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Day 13 Report & Video

Paul Sherman

By Paul Sherman
in Storm Chase USA

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Paul Sherman Veteran

Paul Sherman

Posted
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley
Posted

Started the day in Longview (Tx) and headed North East for a Chase Target of Little Rock (Ar). We arrived in plenty of time and headed about 40 miles South towards a Town called Sheridon where a nicely defined Cu Field was setting up. A Cell fired to our West near to Arkadelphia and moved towards the south side of Little Rock. We then positioned ourselves in the Notch just to the east of the Rotation. A Tornado formed literally 1 mile to our South West, no east options were avaliable so we headed South on I530, as we done this the 1st Meso had occluded and another was forming just to our south right in front of us on I530, We pulled off the road and watched as another area of Rotation with developing Tornado just skimmed us, here we then encountered a nervous strike of Lightning which landed no more than 20 feet from the car and hit overhead power lines. We tried to head east but Emergency Management had sealed off the road, our only option now was down to Pine Bluff and then eastto try to cut the storm off at Stuttgart, do not ask me how but we made it from Little Rock to Pine Bluff in 20 minutes, after crossing the Arkansas River the chase terrain changed dramatically to open Rice fields, as we neared Stuttgart at 815pm a brilliant bolt of Lightning lit up the road in front and a huge Cone Tornado crossed the road in front of us at the time the South side of Stuttgart got nailed.

Nick will upload my Video footage and pics in a Mo, if you are scared of Lightning do not watch <_< And if you fast forward the Youtube clip you will see the rotating wall cloud on the road in front.

Unfortunately as others have said, pictures were scarce and the Video did not catch any of the Tornadoes, but I can definately say there was 3 from this Cyclic Supercell that was riding the Warm Front

Paul Sherman & Team

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johnholmes Maestro

johnholmes

Posted
  • Location: just south of Doncaster, Sth Yorks
  • Location: just south of Doncaster, Sth Yorks
Posted

sounds like a great day for you stormchasing there Paul

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Nick F Maestro

Nick F

Posted
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)
Posted

Ok, here some video clips on youtube of the best bits of the developing supercell south of Little Rock. WARNING there is a lot of swearing on the video if anyone is easily offended!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=udiMcOr-ZIg

Also, some stills of the multiple Cg in the video clip:

post-1052-1210522116_thumb.jpgpost-1052-1210522130_thumb.jpg

post-1052-1210522146_thumb.jpgpost-1052-1210522158_thumb.jpg

post-1052-1210522173_thumb.jpg

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pottyprof Enthusiast

pottyprof

Posted
  • Location: Swallownest, Sheffield 83m ASL
  • Location: Swallownest, Sheffield 83m ASL
Posted

That gunshot beats the time when you had your head stuck out the window a couple of years ago Paul.. <_<

Super video clip guys! :)

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pottyprof Enthusiast

pottyprof

Posted
  • Location: Swallownest, Sheffield 83m ASL
  • Location: Swallownest, Sheffield 83m ASL
Posted

Nick asked if I could speed up the rotation to make it a little clearer..

Sorry about the quality drop but Youtube isn't the best of places to obtain raw video footage.. :oops:

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Dan G Newbie

Dan G

Posted
Posted (edited)

That is a FANTASTIC video. Now I know what "gunshot" thunder really is!

I do hope you guys join severestudios.com next year. If you'd been streaming yesterday you'd be internet stars today :-). The nearest chaser was a fair way behind the storm chasing it east and he didn't catch until after dark (if at all). Did see some golf ball hail though!

I watched the Stuttgart storm evolve live on sxstudio's "moderator" feed where Kory & co. show different realtime GR3 images and give commentary on them, plus relay the latest news and streams from the field. The rotation on the Stuttgart cell was very impressive and it was a weird moment watching the little dot of Stuttgart move beneath it. Just a dot on a computer screen but you know that out there it's dark and there's probably a screaming tornado wreaking havoc and quite possibly killing :-(. I hear the damage there was pretty bad but happily no-one was killed.

BTW if you want to share better-quality video than Youtube offers try Vimeo. It's a similar kind of site but offers up to HD quality playback. It's popular with artists and cinematographers as the quality is much the highest of the video sharing sites.

Edited by Dan G
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Nick F Maestro

Nick F

Posted
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)
Posted
Nick asked if I could speed up the rotation to make it a little clearer..

Sorry about the quality drop but Youtube isn't the best of places to obtain raw video footage.. :oops:

Thanks very much for doing thats Potty, much appreciated, shows really well the rotation when speeded up!

Currently on our way to Weatherford, west of Forth Worth -with Nathan (Gorky), where we'll stay the night.

That is a FANTASTIC video. Now I know what "gunshot" thunder really is!

I do hope you guys join severestudios.com next year. If you'd been streaming yesterday you'd be internet stars today :-). The nearest chaser was a fair way behind the storm chasing it east and he didn't catch until after dark (if at all). Did see some golf ball hail though!

BTW if you want to share better-quality video than Youtube offers try Vimeo. It's a similar kind of site but offers up to HD quality playback. It's popular with artists and cinematographers as the quality is much the highest of the video sharing sites.

Thanks, we will definately try and get some live streaming going on next year's chase. For now, we will keep you informed while on the road via posts on here - which is the next best thing. Will try that video playback site too.

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NL Aficionado

NL

Posted
  • Location: South Shields Tyne & Wear half mile from the coast.
  • Location: South Shields Tyne & Wear half mile from the coast.
Posted

Brilliant...!! Love the 'gunshot' and especially the reactions, lets get the f!*"k outta here...!! but thats what its all about ,adrenalin pumping and scaring yourselfs wit-less....!

That was one hell ova chase yesterday and a one to remember, shame it didnt happen

on the plains, but still plenty of time for that.

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Rustynailer Aficionado

Rustynailer

Posted
  • Location: Western Isle of Wight
  • Weather Preferences: Snow, Storm, anything loud and dramatic.
  • Location: Western Isle of Wight
Posted

I put the headphones on to listen, nice thunder, Great video.

Look forward to the next episode :)

Russ

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grab my graupel Enthusiast

grab my graupel

Posted
  • Location: Castle Howard, North Yorkshire
  • Location: Castle Howard, North Yorkshire
Posted

Yes I agree with the above....An incredible video guys; the best think I have watched in ages.

Oh, and my daughter says, she thinks that you lot are really cool :)

Brian

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Roger J Smith Maestro

Roger J Smith

Posted
  • Location: Rossland BC Canada
  • Location: Rossland BC Canada
Posted (edited)

Confirmed by the NWS that it was an EF-3 tornado that mauled the south end of Stuttgart, which is a town of about 10,000 people, as you may know, it is laid out in a north-south elongated rectangle pattern but the tornado managed to cross the whole south end of the town destroying or damaging 150 residences and businesses, injuring nine people and closing down a number of schools and care homes for extensive repairs. A large store was also hit although not totally destroyed.

Considering that it was an EF-3 the casualty count was very light, must have been a combination of warnings and the layout of the town. Further north of course people were far less fortunate, an EF-4 (at times) ran through about fifty miles of small towns and rural segments of OK and MO killing perhaps as many as 25 and demolishing entire sections of two small towns, Picher OK and Newton MO.

As I was mentioning, about five minutes before the team arrived in Humphrey AR just to the southwest of Stuttgart, the radar began to show a TVS developing just to the NNW of that location, in fact I thought it had been showing a tornado earlier and that this had pulled up for a while, so the smaller town of England got off even luckier because that somewhat less active cell went over that town at about 0045z. By 0055z the vortex appeared to be growing and just to the west of Stuttgart, which it then hit around 0100z.

I had a similar close call with lightning once in a fairly violent windstorm, it was on a canoe trip and because there were some fairly high hills off to our southwest, we didn't see the storm approaching until it was almost too late to make it to shore, the campsite where we managed to land was then directly hit by lightning with two of us huddled under a tarp and not too far from the tree that was hit. It does sound like a gunshot (very loud too) or perhaps a cannon being fired when it's that close, and you don't hear the echoes until five or ten seconds later by which time you have probably stopped wetting yourself.

Well, good job to all four of the teams for getting into positions where they could intercept severe storms, and good luck on Monday afternoon (with the tan) ... I think something may pop but Tuesday looks very interesting, will comment on that on the appropriate thread after the 00z runs come in (actually they already have, time flies).

Edited by Roger J Smith
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Nick F Maestro

Nick F

Posted
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)
Posted

Took a photo of the barons radar reflectivity of the supercell just before the tornado must have hit the south side of Stuttgart:

post-1052-1210565248_thumb.jpg

The two rings are areas of rotation, also notice the winds were slight backed towards the SE

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Paul Sherman Veteran

Paul Sherman

Posted
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley
  • Author
Posted

Just to add to the image Nick Posted, just before we headed east on the road you see the massive Cone Tornado crossed the road in front of us with a brilliant dark blue sky behind it just before it hit the South side of Stuttgart, I commented to Nick at the time that it looked like it could be a strong EF2/EF3 Tornado if it hits something, unfortunately the only time it was illuminated by Lightning it was off to the side of the road and out of the view of the dashcam. An incredible chase and one i will never forget.

Paul S

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PB22 Enthusiast

PB22

Posted
  • Location: Near Matlock, Derbyshire
  • Location: Near Matlock, Derbyshire
Posted

Wow, fantastic stuff! As for that lightning bolt and gunshot thunder, well! :) Still not jealous of you guys out there! :)

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Anti-Mild Contributor

Anti-Mild

Posted
  • Location: Norton, Stockton-on-Tees
  • Weather Preferences: Snow and cold in winter, warm and sunny in summer
  • Location: Norton, Stockton-on-Tees
Posted

Amazing...just amazing!! The sound from the lightning strike is just incredible!!

Funny thing is, 3 years back a bolt of lightning stuck the house across the road and it didn't sound anything like that :(

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NL Aficionado

NL

Posted
  • Location: South Shields Tyne & Wear half mile from the coast.
  • Location: South Shields Tyne & Wear half mile from the coast.
Posted

Video from Michael & John O'keeffe on the Storm that produced a tornado

that hit Stuggart Arkansas. Includes driving into the town straight after the tornado..

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MtaNWUBQl9s

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PersianPaladin Aficionado

PersianPaladin

Posted
  • Location: 4 miles north of Durham City
  • Location: 4 miles north of Durham City
Posted
Took a photo of the barons radar reflectivity of the supercell just before the tornado must have hit the south side of Stuttgart:

post-1052-1210565248_thumb.jpg

The two rings are areas of rotation, also notice the winds were slight backed towards the SE

An invaluable piece of kit indeed.

Great stuff guys...keep the reports coming!

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