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4th chase, 4th long-lived supercell. It's sort of interesting to think about the chases I've been on and the storms encountered on them. They've all been rather long-lived and holding supercell structures/characteristics through their lives, though sometimes through mergers. March 30th, the one in OK was this way. March 31st I chased the one in sc Oklahoma which went on for a long time on its own(and probably the closest I've seen to producing....I'd do an account for it if I had more to show). April 9th I was on the long-lived Breckenridge storm from birth, then blew it by letting it go. That thing was long-lived too. This one would be a little similar to that last one it appears. I was on this storm near birth west of Oberlain until late at night around 11:30 when I let it go at Osborne KS. Like the Breckenridge storm, this one tornadoes shortly after I let it go. I'm trying not to waste gas this year chasing when I don't think I should. I was leaning towards the Sidney NE area on the 23rd, but sat it out over a few concerns, like weak mid-levels and questionable moisture with prog'd morning precip to the south. It figures, a lovely supercell pops near there and stays by itself forever, producing at least one nice tornado(which I've been e-mailed a picture of). It would have been a horribly easy chase since it barely moved and was moving right up the highway. It was also not far from the target the following day(this one). So there's my first real regretted sit out bust of the year. So onto this one. I left around 9:30 with a target area from Arapahoe NE to Norton KS. Wound up in Norton. Better moisture was pulled back west to almost Norton, with low 40s out by Goodland. Storm pops out west of Goodland so I move west. I think the cu ahead of that storm will be the stuff to get on. So I shoot sw from Norton. As I do a storm goes up in that area of cu. One problem, it moves due north! I quickly regretted not going due west from Norton. But, I've seen storms do that in this kind of environment before. They LOVE to make very hard right turns once they deepen some and the better moisture gets to them. I go north to Oberlain and wasn't seeing much interesting yet. The core seemed well west yet, as did the updraft producing it...at least via radar loop. Problem was I kept seeing an updraft se of all this a bit. I was like, that can't be the updraft that is producing that core on radar. Distance can be goofy out on the clear high plains. Then a shear marker shows up ahead of the core a bit where I was seeing that updraft. I'm rather certain that updraft was completely different than the one producing the early core. It went up se of the storm and began the whole right hand turn. I figured this was happening so I flipped around, drove back to Oberlain and went south. The rest here starts there, south of Oberlain.
This new updraft wanted to crank in a hurry once it got southeast ahead of everything. There was also another small cell coming up from the sw of it, looking to merge with it.
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Lucky bolt, since the shutter was 1/60th.
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The band to the se of the storm fattened up, and appeared to have an updraft fire on it and lift nw into the storm.
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Inflow winds ramped up significantly right about now, with blowing dust racing from the fields. Notice the different levels of inflow bands on the right side of the storm now. That was probably the coolest part of the structure.
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The lowest band was slightly convective as it fed west.
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Steve Peterson shows up about now. I can't believe he beat me to the storm after having to work till 3:30 in Seward. Many chasers were now on the storm. There was a lowering to the west, but it appeared to be on the west side of any rfd cut. I'm almost wondering if it wasn't connected with the storm merger, but that may have already finished. Who knows. It was beefy at times, with big dust plumes kicking up near it.
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The base with that lowering began to get some "holes" in it, as it all fell apart. Another storm motion change was about to happen. You could see the base extending more on the east side now. It was time to fly east and south, as it just felt like softballs were going to start hitting at any moment.
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I didn't have many good looks again until I was just west of Hill City. The above was taken there, as the radio folks began talking like Hill City was about to vanish from Earth. Storm looked great on radar, not so great visually. That is one trend I'm noting with storms I'm on this year too. Anyway, I ain't sure what is causing that ray there. I'd imagine it's an anticrepuscular ray created from the moon(if it was out). Since the structure looked like crap now, and I had several hours for a drive home, I opted to just start heading back.
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I get to Osborne Kansas and get gas. While doing so I hear of 80 mph softballs in Stockton to the west. This was the second report of softball hail. It teased me enough I opted to stay there and park out in the open in it. I know the experience is not going to be as fun as it sounds, when it actually happens, but I think it will be worth it. So I prepared my brain to do this, car right out in the open in a parking lot. Well before the storm reaches me small hail starts to hit. No sprinkles, just small hail. I was like, what am I doing. I took these few stills while it was doing that, as the base approached. The winds were raging INTO the storm all the way up to it passing over. That's why that tree on the right is all blurry. These were short shutters with high ISOs. It was also given a new tornado warning as it entered town.
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I wanted to get closer to that church on the left, but there were power poles over there. Drive an 80mph softball through my side windows, just don't drive 50,000 volts into me with it.
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Here she comes!
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She's here, but not that intense. Most stones were nickel to quarter sized. The thing was the rogue hail bombs. There were very very few of these things, but the ones there were seemed to be pretty big(surely baseball). The hail stone in the above video capture is bouncing that high, lol. Don't believe me, watch the video at the bottom. Must be 15 feet or more off the ground and travels probably 70 feet or so.
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The one other rogue stone I got on video. Note all the smaller streaks. Those are the nickels and quarters. That big wide one though, I have no idea. Probably baseball. Those are the kind that go right through your back window. Most stones weren't leaving any smashed area of ice on the pavement. You could look across the lot and see just one, before this one which also leaves an area. A bunch smashed off and still a good sized portion of it goes rolling off to the left.
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Here's a brief video of some of the storm in Osborne. The stone is hard to see on the small screen, but during the second slo-mo of it, it's taking off near the pole on the right, right at 1:49 and landing left of that other pole at 1:56. Gets lost in that drop on the lense for a second, but you can see it coming back down at and landing by 1:56. It bounces up and into the shot very near the concrete part of the light on the far right side, right when the window is down. I should have done another of it in regular speed.
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As the storm moves east I noticed this cool, intense updraft flickering away. These are also high iso shots(noise cleaned with Neat Image). I just had to keep firing away till I got the updraft during a flash. Don't use the higher ISO and things move too much(or you'll just have dark pictures that aren't blurred). The smears on some of these are from wiping off the rain, leaving a couple streaks I didn't see.
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I never noticed at the time, but the updraft was getting fatter and fatter, standing more upright, and forming a curling rfd to its right.
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Evidently this produces a 1/2 mile wide tornado 20 miles from where it is now. Probably the first legit one of its now long life. It only did that because I JUST let it go(like Breckenridge). This was the Beloit KS tornado.
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To add to the frustration some, I couldn't find a motel anyway! The small one in town I saw that looked half empty was now not manning the desk. So I drive to Smith Center, contacts bugging the living hell out of me, thanks to that wind blown dust earlier. I also did not get much sleep the night before(what's new on a chase night). Very strong west winds, behind a small storm near Smith Center kicks my butt the whole way there. I would not be shocked if there were gusts to 80 out there in the open with that. A couple were really trying to shove my car off the road to the east. What did not help matters were the shear number of tumbleweeds constantly smashing the front of the car, or the side. All night it was this way. Would not shock me if I hit 100 of them during the chase. I get to Smith Center and the same story as Osborne, small motels with no one at the desks this late. If I drove home I'd get there around 5 a.m. I thought I would till I hit Hastings around 2:30. Saw the Super 8 there and said screw driving another 3 hours. If it weren't for the contacts I probably would have kept going. Constantly blinking was making the long sleepy drive that much longer.
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