms are expected to develop and move eastward Monday afternoon through Monday night across parts of the southern/central Plains. Multiple strong/potentially long-track tornadoes, very large to giant hail, and severe/damaging winds all appear likely. 

Photos and tour reports will be posted on this forum too.

 

[Ben Sainsbury]

Best of luck, could be a good/bad few days depending on how you look at it!

[Tom Lynch]

There is a fairly high risk that some areas may see some very damaging weather. the fact that its a week day might keep some of the crowds away but the roads can get busy.  

Edited May 5 by Tom Lynch

[ItIsGee]

Tour 1 Really starts with a bang!

The team and guests are currently camping in Wichita, KS in place for a severe threat of a tornado outbreak.  The SPC summary is rather long but a small paragraph took my attention to this....:

"This is a high-end environment. An upgrade to a tornado-driven High Risk was considered. There remains some lingering uncertainty with regard to the number of intense tornadoes that will occur. An increase in tornado probabilities will certainly be warranted should confidence in coverage and preferred corridors increase."

This mean its borderline High Risk and could potentially be a high risk over the coming forecasts depending on the model output data.

 

Good luck to the team today and as Sherrif Lynch said, photos and reprots will be added here as soona s there is chance to do so!

[Ben Sainsbury]

Hope all the team and guests have a successful but safe chase day! Today gives me El Reno vibes, where extra distance from the tornado/storm will likely be very important.

[ItIsGee]

I mean.... What a start for tour 1!

 

First High Risk of the season incoming....

[Dorsetbred]

Yesterday's preliminary SPS report:

[Paul H]

Hi all, a summary of the first chase day from Paul which I have permission to share from Facebook:

"Chase Day 1 for Tour 1 featured the first High Risk of 2024 in Oklahoma and Kansas. We targeted Western Oklahoma and watched the first 2 Dryline Supercells blossom west of Seiling with a great view from the Wind farm just west of Town. We went after the first one which sent us towards Waynoka, this Storm tried its hardest to put down a Tornado but a lack of surface winds was preventing this and the Supercell to its south was raining its FFD into the storm so we soon started the stairstep the dryline game and dropped onto the 2nd now Tornado warned storm near Cleo Springs. This had a bit more parameter space between it and another Storm to its south and with Tornado Sirens blaring near Helena it finally put a birdfart Tornado down but still a lack of surface winds and non existent LLJ was preventing these storms from the long track Tornadoes that had been in the forecast ( Thankfully for the Residents of Oklahoma in any case) The structure was now starting to get nice bit the storm was going full HP beast now with embedded Tornadoes near Hennessy. Near Perry and as darkness fell a big ramp up in the LLJ was finally starting and unfortunately this coincided with the QLCS stage of the day with a linear bowing section of storms (Not nice to chase) heading into the trees east of I-35 and unfortunately a strong to violent Tornado hit a couple of towns head on with extensive damage in Barnsdall (Ok)"

I'll add some of my own pic below from the day.

[Paul H]

Some photos from Day 1 of Tour 1:

Edited May 8 by Paul H

[Paul H]

Day 2 (Tuesday) was a travel day to get in position for potential risks in Iowa in a cold-core setup. We ended up in Des Moines, Iowa and as luck would have it a nice little storm moved over the hotel as we were checking in:

[Tom Lynch]

Tour 1 Tornado Alley, was off to an exciting start.  Quite a few miles under the belt already.  First chase day was a 'High Risk' and there is always a Ying and a Yang with a high risk set up. The SPC will say it as it it is if everything goes as it looks like it has the potential to.  As always every ingredient has to be in place for things to go right or you could say dramatically wrong. Its important to remember that the SPC forecasts are there to protect the public, they have to say it as it is if the worst case scenario develops.  However its brilliant getting the reports from the team, almost like being there yourself.  Day one things started to initiate and storms started to develop pretty quickly.  The storms were showing a hook echo, see Paul Bs radar grab and they were trying so hard to form a tornado, see Paul Hs photo. However it would appear that the environment was lacking one on the main ingredients i.e. surface winds.  I shall forward to following the team throughout the tour. 

Edited May 8 by Tom Lynch

[Tom Lynch]

Wednesday 8th May Weather Prediction Centre surface chart for the late afternoon/evening is as in the chart below. Important to remember that these charts can be dynamic and the weather potential is subject to change as the environment around it changes. I know that Paul B will be monitoring this situation closely.   

[Paul H]

Chase Day 3 (Wednesday)

We started in Des Moines, IA and headed out north in the hope of some cold-core storms and maybe a tornado. 
Storms fired but were high-based and stubbornly  refused to organise themselves until later in to the evening as a storm moved east over our location near Huxley, IA and gave some close CGs and pea-sized hail. 
Some photos from the day below;

[Paul H]

Chase day 4 (Thursday)

A very long drive south late Wednesday night and up early Thursday to chase storms that were forecast in the area SSW of DFW, Texas. 
Unfortunately initial storms in the cooler air in north Texas and South Oklahoma were high-based.  We did see some cracking lightning from these though with a single radio tower being struck at least 3 times within a few minutes. 
We kept heading south down I35 and passed the devastating damage at Marietta, OK as a result of the EF4 tornado that struck on April 27th. 
We then unfortunately got caught in 30-mile traffic jams on I35 near DFW and abandoned the chase around 7pm as the supercells to the south were almost impossible to reach due to traffic and being very un-photogenic as reported by other chasers. 
We ended the day at Ardmore, OK

[Paul H]

Chase day 5 (Friday)

Storms in Texas were minor today so we took a shot and raced north to see if we could see the Northern Lights (Aurora) from Nebraska. 
We arrived at Grand Island, NE, dropped the bags/had some food and headed out a few miles north next to a lake, and later a photogenic grain silo, to get some photos. 
It didn't disappoint!  Here are some phone pics from me:

 

[Paul H]

Chase Day 7 (Sunday)

Yesterday was a travel day to get south for potential risk in Texas on Sunday but morning model guidance hinted at better chances near where we were staying in NW Oklahoma. 
We headed out to Guymon, OK for lunch before heading towards a boundary that was triggering some supercells to the west. 
Storm motion was slow so we positioned ESE of the stronger storms at the south of the line. 
There was clear rotation and several attempts at a tornado but unfortunately we didn't observe any, despite reports. 
Some very photogenic storms however and the guests got some great shots again!  
Below are just a selection from my phone. 

[Paul H]

Chase day 9 (Tuesday)

Monday was a travel day for Tuesday's risk, but what a chase day this evolved in to in Kansas. 
Although the storm near Tribune was slow to get going, boy did it get going towards the magic hour near Leoti. We followed the high-based but gorgeous supercell to Friend, KS.  It had plenty of mid-level rotation and we had amazing high-contrast views throughout. 
A beautiful old church provided a nice foreground for storm/lightning shots for the team!

Just a small selection of shots from my phone:
 

[Paul H]

Chase day 10 (Wednesday)

A superb chase day, near the KS/OK border. 
Paul nailed the initiation point near Anthony, KS and we watched the first towers go up over our heads as the first rumbles started. 
It developed in to a fill-on supercell with large hail within 20 mins or so and we drove straight through the hook (any tornadoes would have been weak so no risk to us at that point) behind Reed Timmer's Dominator 3 truck, that we passed when they pulled over with a truck issue. 
Excellent experience for the guests of rain wrapping rain curtains, quarter to golfball sized hail and RFD winds taking small branches off the trees. 
We left the storm to head back NW ready for the drive back to Denver, just as it produced damaging softball hail. 
We only suffered a cracked wing mirror on car 2 from a  golfball-sized stone. 
 

[Paul]

Thank @Paul H for updating us on tour 1's happenings - hope you had a great trip