Reports & Pictures Chase Day 13

[Paul Sherman]

Started the day in Dodge City with a firm chase target of Joplin in SW Missouri but knew that we would not make it that far due to Storms firing along the Cold Front along the way. Whilst hitting Commanche County in SE Kansas we were firmly in the initiation zone with towering Cumulus all around. One storm near Tulsa was rocketing towards us but one storm about 10 miles to our east literally took off and became Supercellular in about 20 minutes. The chase was on at 345pm. We followed this storm into Missouri and it tried hard to put a tube down but failed and croaked, below us to our South West we had a line of 5 Supercells all heading towards us so we stair stepped down each one and sampled them getting in prime position to the east. The first went tornado warned and moved to the right near Jasper (Missouri) sitting just NE Of the 2nd Supercell of the day a rotating wall cloud was observed moving to our south, so it was time to head south and east to see if it could produce, unfortunately the storm went outflow dominant very quickly and tornado chances died off almost at once but the structure was very nice. We still had enough daylight left for the next Supercell down the line and we positioned underneath an old Garage and awaited it to hit to sample its full force, one or 2 close bolts were recorded and pictures, after this we headed east to Springfield with Lightning all the way and ended the day in Chilli's with the Cg's crashing around outside whilst we ate.

- This went on to become a large Classic Supercell

- Everyone gawping in amazement

- Double Wall Cloud with rotation

- Starting to become Outflow dominant

- Storm gusting out with cold outflow

- Brucie not giving any quarter to the dump truck!

[Arron]

No pics from me but a short clip of some lovely shotgun lightning as we rode out the core Great chase day!

[Paul]

Tom Has uploaded this video with some highlights from yesterday:

And also this short clip with a seriously close lightning strike!

[Phelpsy]

wow i just managed to pause it on the actual strike bit, and was amazed to see all other spidery veins flowing off it! Amazing!

[Jane Louise]

Briliant videos , amazing , I'd love to be there to experience it all.

[Paul]

Thought it would be fun to show the lightning strike in slow motion:

[Jane Louise]

Excellent. It's really fascinating to see it in slow motion I must say .

[Stuart]

Excellent.

[Andy Bown]

That's what I've been waiting for! A video of a very close CG and shotgun thunder!

On the slow motion the main bolt comes down a little further away, behind the telegraph pole, but is there a leader that appears

on the right much closer to where people are?

[SteveB]

Love the slow motion video.

[chionomaniac]

A great day had by all here. Got that cg on hd vid as well Spectacular!

[duckeyh]

Fantastic

[NL]

Certainly was close...

Lovin' Toms laugh..ho.ho.ho-oa..!!

[icbinb]

Great stuff. Just the sort of chase day everyone loves, keeping you on your toes!

[Cookie]

it was a great day

[Arron]

Couple of photos from me

[Nick F]

Enjoyed the videos, I know from first-hand what a great experience close cgs can be (though a little un-nerving when they keep raining down close to chase vehicles) and you can even feel the heat from the strike momentarily. Glad you all had a good chase day.

[Ross B]

Excellent pics and video's guys One week to go...

[ZONE 51]

excellent stuff that strike is incredible, it seems scary on the video, must have been!! but its exciting to!!

[Supercell 89]

Brilliant videos! that was a cracking lightning strike

[chionomaniac]

Thought it would be fun to show the lightning strike in slow motion:

What is really difficult to see, even in slow motion with this lightning strike, is that it does actually hit both the telegraph pole and wire as well as in the distance. I have a video of this from a slightly different angle which shows this clearly. I will try and upload later this weekend.

[gpspete]

my lightning trigger photo and video of the close lightning strike Carthage Missouri on the outskirts of Joplin

sorry i only uploaded it in only SD as i uploaded it on my wireless broadband and HD would of taken a big chunk out of my 3gig monthly allowance i will post it to vimeo/youtube in HD soon

[chionomaniac]

Another view of this lightning bolt (at around 1min 46secs)

If you look carefully you may be able to see a secondary bolt hit the telegraph wire leading to the pole. (Another secondary also hits the pole but this is too difficult to make out at normal speed.)

[sunny scunny]

Some great pics and videos guys, well done

[Cookie]

Impressive videos guys