Day 4 - Report & Pictures

[Paul Sherman]

Started the day in Witchita (Ks) with an initial target of Eastern Kansas, after lunch got into the middle of a nicely developing Cumulus Field and we sat about 20 miles East of the Dryline watching the Turkey Towers pop up and get destroyed by the Shear. Eventually 2 or 3 cells went Severe within 20 minutes and the Chase was on. Got onto the Fedalia Supercell early in its life cycle and say just to the South East watching it try to organise itself a few times, Structure shots were hard to come by although we did see a breif Funnel Cloud. Nick F has some great Lightning Pics to post tomorrow. Here are only 3 pics of today I am sure the others will post some more later on. So near on this one, the only Tornado on this Supercell was Rain wrapped and quite small.

- Golfball Sized Hailcore just a few miles in front of us

- Rotating Meso over the road, Barons showed us just 3 miles SE Of the Rotation

- Michael sampling his 1st ever US HP Supercell

M Fish 2nd Blog Entry

Paul S

[Nick F]

A few photos from me to kick-start, of the storm near Fredonia, KS.

Intiation:

Some nice Cgs coming out of it:

Barons:

Nice mammatus:

[Osbourne One-Nil]

- Michael sampling his 1st ever US HP Supercell

What sort of road surface was it? It looks like a brushed concrete.

[Hilton]

Long day on only 3 hours sleep! Will post some pictures tomorrow but we were in and around the storms in Fredonia, saw glimpses of a funnel cloud/big hail but had to move sharpish as it came overhead and the sirens were going. Tried to follow it north but night/rain got the better of us sadly. We did get some good lightning shots of the system though.

Sadly having gotten home and checked the radar we've seen the supercells that formed outside our window in Norman, such is life!

[NL]

Great to see what we only saw as radar images except when Tornadovideos were on that cell too,

they had streaming cam saw no tornadoes but impressive wall cloud, nice still shots of the lightning

Nick, i hope Mr Fish has a cap, the sun can play havoc on anyone who happens to be follically challenged..!!!

[pottyprof]

Great first chase guys!! As Paul says.. its nice to see what what we were following here on radar.. WTG Peeps!!

[Gorky]

Was a good day here also, no tornadoes, but the only one in my imemdiate area must have been rainwrapped as I was right on it but didn't see any touchdowns. Part of me is kicking myself for not Staying in OK like I suspected but that was a big risk to take and the models were not going for it really until initiation had begun up in KS and I was already chasing.

As it happens I guess I spent much of the day within a few miles of the team. Many of our photos are similiar from the first storm. I stayed chasing into the evening hours and despite being in what should have been excellent positions for every storm coming through, I didn't see anything in the way of tornadoes. Inevitably, I eventually lost internet access around 8:00pm just as a hook echo was bearing down on me. Moved South to be safe and then filled the car up. It took me 10 mins to get back online and at that point I decided to call it a day, and the storm I leave goes and tornadoes 20 miles ENE of me I'm just sorting some photos out, they'll be up in a bit.

Any ideas I had for chasing today have gone, the Squall line has plowed it's way to far east already and I'd never make it in time to see anything other than the squall line again.

[Hilton]

My collection of photos from yesterday (still REALLY sleepy!).

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7621...mp;id=284201038

[NL]

Some good scenes in there, hey and one of the new 'TIV'... improved 10 wheeler.!!

Particulary like the wall cloud 'rotation' photos..

[kold weather]

Brillient photos everyone, glad to see you lot managed to see a decent supercell today even the sturcture did appear to be a little on the messy side in terms of being able to see the structure.

I really love the photo of Micheal Fish, great!

Gorky, also good to hear that you have also been in the action, looking foward to the photos.

[grab my graupel]

Great stuff everyone, its fascinating following your chases and we are all loving it here.

You guys are a lot braver than I would be. I think I would prefer to watch this from the relative safety of the UK.

Anyway keep those reports coming, this is riveting stuff already, and its only just begun

Stay safe folks

Brian

[SHOUY]

nice one everybody, Great chasing and virtual chasing online!! some great pics. looking forward to later today...Shouy.

[johnholmes]

question for Nick and Michael

I notice on one of those shots Nick it has cloud tops as one of the links on the lhs; any chance of giving an idea on the next chase day, if you have time, of cloud tops please?

cheers

John

[Gorky]

Here's my chase report!

Started the day in Bartlesville, OK and moved north to Independance, KS. As much as I wanted to stay in OK, I couldn't justify the risk of a cap bust when SC Kansas looked a surer bet for storms. I end up regretting that choice somewhat as I missed the tornadic storm which went SW of Bartlesvlle but I would have made that choice 99 times out of a 100. I decided to scout out the area around Independance, heading West to Sedan, North to Howard, East to Freedonia, then south to Independance again. The terrain and road options north were reasonable around freedonia, But terrible west. As the storms fired, I moved North to allow them to mature as they come to me rather than mess about in the hillier terrain. I may have missed a brief touchdown in Elk Falls because of this however.

Without further ado, the pictures.

First sighting of the storms forming about 30 miles west of me.

I get south of Freedonia by about 5 miles and head west towards the storm. Looking very HP and not much structure. Was a little dissapointing at first!

.

Looking better now, a bit high based with very heavy rainfall.

And a wider agle shot from the same location.

OK, now we are talking structure It looked really nice about here starting to wrap up with the heavy precip in the background. It doesn't stay in this shape for too long though and quickly blasts NE.

Next storm is coming through and this is starting to show rotation also. It had these wispy scuddy areas in roughly the area of rotation.

Wall cloud forms but the rotation is pretty weak. This certainly isn't High based anymore though!

The wall cloud appears to lose it's compactness and any rotation is gone. It still makes an impressive panorama I don't think it was doing anything behind those trees at ground level but I can't be 100% sure

At this point, it almost looks to me as though it is gusting out. I decide it let it go, and wait for the next backbuilt cell, but it then gets Tor warned. I chase after it but never catch up.

I get this shot of some crazy looking scud at the rear of the storm.

I spend the next hour or two in the dark watching Tor warned storms go by just to my north. Two storms with well pronounced hooks passed just north of me within a mile or two but I could never get any shots of anythign menacing. Several looked really good when seen in bright lightning flashes but it apepars nothing did touch down looking at the storm reports. This shot is looking back towards Freedonia at a storm with the well pronounced hook which has just being Tor warned.

Here is a youube clip of 22 long exposure shots back to back of this storm. You can see the clouds above being drawn into the cell as the wall cloud develops right over Freedonia.

After this, I called it a night and dropped south to Independance where I bumped into the other team and stole their pizza. It was very tasty. mmmmm

I was woken again in the early hours by the crazy squall line. I ran to grab my video camera to film it and realised it was sill in the car. There was no way I was going out in that mess to get it either. The sound of hail ping ponging off the neighbouring Petrol station awning was very strange! Lightning was absolutlely continous at this point. Very fun, and luckily the hail wasn't big enough to dent the car

Edited May 2, 2008 by Gorky

[Mammatus]

Thanks for all the photos and reports guys. Sadly I have to squeeze 5 weeks work into 3 weeks because I'm out there with you all in 17 days, so will have little time to follow your movements in the meantime.

Have a great time chasers, and I hope there are still some great storms about in 3 weeks time when I join you!

Mammatus

Edited May 2, 2008 by Mammatus

[Cookie]

some amazing images guys

[Supacell]

Thanks for your images and reports. Some awesome stuff, keep it coming

[Somerset Squall]

I'm liking the pics guys, particularly the lightning stills, nicely captured.

[kold weather]

Really good footage Bristol I've been watching it all since you started uploading it, really good quality in the high quality version.

[Andy H]

Fantastic videos enjoying the updates keep them coming

[Louise]

Really excellent footage guys, especially the last one.

[Nick F]

Here's some belated clip of the Fredonia, KS HP Supercell on Thursday:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hhXKbEAAG_8

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=i_hsisCdmyE

[Paul Sherman]

Got masses of Pictures from this Supercell, here is one I have found of the Setting Sun with Mammatus

[SHOUY]

Love all the videos guys, Its nice to enjoy the experiance and to wet the apertite!! Keep it up.

All the best. Shouy.

[Cookie]

great image paul :lol: